Indiachan

A modern, serverless imageboard built with Next.js 15 - Complete jschan replication with enhanced features

✨ Features

• 🎨 Exact jschan UI - Pixel-perfect replication with 33 themes
• 🚀 Modern Stack - Next.js 15, React 19, TypeScript
• 🔒 Full Moderation - 13 moderation actions, staff management, reports, bans
• 📰 News System - Global announcements and updates
• 📄 Custom Pages - Create custom board pages
• 👥 User System - Registration, login, 2FA support
• 🎯 Board Management - 40+ configurable settings per board
• 📱 Responsive - Mobile-friendly design
• ⚡ Serverless - Deploy to Vercel with zero config

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• MongoDB database
• Redis instance (for sessions)

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/theabbie/Indiachan.git
cd indiachan

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Copy environment variables
cp .env.example .env.local

# Edit .env.local with your credentials
# (See Environment Variables section below)

# Run development server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000 to see your imageboard.

🔧 Environment Variables

Create a .env.local file with the following:

# Database (Required)
MONGODB_URI=mongodb+srv://user:[email protected]/indiachan
MONGODB_DB=indiachan

# Redis (Required for sessions)
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379

# Security (Required - generate with: openssl rand -base64 32)
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-secret-here
CSRF_SECRET=your-secret-here
COOKIE_SECRET=your-secret-here
CRON_SECRET=your-secret-here

# Site Configuration
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_NAME=Indiachan
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_DISCORD_INVITE=https://discord.gg/your-invite

# reCAPTCHA (Optional but recommended)
NEXT_PUBLIC_RECAPTCHA_SITE_KEY=your-site-key
RECAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key

Generate Secrets

openssl rand -base64 32  # Run this 4 times for each secret

📦 Database Setup

MongoDB Indexes

Run these in your MongoDB shell:

use indiachan

// Posts indexes
db.posts.createIndex({ board: 1, postId: 1 })
db.posts.createIndex({ board: 1, thread: 1 })
db.posts.createIndex({ 'reports.0': 1 })

// Bans indexes
db.bans.createIndex({ 'ip.cloak': 1, board: 1 })
db.bans.createIndex({ expireAt: 1 }, { expireAfterSeconds: 0 })

// Modlogs index
db.modlogs.createIndex({ board: 1, date: -1 })

// Accounts indexes
db.accounts.createIndex({ ownedBoards: 1 })
db.accounts.createIndex({ staffBoards: 1 })

Create Admin Account

db.accounts.insertOne({
  _id: "admin",
  original: "admin",
  passwordHash: "$2b$12$...", // Use bcrypt to hash "your-password"
  permissions: Binary(Buffer.from([255, 255, 255, 255])),
  ownedBoards: [],
  staffBoards: [],
  twofactor: null,
  web3: false,
  lastActiveDate: new Date(),
  createdDate: new Date()
})

Or use bcryptjs:

node -e "const bcrypt = require('bcryptjs'); console.log(bcrypt.hashSync('your-password', 12));"

🌐 Deployment

Deploy to Vercel (Recommended)

# Install Vercel CLI
npm i -g vercel

# Login
vercel login

# Deploy
vercel --prod

After deployment:

1. Add environment variables in Vercel Dashboard → Settings → Environment Variables
2. Create a Redis database in Vercel → Storage → KV
3. Redeploy to apply environment variables

Deploy to VPS

# Build the application
npm run build

# Start with PM2
npm i -g pm2
pm2 start npm --name "indiachan" -- start
pm2 save
pm2 startup

Docker Deployment

# Dockerfile
FROM node:18-alpine
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --only=production
COPY . .
RUN npm run build
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["npm", "start"]

docker build -t indiachan .
docker run -p 3000:3000 --env-file .env.local indiachan

🎯 Usage

Creating Your First Board

1. Login with admin credentials at /login.html
2. Go to /create.html
3. Fill in board details:
   • URI: Short identifier (e.g., g, tech, pol)
   • Name: Display name (e.g., "Technology")
   • Description: Brief description
4. Click "Create"

Board Management

Access board management at /{board}/manage/index.html

Available tools:

• Recent Posts - View and moderate recent activity
• Reports - Handle user reports
• Bans - Manage banned users
• Logs - View moderation history
• Settings - Configure board (40+ options)
• Staff - Add/remove moderators
• Custom Pages - Create custom board pages

Moderation Actions

• Delete posts
• Ban users (with duration and reason)
• Sticky/Lock/Cycle threads
• Spoiler files
• Move threads between boards
• Report dismissal
• And more..

🎨 Themes

Indiachan includes 33 themes from jschan:

• Yotsuba / Yotsuba-B
• Tomorrow / Midnight
• Photon / Dark Photon
• And 27 more!

Users can switch themes via the Settings menu.

📁 Project Structure

indiachan/
├── app/                    # Next.js app directory
│   ├── [board]/           # Dynamic board routes
│   ├── api/               # API routes
│   ├── account/           # User account pages
│   ├── globalmanage/      # Global admin pages
│   └── styles/            # Global styles
├── components/            # React components
├── lib/                   # Utility functions
│   ├── db/               # Database models
│   ├── auth.ts           # Authentication
│   ├── captcha.ts        # reCAPTCHA
│   └── session.ts        # Session management
├── public/               # Static assets
│   ├── css/themes/       # Theme CSS files
│   └── img/              # Icons and images
└── types/                # TypeScript types

🔒 Security

• ✅ CSRF protection on all forms
• ✅ Rate limiting on API endpoints
• ✅ reCAPTCHA v3 integration
• ✅ Secure session management
• ✅ IP cloaking for privacy
• ✅ 2FA support
• ✅ XSS protection
• ✅ SQL injection prevention (NoSQL)

🛠️ Development

# Run development server
npm run dev

# Build for production
npm run build

# Start production server
npm start

# Lint code
npm run lint

📝 API Routes

Authentication

• POST /api/auth/login - User login
• POST /api/auth/register - User registration
• POST /api/auth/logout - User logout
• POST /api/auth/changepassword - Change password

Boards

• POST /api/boards/create - Create new board
• POST /api/boards/[board]/post - Create post/thread
• POST /api/boards/[board]/actions - Moderation actions
• POST /api/boards/[board]/settings - Update board settings

Management

• POST /api/boards/[board]/staff/add - Add staff member
• POST /api/boards/[board]/bans/edit - Manage bans
• POST /api/globalmanage/news/add - Add news post

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• jschan - Original imageboard software
• Next.js - React framework
• Vercel - Hosting platform

📞 Support

• Discord: Join our server
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Live Demo: neoindiachan.vercel.app

🗺️ Roadmap

• WebSocket support for live updates
• File upload to Cloudflare R2
• Advanced search functionality
• Mobile app (React Native)
• Federation support
• API documentation

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Made with ❤️ for the imageboard community