Connect the apps

Once your sharing service runs, everyone on the team points SpecDeck at it. Apps use, in this order:

1. SPECDECK_SIGNALLING_URL in the environment when SpecDeck starts;
2. the Sharing service in Settings;
3. the service built into SpecDeck.

In Settings

Each person opens Settings and enters the server’s domain under Sharing service, for example specdeck.example.com. SpecDeck makes it wss://specdeck.example.com/signal, checks that it answers, and uses it from the next session on. See Settings.

Through a link

A host who already uses your service can send a join link. Viewers whose SpecDeck uses another service are asked Join through specdeck.example.com? and can tick Use this service from now on, which saves it in their Settings. See Through another sharing service.

Until everyone has switched, share links rather than bare codes: a code on its own always goes through the viewer’s own service.

With an environment variable

Start SpecDeck with SPECDECK_SIGNALLING_URL set in its environment, for example from a managed launcher or script. On Linux:

SPECDECK_SIGNALLING_URL=wss://specdeck.example.com/signal specdeck-app

It takes the full URL. While it is set, the setting in Settings cannot be changed.

Built in

Builds from source take the built-in service from SPECDECK_SIGNALLING_URL at build time. The Nix package sets it to the public service, wss://specdeck.hartj.es/signal; to build in your own:

specdeck.override { signallingUrl = "wss://specdeck.example.com/signal"; }

Releases built in your own fork of the repository use the SPECDECK_SIGNALLING_URL repository secret, as described at the top of .github/workflows/release.yml.

Check that it works

• curl https://specdeck.example.com/health prints ok.
• Settings shows the service as reachable.
• Host a session and join it from another network, such as a phone’s hotspot.

To check the relay on its own, run the relay test from a checkout of the repository. It connects two peers through TURN only, with direct connections turned off:

SPECDECK_SIGNALLING_URL=wss://specdeck.example.com/signal \
  cargo test -p specdeck-core --test turn_relay -- --ignored --nocapture