skchat — AI-Native Encrypted Chat 🐧
Chat should be sovereign — and your AI should be in the room. Text, voice, and files between humans and AI agents, end-to-end PGP-encrypted, carried over your own transports, identified by your own keys. No SaaS, no bolted-on chatbot — the AI is a first-class participant with its own identity.
skchat is the chat experience of the SKWorld sovereign
agent ecosystem — the human-and-AI conversation surface that sits on top of
skcomms (transport) and capauth (identity). It is a single Python package
(skchat-sovereign) that ships a CLI, a Textual TUI, a Web UI, a systemd daemon,
and an MCP server so agents running inside Claude Code / Cursor / any
MCP host can send, receive, react, call, and transfer files as native tools.
The core idea: a message is composed locally, persisted to a local SQLite
history, PGP-signed/encrypted, and handed to SKComm for delivery over whichever
transport is healthy. When a message @mentions an agent, the AdvocacyEngine
routes it into the live skcapstone consciousness loop and replies in-thread — so
the AI answers for itself, in the same conversation, not through a separate bot.
The 60-second version
flowchart LR
YOU["you type<br/>(CLI · TUI · WebUI · MCP)"] --> DAEMON["skchat daemon<br/>compose · persist · route"]
DAEMON -->|"PGP sign/encrypt"| TX["ChatTransport"]
TX -->|"hand to SKComm"| COMMS["skcomms<br/>(transport · failover)"]
COMMS --> PEER["a peer or group<br/>(human or AI)"]
DAEMON -->|"@mention an agent"| ADV["AdvocacyEngine"]
ADV -->|"consciousness loop"| AI["the agent replies<br/>in-thread"]
DAEMON --> HIST["ChatHistory<br/>(local SQLite)"]
Everything is local-first: messages live in ~/.skchat, voice (Piper TTS +
Whisper STT) runs on-device, and identity is your own PGP key — that is the
"sovereign" part.
Quickstart
skchat installs into the shared ~/.skenv venv like every other sk* package.
pip install -e . # PyPI name: skchat-sovereign
# entry points: skchat (CLI) · skchat-mcp (MCP server) · skchat-tui (TUI)
skchat status # identity, transport health, message counts
skchat send lumina "deploy complete" # DM a peer by short name or full URI
skchat inbox --watch # live-updating inbox
skchat chat lumina # interactive session
skchat tui # full-screen Textual UI
Groups, voice, and files use the same CLI:
skchat group create "Sovereign Squad" -d "core team"
skchat group send <group_id> "standup time"
skchat voice # record → Whisper STT → send
skchat send-file lumina ./blueprint.md
skchat react <message_id> 👍
Run as a managed service (preferred — do not skchat daemon start by hand,
which spawns a second unmanaged daemon):
systemctl --user restart skchat-daemon.service
journalctl --user -u skchat-daemon -f
Identity resolves agent-aware from SKAGENT (→ capauth:<agent>@skworld.io);
no SKCHAT_IDENTITY pin is required. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
for the full request lifecycle and module map.
What's in the box
| Piece | Module | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | cli.py |
skchat — send/reply/inbox/history/threads/search/chat/group/voice/file/react/status |
| MCP server | mcp_server.py |
FastMCP server — exposes the full feature set as agent tools (messaging, groups, threads, reactions, presence, files, voice, WebRTC, memory) |
| TUI / WebUI | tui.py, webui.py |
Textual full-screen UI (skchat-tui) + browser UI / voice-chat server |
| Daemon | daemon.py, _daemon_entry.py, watchdog.py |
Polling receive loop; spawns advocacy + WebRTC init; health endpoint; watchdog |
| AI advocacy | advocacy.py |
Detects @opus/@claude/@ai, calls the skcapstone consciousness loop, replies in-thread |
| Transport | transport.py, agent_comm.py, outbox.py |
Send/receive over SKComm; reliable outbox with retry/backoff |
| History | history.py, encrypted_store.py, ephemeral.py |
Persistent SQLite store; AES-encrypted store; ephemeral (TTL) channels |
| Groups | group.py, reactions.py |
Encrypted group chat, roles, key rotation; emoji reactions |
| Identity | identity_bridge.py, agent_profile.py, peer_discovery.py |
Delegates to canonical capauth.resolve_agent_identity; loads peers from ~/.skcapstone/peers/ |
| Crypto | crypto.py, plugins_skseal.py |
PGP sign/verify (PGPy); SKSeal encryption plugin |
| Voice | voice.py, voice_stream.py, voice_backends.py, facetime.py, livekit_routes.py |
Piper TTS + Whisper STT (local); WebRTC P2P + LiveKit SFU for group calls |
| Memory | memory_bridge.py |
Forwards chat threads to skcapstone memory (session_capture) |
| Plugins | plugins.py, plugins_builtin.py |
Plugin loader + built-ins; file-type / pattern / command triggers |
| Integration | integration.py |
Optional skcapstone backbone — routes alerts to sk-alert, registers the outbox-flush sweep with skscheduler (default-on-by-presence) |
Two modes of operation
- Secured — full CapAuth identity, AI advocate active, every message PGP-encrypted and every file capability-gated.
- Standalone — skchat runs fully on its own (PGP keys only). When the
optional
skcapstoneextra is present it lights up advocacy, thesk-alertbus, and theskscheduleroutbox sweep; when absent, every call degrades gracefully to local logging /notify-sendand the daemon's own loop.
