Conduwuit

Conduwuit is a Matrix server written in RUST, it is a new, well supported, lightweight implementation of a Matrix server. I also tried Synapse, the classic Matrix server, but ended up with Conduwuit that proved itself more lightweight and much easier to implement and maintain.

Installation instructions: here. While there is a docker approach, it is so simple to install on bare-metal that i preferred this approach to the container one. Actuall accessing the conduwuit command-line admin console is a pain with container, while it's so easy from the prebuilt-binary.

Create user and required folders:

seradd -d /data/daemons/conduwuit conduwuit
mkdir -p /data/conduwuit/db /var/log/conduwuit
chown conduwuit:conduwuit /data/conduwuit /var/log/conduwuit -R

Download the correct executable from GitHUB releases page. You should pick the one for your architecture. For example, for Linux 64bit would be static-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl:

su - conduwuit
mkdir bin
cd bin
wget https://github.com/girlbossceo/conduwuit/releases/download/<< version >>/static-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

The official Conduwuit configuration documentation can be found here.

Now, you cannot start Conduwuit withour a proper configuration file. I suggest you to put it under /data/conduwuit/conduwuit.toml, and here is an example to start from:

[global]
server_name = "chat.mydomain.com"
address = ["127.0.0.1", "::1"]
port = 6167
database_path = "/data/conduwuit/db"
new_user_displayname_suffix = "-|"
allow_check_for_updates = false
max_request_size = 20971520 # this should match NGINX max request size
#log = "info"
#log_colors = true
#emergency_password = ""
 
[global.well_known]
client = "https://chat.mydomain.com"
server = "chat.mydomain.com:443"

You are now ready for testing your installation.

To run Conduwuit server, run the following command as conduwuit user:

/data/daemons/bin/static-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl -c /data/conduwuit/conduwuit.toml

Of course, replace the proper paths and filenames with your setup.

Running manually is good because you can easily access the admin console by typing CTRL+C from the terminal. You might want to take this opportunity to create your first user, and make it an admin too.

Call directly this endpoint:

curl https://chat.mydomain.com/_conduwuit/server_version
{"name":"Conduwuit","version":"0.5.0 (e5049ca)"}

Check federation and Matrix operability, open the following URL:

https://federationtester.matrix.org/#chat.mydomain.com

A Matrix server must be hosted on a dedicated subdomain. Please see my NGINX reverse proxy page for more information about the followint configuration.

chat.conf

server {
        server_name chat.mydomain.com;
        # Port 8443 goes to external connection (internet)
        listen 8443 ssl; 
        # Port 443 is used for internal connections (home)
        listen 443 ssl; 
        http2 on;

        access_log /var/log/nginx/chat.mydomain.com_access_log main;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/chat.mydomain.com_error_log info;

        location / { # this is to provide a web client, see the ElementWeb page...
                root /data/daemons/conduwuit/element-web;
        }

        location ~ ^(/_matrix|/client) {
                # The $request_uri is MANDATORY to avoid URI being modifyed by NGINX
                proxy_pass                      http://127.0.0.1:6167$request_uri;
                proxy_set_header                X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header                X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
                proxy_set_header                Host $host;
                add_header                      'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, PATCH, HEAD';
                proxy_read_timeout      10m;
                proxy_http_version      1.1;
        }
        # This is needed for federation
        location /.well-known/matrix/server {
                default_type                    application/json;
                add_header                      Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;
                return                          200 '{"m.server": "chat.mydomain.com:443"}';
        }
        # Enable snail sync for Element X and client access info in general
        location /.well-known/matrix/client {
                default_type                    application/json;
                add_header                      Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;
                return                          200 '{"m.homeserver": {"base_url": "https://chat.mydomain.com"},"org.mydomain.msc3575.proxy": {"url": "https://chat.mydomain.com"}}';
        }
        include com.mydomain/certbot.conf;
}

In the above file i have already introduced the location (/) of the ElementWeb client, the installation is described here.

From the Contuwuit admin console, which can be accessed by running the conduwuit binary in a terminal then hit CTRL+C, you can do a lot of admin stuff, including creating new users.

To create a user:

uwu> admin users create-user myuser mypassword

To make a user an admin:

uwu> admin users make-user-admin myuser

To change a user password:

uwu> admin users reset-password myuser mynewpassword

You must create at least one user and make it admin!

You can run any admin command later on directly in your favorite Matrix client in the admin chat. You might need the terminal only if you accidentally lock your user out of the instance.

Since i use OpenRC, simply drop the following script to /etc/init.d:

/etc/init.d/conduwuit

#!/sbin/openrc-run
# Copyright 2025 Gentoo Authors
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2

name="conduwuit daemon"
description="Conduwuit Matrix server"
pidfile="/run/conduwuit.pid"
command_background=true
command="/data/daemons/conduwuit/bin/static-x86_64-linux-musl"
command_args="-c /data/conduwuit/conduwuit.toml"
command_user="conduwuit:conduwuit"
output_log="/var/log/conduwuit/conduwuit.log"
output_err="/var/log/conduwuit/conduwuit.log"

depend() {
        need net
}

Make it executable and add to the proper runlevel:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/conduwuit
rc-update add conduwuit default