README.md

Project

Project Structure/
├── app/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── config.py
│   ├── db.py
│   ├── logger.py
│   ├── models.py
│   ├── server.py
│   └── utils.py
├── client/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   └── cli.py
├── tests/
│   └── test_models.py
├── .env.example
├── .gitignore
├── requirements.txt
├── README.md
├── start_server.sh
├── start_client.sh
└── docker-compose.yml   

chat-cli

Async WebSocket chat server + minimal CLI client using Python asyncio, websockets and MongoDB.

Quickstart (dev)

1. Copy .env.example to .env and edit if needed.

2. Start MongoDB:

   • Locally: docker-compose up -d mongo OR run docker-compose up -d to bring up mongo.

3. Create virtualenv and install deps:

   python -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt

Start the Server: ./start_server.sh

In another terminal, start client: ./start_client.sh

Tests: pytest

Protocol (JSON)

register: {"type":"register","username":"..."}

message: {"type":"message","room":"room","content":"text"}

create_room / join_room / leave_room / list_rooms / list_users / history

Next improvements

Add JWT/auth

Dockerize server + CI

Add pytest-asyncio integration tests

• Things to fix/add (priority):
  1. Auth — right now anyone can register as anyone. Will add tokens/JWT to prevent impersonation and secure WebSocket handshake.
  2. Connection health — heartbeats/pings and reconnect logic for clients.
  3. Error handling & logging — more structured logs, maybe Sentry for prod.
  4. Testing — integration tests with test Mongo and CI.
  5. Scaling — in-memory maps (room_members, active_connections) won’t work across multiple server instances. Add Redis/pubsub for horizontal scaling later.
  6. Rate limiting per-IP — consider abusive clients that create many usernames.