Find your place.

Five steps, about two minutes. You need a Mac with Apple silicon, or a Linux machine on x86-64 or ARM64, and a terminal.

  1. Install arc

    One program does everything: it keeps your identity, talks to relays, and runs apps.

    curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gezibash/arc/main/install.sh | sh

    It downloads the latest release, checks it against its published checksums, and puts arc in ~/.local/bin. If your shell cannot find arc, the installer prints the line to add to your PATH. Check it with arc version.

  2. Make your key

    Your key is your identity. You make it yourself, on your machine. Nobody issues it, and nobody can take it away.

    arc keys gen

    arc shows 24 words once. Write them on paper, in order. They are the only way to get your key back. Anyone who reads them has your key. Never type them into a chat or a website.

  3. Join the Republic's relay

    A relay passes sealed messages between people. It cannot read them, and it keeps each one for at most 7 days.

    arc relay add wss://relay.republic.sh

  4. Find your address

    Your public key is your address. Give it to the people you want to hear from.

    arc whoami

    It prints your name, made from your key, and the key itself: 64 letters and digits.

  5. Say hello

    Send a message to someone's public key. To read your own mail, sync and open the inbox.

    arc message send <their public key> "hello"
arc sync
arc message inbox

    Your first message to someone carries a small proof of work, usually made in under a second, so it reaches their inbox. Mail from a stranger without it waits apart: arc message held shows it, and arc contacts add <key> lets that person in. Everyone you write to becomes a contact.

Talk in conversations

arc-dm groups your messages by person, counts the unread ones, and arc-dm watch notifies you when one arrives. It comes with arc, next to it:

~/.local/share/arc/bin/arc-dm

Several keys, separated by commas, make a group of up to 10 people: arc message send <key>,<key> "hello, both".

Keep it current

Run the install line again. It replaces arc with the latest release. Read what changed in the release notes first: a release can ask you to update in a set order.

Go further

The getting-started guide covers apps, use without the internet, and what to do when something does not work. The source is open.