I built Jelly: an SSH-only social space (no passwords, no emails)
Hey everyone. I’ve been building a small experiment and wanted to share it.
Jelly is a social space you join entirely through SSH. No web, no app, no login flow. Your SSH public key is your identity.
I wanted something that felt like early internet communities. Simple, no algorithms, no rage-bait, no scraping, no AI content. Just people talking in real time from the terminal.
What it currently does
Join with: ssh jellyssh.xyz
If you don't have a key: ssh-keygen -t ed25519
Public keys auto-create accounts
Global feed with real-time updates
Hashtags become channels (top 5 active topics)
ASCII profile pictures + profile themes
Guestbooks / Top 8 (MySpace nostalgia)
TUI built with Bubble Tea
SSH server powered by Wish
sqlite backend, no tracking or analytics
No passwords, emails, or personal data stored
It’s very early and rough around the edges, but stable enough to try. Still tightening up input handling, rate limiting, and crash-proofing.
If you check it out, I'd love your thoughts/feedback. It’s just me building this and I’m figuring it out as I go.
ssh jellyssh.xyz
Thanks for reading.
OP here. Adding some technical details:
Jelly is built entirely in Go using:
Wish for the SSH server
Bubble Tea for the TUI
SQLite for persistence
fingerprint-based identity (no usernames/passwords required)
real-time feed updates using a shared in-memory pubsub
auto-created channels via hashtag frequency
rate limiting + key-only auth for security
animated TUI themes drawn in the terminal
ASCII profile pictures editable in-app
guestbook + Top 8 system for early-internet vibes
Everything runs as a single lightweight binary. No telemetry, no analytics, no tracking of any kind.
Happy to answer any technical questions or design questions.
Hi there, got permission denied When I tried.
solved, I forgot this pc doesn't pubkey yet