Multi-Server

Gryt clients can connect to multiple servers at the same time. Each server is an independent instance with its own channels, members, and configuration. The client manages connections separately, keyed by the server's host address.

How it works

When you add a server, the client opens a Socket.IO connection to that server's address. You can add as many servers as you like — each one gets its own entry in the sidebar, and you switch between them by clicking. Only one server is "active" (visible) at a time, but connections to other servers stay open in the background so you receive notifications and presence updates.

There is no state sync between servers. Each server is fully independent — your channels, roles, and voice sessions are per-server.

Adding a server

Manual

Click the + button in the server sidebar
Enter the server address (e.g. my-server.example.com:5000)
Click Connect — the client fetches the server info via HTTP
Click Join to complete the handshake

LAN discovery (desktop app only)

The desktop app automatically discovers Gryt servers on your local network using mDNS (multicast DNS). Servers advertise themselves as _gryt._tcp services, and the client listens for these announcements.

When a server is found on the LAN, it appears in the Local Servers section of the Add Server dialog. Click Connect to fetch its info and join — no need to type an IP address.

LAN discovery only works in the desktop (Electron) app. Browsers cannot perform mDNS queries, so the web app always requires manual entry.

How mDNS works

The server publishes a _gryt._tcp mDNS service on startup
On Linux with avahi-daemon (the default on Debian and Ubuntu), it writes a service file into /etc/avahi/services/ — the most reliable method
If avahi is not available, it falls back to the bonjour-service npm package
The Electron client browses for _gryt._tcp services and shows what it finds
On shutdown the server withdraws the advertisement, waiting for the goodbye packets before the process exits so the record does not outlive it

Each server writes its own file, named gryt-<instanceId>-<port>.service. Two servers on one host share that directory, which is exactly what network_mode: host with the bundled compose file gives you, and both used to write gryt.service. The second to start silently overwrote the first, so only one was discoverable, nothing errored, and both worked fine by address. It looked like flaky mDNS rather than one server replacing another's advertisement. The port is part of the name as well as the instance ID, because SERVER_INSTANCE_ID defaults to default when unset and two servers on one host cannot share a port.

Server configuration

mDNS advertisement uses the existing SERVER_NAME environment variable. The name shown during discovery is whatever you set as SERVER_NAME in your server config.

For Docker deployments with avahi (recommended):

Ensure avahi-daemon is running on the host
Run chmod o+w /etc/avahi/services on the host (one-time)
The compose file mounts /etc/avahi/services into the container automatically

LAN open join (skip invite codes on LAN)

By default, every new user must use an invite code to join a server. For LAN parties and local events, you can enable LAN open join so anyone on the same local network can join without an invite code. Remote connections from the internet still require an invite.

To enable it, go to Server Settings → Overview and toggle Allow anyone on LAN to join. This setting is dynamic — it takes effect immediately with no server restart.

When enabled, the server checks the connecting client's address. The ranges it treats as local are 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16, 127.0.0.0/8 and 169.254.0.0/16, plus IPv6 link-local and unique-local. Anything else still needs an invite.

LAN open join works with both manual connections and mDNS discovery. When a LAN-discovered server has this setting enabled, the desktop app skips the invite code prompt entirely — users just click Connect and Join.

Behind a proxy this needs configuring

Behind a reverse proxy or a tunnel, LAN open join does nothing until you set GRYT_TRUSTED_PROXY_HOPS.

The server ignores X-Forwarded-For unless you tell it how many proxies to believe, and it defaults to zero, because that header is something any client can set. Left at zero behind a proxy, every request arrives wearing the proxy's address rather than the client's, and the server has no way to know who is actually on the local network.

Rather than treat the proxy's address as the client's, which would let anybody who can reach the proxy join without an invite, the server keeps the invite requirement and says so in its log once. Set the hop count to the number of proxies in front of it and the feature works as intended. See Behind a proxy.

Removing a server

Right-click a server in the sidebar and select Remove, or go to Settings → Servers and remove it from there. This closes the connection and removes it from your saved server list.

Multi-Server

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