An OpenCtrl original
Where the collective talks.
Community chat with rooms, threads, voice and video, built around what people dislike about Discord and Slack.
Free and open source. Read the docs
What Ctrl Room looks like
Why Ctrl Room
What people dislike about Discord and Slack, fixed.
We started from the complaints and worked backwards.
Instead of: History that runs out
Every message stays, in every community, on every plan.
Instead of: Search you pay for
Search every message from all time. It's free. Quotes for exact phrases, a minus to leave a word out.
Instead of: Pings for everything
Quiet by default. Only @mentions and replies to you ping. Set each room to Everything, Mentions or Muted.
Instead of: A wall of unread
While you were gone: a recap of new messages, who talked, busy threads, decisions and your pings.
Instead of: Threads that never end
Threads open side by side and close with an outcome. The outcome shows in the room and can go on the board.
Instead of: Upsells and ID checks
No feature paywalls and no ID checks. Four plain roles: owner, admin, mod, member.
In every community
Built for talking, and for finishing the conversation.
Rooms, sections and pins
Group rooms under sections, give each one of 46 built-in icons, and pin the rooms you use most. Pins are just for you.
Threads with outcomes
Reply in a thread next to the room. When it's settled, close it with what was decided. Closed threads can be reopened.
A board in every room
Decisions, links, docs and notes, kept out of the scroll. Pin any message, or add items straight to the board.
Voice, video, screen share
Voice rooms open a call bar when you walk in. Any text room can start a call. It all runs in the browser.
@ctrl, in the chat
Mention @ctrl to ask a question or research the web. It lists its sources and answers in a thread. @openctrl answers from the docs.
Photos, images and covers
Add a profile photo, a community image and a cover. Crop in the browser; Ctrl Room shrinks the file before it uploads.
Requests to join
Let people ask to join a private community. They see its name, image, cover and description, nothing else. Admins approve or decline.
Free and open
The software is free. So is leaving.
Self-host
Your server
Next.js, Supabase and LiveKit. A self-hosted Ctrl Room has no paid tier and no limits.
Running your own serverExport
Your data
Owners and admins can export a whole community at any time. Nothing is deleted for usage.
Read the docsOpen models
Your AI
The helpers talk to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including open models through Ollama or vLLM.
How the helpers work
Open a room for your people.
Every new community starts with #announcements, #general and a voice room. One account works for every community you join.