AxonRedux is a stripped-down, terminal-first rewrite of Axon focused on one job: private group chat over Tor onion services.

Instead of browser UI, file transfer, and the larger mesh feature set, AxonRedux keeps the core pieces needed to form small chat rooms by sharing onion addresses:

• Go TUI interface
• Tor hidden service identity per node
• SQLite persistence for peers and room history
• Peer handshake/discovery from shared onion addresses
• Room-style group chat broadcast to known peers

AxonRedux intentionally does not include:

• direct messages
• file sharing or swarm download logic
• web UI
• Qt desktop UI

This first version is about making the chat core simple, inspectable, and fast to iterate on.

Each instance creates its own Tor onion service and local data directory. Users build a room by exchanging onion addresses and adding each other as peers. Once connected, messages sent in the TUI are broadcast to all known peers in the room.

go build -o axonredux .

./axonredux

# Run a second local node with separate data
./axonredux --port 8081

# Start with a nickname
./axonredux --port 8081 --nickname Rose

• Ctrl+A add peer
• Ctrl+N set nickname
• Ctrl+Y copy local onion address
• Ctrl+R refresh
• Ctrl+Q quit

• The local onion address appears once Tor is ready.
• Tor subprocess logs are redirected out of the TUI startup path so the screen can render cleanly.
• Data is stored in data_<port>/.

AxonRedux is experimental and early-stage, but usable for testing small private room chat over Tor.