Matrix Citadel

Why Matrix

I wanted a chat platform that I actually controlled — no vendor lock-in, no data harvesting, no platform risk. Matrix is federated, open protocol, and you can host your own homeserver. The tradeoff is that self-hosting Matrix properly takes more work than just signing up for a service.

Two Homeservers

hanumara.online — my primary homeserver. Registration is closed, federation is open. This is where my personal accounts live.

cloudcitadel.in — a second homeserver with registration open (token-gated). I use it for project groups and shared spaces.

Both run on tuwunel — a lightweight Matrix homeserver implementation. It’s not Synapse with all its memory overhead. It’s written in Rust, uses SQLite, and doesn’t need a separate database server. Both support federation with the wider Matrix network.

Voice and Video

MatrixRTC via LiveKit on each homeserver. Each has its own LiveKit server and JWT service for authentication. The JWT service signs tokens that LiveKit uses to authorize rooms — the homeserver trusts its own JWT service, and the JWT service trusts the homeserver. Closed loop, no external auth needed.

This means native voice and video calls in any Matrix client that supports MatrixRTC. No bridge to Jitsi, no external service, no data leaving the homeserver.

Webhook Gateway

hanumara.online runs a Matrix webhook gateway — it lets external services post messages into Matrix rooms via HTTP. I use it for monitoring alerts, CI/CD notifications, and anything that needs to talk to me where I already am.

AI Agent Integration

The Sage AI agent (Hermes) runs on the homelab and connects through Matrix. When I’m out, I can ask it to check server status, run commands, or look up information — it has terminal access, file reading, and web search tools. It’s not just a chat bot, it’s an agent that can actually do things.

OpenClaw Gateway handles the orchestration between the agent and the Matrix homeserver.

What I’d Change

Matrix federation is still not as reliable as I’d like. Some servers drop messages, some have misconfigured DNS, and troubleshooting federation issues is a rabbit hole. But the protocol is open and the ecosystem is improving. I’m staying put.