Self-host Maelstrom

Maelstrom is a Matrix homeserver built from the ground up in Rust for large-scale deployments. It avoids the single-core bottleneck of Python-based Synapse by using a stateless Axum web layer that can be replicated behind a load balancer. Data lives in SurrealDB on top of TiKV, giving automatic sharding and replication without a central PostgreSQL instance. Ephemeral state such as typing notifications and presence is shared between nodes through the chitchat gossip protocol over UDP, eliminating the need for a separate message broker. The server implements modern Matrix features including sliding sync, threads, reactions, spaces, and end-to-end encryption, and it federates with other homeservers. An integrated web dashboard and REST API handle administration tasks like user and room management, media retention policies, and federation monitoring, with Prometheus metrics exposed for observability. The project is currently in alpha, passing about 64% of the Matrix Complement conformance suite; registration, authentication, profiles, room creation, and encryption keys are largely complete, while federation, sync edge cases, and state resolution remain under active development. It can run in a simple single-node configuration using SurrealDB's embedded storage, or as a clustered deployment with TiKV for production use. The compiled binary has no runtime dependencies beyond the standard C library.