Getting started

1. Install the app

Download the Windows installer and open it. The first time, SmartScreen may warn you: click More info → Run anyway.

2. Your identity

GhostLink has no accounts. The first time it opens, the app creates a cryptographic key that stays on your computer only, encrypted by Windows. That key proves who you are on each server. Every server gets a different derived key, so two servers cannot tell that you are the same person.

Then you choose a language and a nickname. You can change the nickname on each server.

Make a backup

Without a backup, losing your computer means losing your identity: you come back to your servers as someone else, without your roles. Export your identity (the app offers it the first time it opens and in the settings): that creates a .ghostkey file protected by a password you choose. Keep the file and the password in different places. To use the same identity on another computer, import the file.

3. Join a server

Whoever hosts a server (or one of its admins) sends you an invite. There are three ways to use it:

• Invite link (https://gestao-in7eligente.github.io/ghostlink/j/#GL1-…): open it in your browser. The page opens GhostLink straight into the invite. If you don't have the app yet, it shows the download and a code to paste later.
• GL1-… code: in the app, choose Join a server and paste it.
• host:port address, without an invite: only works on open or password servers. The app shows the server's fingerprint (four groups of eight characters). Ask the owner for the fingerprint through another channel and compare before you continue: that is what guarantees you are talking to the right server.

With an invite, the fingerprint comes along and the app checks it by itself.

If the app says the server key changed

Don't continue without talking to the owner. It may be a fake server in place of the real one.

The left bar keeps the servers you have joined. The app stays connected to one server at a time.

4. Chat

• Text: type in the channel and press Enter (Shift+Enter adds a new line). You can reply, react, edit and delete your messages, and mention someone with @. Messages accept light markdown, such as **bold** and code blocks.
• Voice: click a voice room to join. In the bottom panel you mute your microphone, deafen and pick your input and output devices. You can set each person's volume and use push-to-talk, even with another program (a game) in focus.

What each person can do depends on the roles the server gives them. The server enforces all of it; it is not just hidden on screen.

5. Host your own

Anyone can create a server. See Host in the app (easiest) or Host on a VPS (always online).