Multichan

Multichan enables users to join real-time chat rooms while keeping playback synchronized across multiple computers. The core use case is group watching—everyone runs their own video player, and Multichan keeps them in sync by broadcasting coordinated mouse clicks (e.g., play/pause) to all participants. Users mark their mouse position on their local screen, the system queues them as ready, then triggers a simultaneous click on all machines when the group is prepared.

The backend is a modular Express server exposing REST and WebSocket endpoints. Messages and settings live in SQLite; a broadcast loop pushes state changes (new messages, edits, read status, active user lists) to all connected clients in real time. The ActiveUsers service tracks WebSocket connections by username and maintains a deduplicated list. The frontend is a React + Electron desktop app built with Vite and hot-reloaded during development through concurrent npm processes that start the Vite dev server and Electron main process simultaneously.

The UI is theme-aware (light/dark), built entirely with Tailwind CSS, and split into composition-based components. Login, chat, and settings pages route via React Router v7. Unread message highlighting, edit in-place functionality, and theme persistence showcase careful UX polish. Git history (36 commits, 19 by Myles + 17 by collaborator) and structured AGENTS.md documentation show collaborative authorship and intentional architectural planning from the start.