Auto-join #nosterm on startup; add mission/roadmap; chat-window banner

README.md

@@ -19,6 +19,53 @@ Open a pull request against `main` — see [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md). E
 merge to `main` builds the container image and publishes it to ECR Public for
 anonymous pulls (see [Deploy](#deploy)).
 
+## Mission
+
+Nosterm aims to be the premier, full-featured **Nostr Relay Chat (NRC)**
+client — the terminal-native way to talk over Nostr. We believe private
+communication is a right, not a feature, so Nosterm is built to advocate for and
+promote **anonymity, end-to-end encryption, and censorship resistance** by
+default rather than as opt-in extras.
+
+Three principles guide every decision:
+
+- **Small footprint.** A static SPA with no application backend, served from a
+  single lightweight container. It should stay auditable, fast to load, and cheap
+  to self-host — no build-time secrets, no telemetry, no lock-in.
+- **Easy to deploy, anywhere.** One prebuilt image, configured at runtime, that
+  drops cleanly onto different **overlay network protocols** (Tor, I2P, Yggdrasil,
+  Nym, and WireGuard-style meshes) so operators can run it wherever they trust
+  the transport.
+- **Privacy as the default.** Anonymity, encryption, and anti-censorship are the
+  baseline behavior. The client should make the private path the easy path.
+
+## Roadmap
+
+The roadmap turns the mission into concrete direction. Items are aspirational and
+unordered — contributions that move any of them forward are welcome.
+
+- **Full NRC feature set** — channels, threads, DMs, presence, and moderation
+  tools that make Nosterm a complete relay-chat experience, not just a demo.
+- **Overlay-network first** — first-class, documented deployment recipes for Tor
+  hidden services, I2P, and other overlay transports, keeping the same single
+  runtime-configured image.
+- **Encryption everywhere** — modern encrypted DMs and private groups (e.g.
+  NIP-17 / gift-wrapped events), with sensible key handling and no plaintext
+  fallbacks that surprise the user.
+- **Anonymity by design** — minimize metadata leakage, support ephemeral and
+  disposable identities, and avoid any client behavior that fingerprints or
+  phones home.
+- **Censorship resistance** — graceful multi-relay failover, easy relay
+  discovery and rotation, and resilience when individual relays are blocked or
+  disappear.
+- **Mature the Nostermd companion relay** — grow the
+  [nostermd-relay](https://git.nerdworks.io/nerdworks/nostermd-relay) home relay
+  into a first-class **NIP-29** (relay-based groups) implementation, deepening
+  its federation and group-chat features so a self-hosted relay is a complete
+  NRC backend for the client.
+- **Stay small** — hold the line on bundle size, dependency count, and container
+  footprint as features grow.
+
 ## Layout
 
 ```
@@ -82,13 +129,14 @@ secrets) — change one → rebuild the image.
 
 **Build-time** (baked into the bundle; rebuild to change):
 
-| Variable                              | Default | Purpose                                       |
-| ------------------------------------- | ------- | --------------------------------------------- |
-| `PUBLIC_DEFAULT_RELAYS`               | _empty_ | Fallback relays when no runtime config is set |
-| `PUBLIC_DEFAULT_THEME`                | `nord`  | Theme applied before the user picks one       |
-| `PUBLIC_MAX_TERMINAL_ENTRIES`         | `1000`  | Terminal entries kept in memory / rendered    |
-| `PUBLIC_MAX_MESSAGE_LENGTH`           | `2000`  | Max outbound message length (characters)      |
-| `PUBLIC_MAX_CACHED_MESSAGES_PER_ROOM` | `500`   | Messages retained per room in IndexedDB       |
+| Variable                              | Default   | Purpose                                           |
+| ------------------------------------- | --------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
+| `PUBLIC_DEFAULT_RELAYS`               | _empty_   | Fallback relays when no runtime config is set     |
+| `PUBLIC_DEFAULT_THEME`                | `nord`    | Theme applied before the user picks one           |
+| `PUBLIC_DEFAULT_CHANNEL`              | `nosterm` | Channel auto-joined on startup (blank = disabled) |
+| `PUBLIC_MAX_TERMINAL_ENTRIES`         | `1000`    | Terminal entries kept in memory / rendered        |
+| `PUBLIC_MAX_MESSAGE_LENGTH`           | `2000`    | Max outbound message length (characters)          |
+| `PUBLIC_MAX_CACHED_MESSAGES_PER_ROOM` | `500`     | Messages retained per room in IndexedDB           |
 
 ## Talking to a relay