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Create a Space

This guide walks through generating credentials, connecting to a space for the first time, and saving credentials so you can reconnect later.

Prerequisites

  • The rEEEductio server is running locally. See Running the Server if you haven't done that.
  • The server is configured with auto_create_spaces: true (the default dev config). This lets the space be created automatically on first connect.

1. Generate credentials

A space is identified by an Ed25519 keypair and a 32-byte symmetric root. Generate both:

import os
import json
from reeeductio.crypto import generate_keypair, to_space_id, to_user_id

private_key, public_key = generate_keypair()
symmetric_root = os.urandom(32)

space_id = to_space_id(public_key)
user_id  = to_user_id(public_key)

print('Space ID:       ', space_id)
print('User ID:        ', user_id)
print('Private key:    ', private_key.hex())
print('Symmetric root: ', symmetric_root.hex())

# Save to a file for later
creds = {
    'space_id': space_id,
    'user_id': user_id,
    'private_key_hex': private_key.hex(),
    'symmetric_root_hex': symmetric_root.hex(),
}
with open('space_creds.json', 'w') as f:
    json.dump(creds, f, indent=2)
print('Saved to space_creds.json')

import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';
import { generateKeyPair, toSpaceId, toUserId } from 'reeeductio';

const keyPair = await generateKeyPair();
const symmetricRoot = crypto.getRandomValues(new Uint8Array(32));

const spaceId = toSpaceId(keyPair.publicKey);
const userId  = toUserId(keyPair.publicKey);

console.log('Space ID:       ', spaceId);
console.log('User ID:        ', userId);
console.log('Private key:    ', Buffer.from(keyPair.privateKey).toString('hex'));
console.log('Symmetric root: ', Buffer.from(symmetricRoot).toString('hex'));

const creds = {
  spaceId,
  userId,
  privateKeyHex:     Buffer.from(keyPair.privateKey).toString('hex'),
  publicKeyHex:      Buffer.from(keyPair.publicKey).toString('hex'),
  symmetricRootHex:  Buffer.from(symmetricRoot).toString('hex'),
};
writeFileSync('space_creds.json', JSON.stringify(creds, null, 2));
console.log('Saved to space_creds.json');

Keep your credentials safe

Anyone with your private_key and symmetric_root has full access to your space. Never commit space_creds.json to source control.

2. Connect (first time)

With auto_create_spaces: true, the server creates the space automatically when you first authenticate:

from reeeductio import Space

space = Space(
    space_id=space_id,
    member_id=user_id,
    private_key=private_key,
    symmetric_root=symmetric_root,
    base_url='http://localhost:8000',
)
# Authentication happens automatically on first API call
msgs = space.get_messages('general')
print(f'Space ready. Messages in general: {len(msgs)}')

import { Space } from 'reeeductio';

const space = new Space({ spaceId, keyPair, symmetricRoot, baseUrl: 'http://localhost:8000' });
const { messages } = await space.getMessages('general');
console.log(`Space ready. Messages in general: ${messages.length}`);

3. Reconnect from saved credentials

import json
from reeeductio import Space

with open('space_creds.json') as f:
    creds = json.load(f)

space = Space(
    space_id=creds['space_id'],
    member_id=creds['user_id'],
    private_key=bytes.fromhex(creds['private_key_hex']),
    symmetric_root=bytes.fromhex(creds['symmetric_root_hex']),
    base_url='http://localhost:8000',
)

import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
import { Space } from 'reeeductio';

const creds = JSON.parse(readFileSync('space_creds.json', 'utf8'));

const keyPair = {
  privateKey: Uint8Array.from(Buffer.from(creds.privateKeyHex, 'hex')),
  publicKey:  Uint8Array.from(Buffer.from(creds.publicKeyHex,  'hex')),
};
const symmetricRoot = Uint8Array.from(Buffer.from(creds.symmetricRootHex, 'hex'));

const space = new Space({
  spaceId: creds.spaceId,
  keyPair,
  symmetricRoot,
  baseUrl: 'http://localhost:8000',
});

Without auto_create_spaces

If the server does not have auto_create_spaces: true, an admin must register the space first using the admin CLI. See Self-Hosting for production setup details.

Next steps