Hermes — Frontend Monorepo

HERMES (High-frequency Emergency and Rural Multimedia Exchange System) is a project by Rhizomatica that enables communities in remote or disaster-affected areas to exchange messages, files, and GPS coordinates over HF radio (3–30 MHz shortwave). HF radio propagates over the horizon via ionospheric reflection, making it one of the few communication methods that works without infrastructure — no internet, no cell towers, no satellites required.

This repository is the frontend monorepo that consumes the Hermes API and provides two independent web applications:

App	Port	Purpose
hermes-chat	:3000	Messaging client — send/receive messages and files between Hermes stations
hermes-gps	:3001	Geolocation viewer — displays the station's current GPS coordinates in real time

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Tech Stack

Technology	Version
Node.js	25.6.1
npm	11.9.0
Turborepo	2.9.6
Next.js	16.2.4
React	19.0.0
TypeScript	5.7.2
Tailwind CSS	3.4.17
next-intl	4.8.3
lucide-react	1.7.0

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Project Structure

hermes/
├── apps/
│   ├── hermes-chat/        # Messaging app (Next.js, port 3000)
│   └── hermes-gps/         # GPS viewer app (Next.js, port 3001)
├── packages/
│   ├── api/                # @hermes/api — shared Hermes API client
│   ├── ui/                 # @hermes/ui — shared React components
│   └── tailwind-config/    # @hermes/tailwind-config — shared Tailwind base config
├── package.json            # Workspace root
├── turbo.json              # Turborepo pipeline
└── tsconfig.base.json      # Shared TypeScript config

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

Copy the environment file and set your Hermes API URL:

cp .env.example apps/hermes-chat/.env.local
cp .env.example apps/hermes-gps/.env.local

Edit each .env.local:

HERMES_API_URL=https://<your-station-ip>

Install dependencies

npm install

Run

# Run hermes-chat only (port 3000)
npm run dev:chat

# Run hermes-gps only (port 3001)
npm run dev:gps

# Run both apps in parallel via Turborepo
npm run dev

Build

# Build all apps (shared packages are built first automatically)
npm run build

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API

Both apps proxy requests to the Hermes REST API. The shared @hermes/api package (packages/api/) handles all HTTP communication with the backend over HTTPS (with self-signed certificate support for on-device deployments).