Welcome to Cressida
Cressida is a native desktop chat client for Linux and Wayland. Bring your server conversations, threads, forum posts and DMs into a desktop interface you can make your own.
Start here
- Install Cressida with Nix, Guix or a source build.
- Sign in through your browser.
- Find your conversations and try a reply, an emoji or an image.
- Choose your appearance and a palette that suits your desktop.
Want to look around first? Run cressida --demo for an offline preview using
sample conversations. Demo mode does not sign in or connect to your account.
What is available?
Text chat, one-to-one and group DMs, threads, forum posts, rich profiles, image uploads and native media viewing are available. Desktop tray integration, notifications and per-account appearance settings help it fit into your session.
:::caution[Early development] Voice and video calls, arbitrary file uploads and file drag-and-drop are not available yet. Some settings and actions are incomplete. See the capabilities and FAQ before making Cressida your main client. :::
Find a guide
| I want to… | Read |
|---|---|
| Understand replies and formatting | Chat and Markdown |
| See statuses and profiles in DMs | Direct messages |
| Organize my server list | Servers and threads |
| View, save or send an image | Images and video |
| Start in the tray | Desktop integration |
| Write my own palette | Custom themes |
| Fix a startup or sign-in problem | Troubleshooting |
| Build or contribute | Development setup |
Cressida is an independent, unofficial project. Source code and issue tracking are on GitHub.