Vesper Desktop

Vesper is an independent desktop client for the Signal service. This repository contains a small set of Vesper changes, not a copy of Signal Desktop. The materialisation tools apply those changes to the Signal release recorded in upstream.pin.

Vesper uses its own application identity, storage and protocol handlers, so it can be installed alongside Signal Desktop.

Production installers also register Signal's sgnl fallback scheme so signal.me contact pages can hand links to Vesper. An operating system may show an application chooser when Signal Desktop is installed because custom schemes are registered as a whole. Vesper cannot claim verified ownership of the https://signal.me domain without Signal publishing Vesper's signing identity.

Account configuration and captcha handoff pages are served by Vesper's Cloudflare Worker at https://vsp.asy.st; the clients do not depend on signalcaptchas.org.

Supported releases

Release packaging currently targets Linux x64 as a Debian package, Flatpak and self-updating AppImage. Linux arm64 is not yet a release target.

Build on Linux x64

Install xvfb and libpulse0, then run:

./tools/build-local.sh

The script installs Signal Desktop's pinned Node and pnpm dependencies, runs the checks, and builds Linux x64 Debian and AppImage packages in work/release/. It prints both package paths and SHA-256 checksums when it finishes.

To build the Flatpak, install flatpak-builder through your package manager or install its user-scoped Flatpak:

flatpak install --user flathub org.flatpak.Builder
./tools/build-flatpak.sh
./tools/test-flatpak.sh

The Flatpak build uses the verified Debian payload and writes artifacts/flatpak/vesper-desktop_<version>_x86_64.flatpak. The test command checks it as systems.amber.Vesper and runs two isolated smoke tests without installing, replacing or stopping the user's app. Vesper stores its database key through the desktop keyring and refuses Electron's plaintext password-store backend.

Install on Linux

To use the signed Debian repository:

curl -fsSL https://vspdb.asy.st/apt/vesper-archive-keyring.gpg |
  sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/vesper-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null
curl -fsSL https://vspdb.asy.st/apt/vesper.sources |
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vesper.sources >/dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install vesper-desktop

To install the signed Flatpak release:

flatpak install --from https://vspdb.asy.st/flatpak/vesper.flatpakref

The AppImage and its checksum are attached to each GitHub release. Make it executable and run it in place; AppImage installations use Vesper's independent AppImage update key.

Source work belongs in the ignored work/ checkout. Mechanical changes live in transforms/, Vesper-owned files in overlay/, and source integration changes in patches/. Commit and test a change in work/, then run ./tools/export.sh. Never edit a generated patch by hand. MAINTAINING.md covers the full workflow.

Licence and credits

Vesper's modifications are free software under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 only. Vesper is built from Signal Desktop, and parts of its settings and appearance work draw on Molly. Their contributors keep their copyright. NOTICE records the source history.

Signal and its associated marks belong to their respective owners. Vesper is not affiliated with or endorsed by Signal Messenger.