Grain

Grain is a Go WebSocket chat backend that uses Redis Pub/Sub for fanout across hubs.

What It Does

• Accepts WebSocket clients on /ws.
• Requires a username query parameter.
• Hashes usernames to pin each client to one in-process hub.
• Publishes inbound messages to Redis channel global_chat.
• Persists recent message envelopes in Redis list chat_history (last 100).
• Broadcasts received messages to all connected clients except the sender.

Architecture

graph BT
    D["Redis Pub/Sub"]

    S1["Go Server 1"] <--> D
    S2["Go Server 2"] <--> D

    H1["S1 Hub 1"] --> S1
    H2["S1 Hub 2"] --> S1
    H3["S2 Hub 1"] --> S2
    H4["S2 Hub 2"] --> S2

    C1["Client 1"] <--> H1
    C2["Client 2"] <--> H1
    C3["Client 3"] <--> H2
    C4["Client 4"] <--> H2
    C5["Client 5"] <--> H3
    C6["Client 6"] <--> H3
    C7["Client 7"] <--> H4
    C8["Client 8"] <--> H4

Loading

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.5+
• Redis running on localhost:6379

Run

go run ./cmd/grain

Optional env vars:

• PORT (default: 8080)

Server startup fails fast if Redis is unreachable.

WebSocket Contract

Endpoint:

ws://localhost:8080/ws?username=<name>

• Client payload is treated as raw bytes and wrapped in a server envelope.

Envelope shape sent to peers:

{
  "id": "client-uuid",
  "server_id": "hub-uuid",
  "username": "alice",
  "payload": {}
}

Note

Non JSON payloads are invalid.

Dependencies

• github.com/coder/websocket
• github.com/redis/go-redis/v9
• github.com/google/uuid

License

MIT. See LICENSE.