You can jump in right away:
ssh guest@burnroom.chat -p 2323 password: burnroom
Or just open https://burnroom.chat in your browser. It runs in a web terminal and works on mobile too.
How it handles encryption
Private, password-protected rooms are fully end-to-end encrypted. The server never has access to readable messages — it only ever sees encrypted data.
Keys are derived from the room password using scrypt, with a unique salt for each room. Every message is encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305 using a fresh random nonce, following the same general approach used in tools like Signal and WireGuard.
When you join a room, you’re shown a fingerprint so you can confirm everyone is using the same key. When you leave, the encryption keys are wiped from memory.
Designed to disappear
Everything in Burn Room is temporary by design. Messages are never written to disk, never logged, and never backed up. By default, they’re cleared from memory after an hour.
Room creators can set a burn timer — 30 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, or 24 hours. When time runs out, the room and everything in it are destroyed. If a room sits idle, it closes on its own. Creators can also destroy a room instantly at any time.
If the server restarts, everything is wiped. The only thing briefly stored for recovery is minimal room metadata, and even then, encrypted rooms remain unreadable.
Privacy first
There are no accounts, no identities, and no tracking of any kind. IP addresses are only used briefly for rate limiting and are kept in memory, not stored.
Usernames are temporary and get recycled. The platform is built to minimize what exists in the first place, rather than trying to protect stored data later.
Language support
Burn Room adapts to your system or browser language automatically. The interface is translated across menus, prompts, and messages.
Chat itself can be translated per user, so people speaking different languages can talk in the same room and each see messages in their own language. In encrypted rooms, translation happens locally after decryption — the server never sees the original text.
Features you’ll notice
There are a few always-available public rooms like Politics, Gaming, Tech, and Lobby, along with the option to create private, password-protected rooms.
You can mention others, navigate message history, and use simple command shortcuts. Rooms show a live countdown so you always know when they’ll disappear. You can also share direct links to rooms to bring others in instantly.
It works the same whether you connect through SSH or the browser.
Under the hood
Burn Room is built with Node.js and TypeScript, using SSH for direct connections and a terminal interface in the browser. Encryption relies on audited native libraries, not custom implementations.
It’s lightweight but designed to handle a large number of users at once, with built-in protections against abuse like rate limiting and connection throttling.
Enter, say what you need to say, and let it disappear. Enter.Chat.Burn