Karpathytalk Community

# KarpathyTalk Community Skill

> Skill by [ara.so](https://ara.so) — Daily 2026 Skills collection.

KarpathyTalk is a Go-based developer social network (Twitter × GitHub Gists) where posts are plain markdown, the social layer supports likes/reposts/follows/replies, and all data is openly accessible via JSON and markdown APIs — designed for both humans and LLM agents.

---

## What It Does

- GitHub OAuth sign-in (no new credentials)
- Posts are GFM markdown with syntax-highlighted code blocks and image uploads
- Social features: likes, reposts, quote posts, replies, follows
- REST API returns JSON (for agents/code) or markdown (for humans)
- Single Go binary + SQLite + `uploads/` directory — trivial to self-host
- Built with: Go, SQLite, htmx, goldmark

---

## Installation & Local Setup

### 1. Create a GitHub OAuth App

Go to **GitHub → Settings → Developer settings → OAuth Apps → New OAuth App**:

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Application name | KarpathyTalk |
| Homepage URL | `http://localhost:8080` |
| Authorization callback URL | `http://localhost:8080/auth/callback` |

Save the **Client ID** and **Client Secret**.

### 2. Clone & Build

```bash
git clone https://github.com/karpathy/KarpathyTalk.git
cd KarpathyTalk
go build -o karpathytalk ./cmd/karpathytalk
```

### 3. Configure Environment

```bash
export GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=$GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
export GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=$GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET
export BASE_URL=http://localhost:8080   # optional, defaults to this
```

### 4. Run

```bash
./karpathytalk
# or with options:
./karpathytalk -addr :9090 -db ./data/karpathytalk.db
```

Visit `http://localhost:8080`.

---

## CLI Flags

```
-addr string    HTTP listen address (default ":8080")
-db string      SQLite database path (default "karpathytalk.db")
```

---

## Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `GITHUB_CLIENT_ID` | ✅ | — | GitHub OAuth client ID |
| `GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET` | ✅ | — | GitHub OAuth client secret |
| `BASE_URL` | ❌ | `http://localhost:8080` | Public URL of the deployed app |

---

## Deployment (Production)

### Build & Copy

```bash
# Build binary
go build -o karpathytalk ./cmd/karpathytalk

# Copy to server (adjust user/host)
scp karpathytalk schema.sql user@yourserver:~/karpathytalk/
scp -r templates static user@yourserver:~/karpathytalk/
```

### Run on Server

```bash
ssh user@yourserver
cd ~/karpathytalk
export GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=$GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
export GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=$GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET
export BASE_URL=https://yourdomain.com
./karpathytalk -addr :8080
```

### Caddy TLS (recommended)

```caddyfile
yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}
```

### nginx TLS

```nginx
server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}
```

### systemd Service

```ini
[Unit]
Description=KarpathyTalk
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/deploy/karpathytalk
ExecStart=/home/deploy/karpathytalk/karpathytalk -addr :8080
Restart=always
Environment=GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=$GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
Environment=GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRE