Ephemera documentation

How rooms work

Creating a room requests a short room code from the server. Anyone with that code — or a direct /r/<room-id> link, which auto-joins — can enter the same room. Everyone connected to a room communicates over a shared WebSocket connection, so text and images sent by one participant appear instantly for everyone else in the room.

What you can send

• Text messages, delivered instantly to everyone in the room.
• Images up to 2 MB. Click a shared image to open a full-view preview, then copy or download it from there.

Only images are supported — there is currently no support for other file types.

Room lifecycle

Because the system currently allows only 3 active rooms at once, you may occasionally see a capacity message when trying to create a new room. This is a deliberate constraint of the current MVP, not a bug.

What happens if you lose a room code

There is no recovery flow. Ephemera has no accounts, no room directory, and no admin access — by design, since adding any of those would work against the goal of a zero-sign-in, fully ephemeral tool. If you forget a code:

1. Ask another participant still in the room to share the code or room link again.
2. If nobody has it, create a new room.
3. If the system is at capacity, wait a few minutes for an abandoned room to expire.

Known limitations

• No end-to-end encryption — messages are relayed by the server, not encrypted client-to-client.
• No authentication or identity — anyone with a room's code can join it.
• No persistent message history.
• No room recovery if a code is lost.
• Images only — no other file types.
• Image "copy to clipboard" depends on browser support and secure-context rules, so it may not work in every browser.

Source

Ephemera's source is not currently public. If that changes, this page will link to it.