Where it lives in SKStack v2
skchat is a comms capability. It is a thin, opinionated experience layer:
it owns conversation, presence, advocacy, and the UIs — and delegates the hard
parts to dedicated ports. Transport is skcomms, identity is capauth, and
the agent reasoning behind @mention advocacy comes from the skcapstone
consciousness loop (skmodel-backed). It reuses two shared platform primitives
— sk-alert and skscheduler — only when skcapstone is present.
flowchart TD
OP["operator / agent"] -->|"skchat send · skchat-mcp · TUI"| SKCHAT
subgraph COMMS["Comms"]
SKCHAT["**skchat**<br/>conversation · groups · presence<br/>AI advocacy · voice · MCP tools"]
SKCOMMS["skcomms<br/>(transport · PGP · failover)"]
SKVOICE["skvoice<br/>(Piper TTS · Whisper STT)"]
end
subgraph CORE["Core"]
CAPAUTH["capauth<br/>(identity — resolve_agent_identity)"]
SKMEMORY["skmemory<br/>(thread capture)"]
end
subgraph COMPUTE["Compute"]
SKMODEL["skmodel (ollama)<br/>(advocacy reasoning)"]
end
subgraph PLATFORM["Platform primitives skchat reuses"]
ALERT["sk-alert bus<br/>(when skcapstone present)"]
SCHED["skscheduler<br/>(outbox-flush sweep)"]
end
SKCHAT -->|"messages over"| SKCOMMS
SKCHAT -->|"resolve identity"| CAPAUTH
SKCHAT -->|"TTS / STT"| SKVOICE
SKCHAT -->|"@mention → consciousness loop"| SKMODEL
SKCHAT -->|"capture threads"| SKMEMORY
SKCHAT -.->|"alerts"| ALERT
SKCHAT -.->|"register outbox sweep"| SCHED
The dashed edges are optional (default-on-by-presence): skchat works standalone, and only wires into the
sk-alert/skschedulerplatform primitives when theskcapstoneextra is installed.
Documentation
| Doc | Contents |
|---|---|
| Architecture | inbound/outbound message lifecycle, the @mention advocacy loop, group key state, voice pipeline, source-map, where-it-lives (mermaids) |
| Spaces | sovereign live-audio-rooms SOP: roles, lifecycle, moderation, HTTP API, connectivity, recording, X Spaces parity, and an honest known-gaps section |
| MCP reference | every MCP tool, its arguments, and usage from an agent host |
| CLAUDE.md | running the daemon, systemd units, identity, troubleshooting |
| Crypto architecture | quantum-resistance: honest claim status, current/future/gaps mermaids, SK-wide identity/key flow, per-surface remediation (S5/S6/S11 → Q2/Q3/Q4) |
| Quantum-resistance master plan | ecosystem source of truth: threat model, 11 surfaces, phased migration, epic PQC-MIGRATION |
Security & Quantum-Resistance (requirement)
skchat is a confidentiality surface, so it carries a hard quantum-resistance requirement. Honest current status + target:
- Already quantum-resistant (🟢): the group-message cipher (AES-256-GCM,
group.py:GroupMessageEncryptor) and the at-rest store (HKDF-SHA256 + AES-256-GCM,encrypted_store.py) are symmetric/hash — Grover-only, ≥128-bit worst case. Do not touch them. Only their key-wrapping / key-distribution is the problem. - Classical today (🔴, highest leverage): group-key distribution
(
group.py:652 GroupKeyDistributor) PGP-wraps a staticos.urandom(32)group key per member — break one member's classical key and you recover the AES group key and decrypt all group history (Harvest-Now-Decrypt-Later). The 1:1 DM wrap (crypto.py) is HNDL-vulnerable too; the at-rest store also has a classical low-entropy bug (DEK derived from the PGP fingerprint), fixable regardless of quantum. - Target (going-forward bar): hybrid post-quantum — X25519 + ML-KEM-768 KEM
(FIPS 203) with per-epoch ratcheted group keys (forward secrecy +
post-compromise security the static key has none of); combiner
K = HKDF-SHA256(X25519_ss ‖ MLKEM768_ss)(concatenate-then-KDF, never XOR/pure-PQ); ML-DSA-65 + Ed25519 hybrid signatures (FIPS 204) later. HNDL-first, crypto-agile (kem_suite/epochids + suite registry). - Browser/Flutter gap: WebCrypto has no PQC — native clients (Flutter/desktop)
get full hybrid via liboqs FFI; the web PWA is a documented reduced-assurance leg
(see
docs/crypto-architecture.md§7). No claim may imply the browser is E2E PQ.
Honest-claim rule: every claim cites surface + FIPS # + hybrid-vs-classical, backed by a runtime self-report. Never say "quantum-proof," unscoped "end-to-end quantum-resistant," or "CNSA-2.0" (we use the -768 hybrid tier). AES-256 is not "broken" by quantum.
Diagrams (current / future / gaps), the SK-wide identity/key flow, and per-surface
remediation: docs/crypto-architecture.md.
Master plan: docs/quantum-resistance-architecture.md;
epic PQC-MIGRATION (coord e1d6ba2a).
License
GPL-3.0-or-later — because communication is a right, not a product.
Part of the SKWorld sovereign ecosystem · site: skchat.skworld.io · 🐧 smilinTux
1 maintainer
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