The caracal ("Caracal caracal"; /ˈkærəkæl/) is a wild cat native to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and arid areas of Pakistan and northwestern India. It is characterised by a robust build, long legs, a short face, long tufted ears, relatively short tail, and long canine teeth. Caracal (Gemipedia)
A simple Nostr client with a gemini interface. It is a Nostr client for what we often call the Geminispace.
The beauty of the Nostr protocol combined with the simplicity of Gemini.
caracal is written in Rust and uses the rust-nostr SDK. Use the Matrix room for help and discussions, or the BBS subspace on the Gemini BBS.
Follow caracal on nostr: npub1vsgkdknxzhj9853gmpz5hkvr5a9zysqcnaphwfcex5k0te776ckq8ucxqx (Nostter).
- UI languages: English, French, Spanish, Japanese
- Long-form notes (gemtext <=> markdown): compose notes in the gemtext format, view long-form notes
- Remote signer (bunker)
- Encrypted private messages (NIP-17)
- Payment targets (NIP-A3)
- Polls and Nsites
- Supports file uploads to blossom servers (Titan to Blossom bridge)
- Renders images attached to notes over Gemini
Donations
Monero (XMR)
46CAwqF4zwjL3Pe1oxtr2AGbmzLFY4rp6eAGkiDbAfYnYCAx8C47dex2XGb6VqXDUoYEZmemLzKxT1wkjFU6ebk23DensvR
Install
Cargo
Run it:
Then go to gemini://localhost in your Gemini browser.
If needed, you can change the listen port (which is 1965 by default) using the -p option.
Binary release (GitLab)
Intel x64
You can download the latest binary release for Linux (x64) here.
ARM64
You can download the latest binary release for Linux (arm64) here.
AppImage
This AppImage is based on the Lagrange browser (v1.18.4). It bundles and runs caracal for you, making it the easiest way to get started if you use Linux.
It runs caracal on port 1985 to avoid conflicts.
Usage
To use caracal, you'll need to use a Gemini browser like Lagrange.
Start caracal, open Lagrange and go to gemini://localhost. You should see a page telling you that you need to use a X509 Gemini certificate.
From Lagrange, create an identity by selecting New identity for domain in the identities controller menu (top-right corner). Lagrange will then always use this certificate to access caracal.
caracal maps your Gemini identity to your Nostr identity, therefore you can have multiple Nostr identities by creating different Gemini certificates and switching between them.
Remote signer (Nostr Connect)
If you want to use a remote signer (bunker), create an identity in Lagrange (New identity for domain), click on More, and set the Organization field's value to nostr. After creating the identity, activate it and you will be prompted for the Nostr Bunker URI. Copy-paste your bunker URI and send it. You should now be connected to the remote signer.
Web content
caracal is able to serve content from web URLs contained in Nostr notes over Gemini, therefore images and videos from notes will be displayed in the Gemini browser.
If you use Lagrange, you can activate automatic loading of images as you scroll by activating the "Load next image on scroll key" setting in the "Behavior" section of the preferences ("File menu" => "Preferences").
Drafts
caracal supports writing and editing note drafts using the titan protocol. Click on New draft in the homepage and you should get a Titan dialog window from Lagrange. Be sure to select the correct identity.
Once you've uploaded your draft, you can edit it by just pressing Ctrl+e.
You can attach files to your note by clicking on Upload file in the note. Files are uploaded to a Blossom server.
Just click on Post note when you're ready to send it.
Contributors
- knshow: Testing, Japanese translation