Huddle – Node.js Realtime Chat Server

Huddle adds live chat to any website or app with a single script tag, backed by a scalable Socket.io server.

Key features

• Embeddable support widget
• Rooms, presence and typing indicators
• File sharing with virus scanning hook
• Agent console with canned replies
• Horizontal scaling with Redis adapter

Tech stack

• Node.js 20
• Socket.io 4
• MongoDB
• Redis

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• MongoDB 6+
• Redis 7+

Installation

1. Copy .env.example to .env.local and fill in the database URL and secrets.
2. Run npm install.
3. Run npm run seed to load demo data.
4. Start with npm run dev, then deploy with the included PM2 or Docker configuration.

What's included

• Full source code with comments
• Step-by-step documentation
• Demo data and seed scripts where applicable
• 6 months of author support and all future updates