Conduwuit

Conduwuit is a Matrix server written in RUST. Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralised communication. It is a specification which is in turn implemented by many servers and clients, and you can self-host your server as well. This is a new, well supported, lightweight implementation of a Matrix server.

I will show you also how to install Element Web app which is a nice companion for web access everywhere.

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
chown conduwuit:conduwuit /data/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

Element Web app is a great web based UI for Matrix, that you can pair to your instance.

Again installing bare-metal is the way to go. See here.

Download latest release tarball from here and decompress it:

su - conduwuit
wget https://github.com/element-hq/element-web/releases/<< version >> /element-<< version >>.tar.gz
tar xvf element-<< version >>.tar.gz
ln -s element-<< version >> element-web

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.

Rename the file called config.sample.json to config.json inside the element-« version » folder and edit accordingly, and to be sure to backup it properly, i suggest to move it to /data/conduwuit:

cd /data/daemons/conduwuit/element-web
cp config.sample.json /data/conduwuit/element-config.json
ln -s /data/conduwuit/element-config.json config.json

At the very least perform the following edits:

    "default_server_config": {
        "m.homeserver": {
            "base_url": "https://chat.gardiol.org",
            "server_name": "chat.gardiol.org"
        },
    "disable_custom_urls": true,
    "disable_guests": true,

at the beginning of the file. I suggest to disable both custom URLs and guests, to avoid your web instance to be used too openly. Please note that this does not mean that your instance will be used: Element X is a javascript app that works in the browser of the use anyway.

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;
        listen 8443 ssl; # external access
        listen 443 ssl;  # internal access

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

        location / {
                root /data/daemons/conduwuit/element-web;
        }

        location ~ ^(/_matrix|/_synapse/client) {
                add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, PATCH, HEAD';
                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:6167;
                #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;
                proxy_buffering off;
                client_max_body_size 30M;
                proxy_read_timeout 10m;
                proxy_http_version 1.1;
        }

        location /.well-known/matrix/server {
                return 200 '{"m.server": "chat.mydomain.com:443"}';
                types { } default_type "application/json; charset=utf-8";
        }

        location /.well-known/matrix/client {
                return 200 '{"m.homeserver": {"base_url": "https://chat.mydomain.com"},"org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {"url": "https://chat.mydomain.com"}}';
                types { } default_type "application/json; charset=utf-8";
                add_header "Access-Control-Allow-Origin" *;
        }

}

From the Contuwuit admin console, which can be accessed by running the conduwuit binary in a terminl 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!

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"

depend() {
        need net
}

Make it executable and add to the proper runlevel:

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