Cloud storage system based on using Telegram as a storage so it doesn't use your server filesystem or any other paid cloud storage system underneath the hood.

Usage.example.mp4

Pentaract is aimed to take as small disk space as possible. So it does not need any code interpreter/platform to run. The whole app is just several megabytes in size. It also uses Postgres as a database and we try our best to economy space by not creating unneeded fields and tables and to wisely pick proper datatypes.

The platform itself can be used differently, like as a personal (on your own server or a local machine) platform or a platform for many users with multiple storages and so on. Since it provides Rest API, you can also use it as a file system in your backend like NextCloud or AWS S3 or S3 compatable services (like MinIO), but for now it's so early so I don't recommend to use it in production ready apps.

Installation

This project is aimed on running the app in container, so the primary way to run it is via Docker. If you don't have it installed or simply don't want to run the app via Docker, you can build it from source.

NOTE: Pentaract uses Postgres as a database. So if you are going to run it from source or run the Pentaract image only, you will need to have a Postgres instance running and available in your network so you will connect your Pentaract app to it

Docker Compose with pre-built image (recommended)

The simplest way to run and manage the app

Create new directory for the app files and name it however you wish:

mkdir pentaract

Go to it and place docker-compose.yml file like this one:

version: "3.9"

volumes:
  pentaract-db-volume:
    name: pentaract-db-volume

services:
  pentaract:
    container_name: pentaract
    image: thedominux/pentaract
    env_file:
      - .env
    ports:
      - ${PORT}:8000
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    container_name: pentaract_db
    image: postgres:15.0-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: ${DATABASE_USER}
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DATABASE_PASSWORD}
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - pentaract-db-volume:/var/lib/postgresql/data

And .env file like the next one. Don't forget to set your superuser email, password and secret key:

PORT=8000
WORKERS=4
CHANNEL_CAPACITY=32
SUPERUSER_EMAIL=<YOUR-EMAIL>
SUPERUSER_PASS=<YOUR-PASSWORD>
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_IN_SECS=1800
REFRESH_TOKEN_EXPIRE_IN_DAYS=14
SECRET_KEY=<YOUR-SECRET-KEY>
TELEGRAM_API_BASE_URL=https://api.telegram.org

DATABASE_USER=pentaract
DATABASE_PASSWORD=pentaract
DATABASE_NAME=pentaract
DATABASE_HOST=db
DATABASE_PORT=5432

Secret key can be set by your hand, but I strongly recommend to use long randomly generated sequences. So you either can generate it via some free websites that provide such funcionallity or by running something like this in the terminal:

openssl rand -hex 32

For now everything is set up so we can run our app:

docker compose up -d

To check if everything works fine you can go to http://localhost:8000 or to http://<YOUR-PUBLIC-IP>:8000 if you run it on a server.

If there are troubles, you can check the logs, there may be some errors:

docker logs -f pentaract

Docker Compose from source

Kind of simple way, but it's aimed to use it during development process

Clone the repository and go inside the newly created directory:

git clone git@github.com:Dominux/Pentaract.git

Copy .env.example to .env:

cp ./.env.example ./.env

and edit it like you wish.

For now everything is set up so we can run our app:

make up

To check if everything works fine you can go to http://localhost:8000 or to http://<YOUR-PUBLIC-IP>:8000 if you run it on a server.

If there are troubles, you can check the logs, there may be some errors:

docker logs -f pentaract

Docker with pre-built image

TODO

From source

The most complex way to run the app.

Requires the next stuff to be installed:

Create a directory to place all the app files wherever in your system:

mkdir ~/pentaract

Clone the repository and go inside the newly created directory:

git clone git@github.com:Dominux/Pentaract.git

Go to the ./pentaract directory and build server side app:

cd ./pentaract
cargo build --release

and copy the target to the app directory (or create a soft link via ln -s, does not matter):

cp ./target/release/pentaract ~/pentaract/pentaract

Go to the ../ui and build the UI side of the app:

cd ../ui
pnpm run build

and copy built files into the app directory:

cp ./dist/* ~/pentaract/ui/

Now go to the app directory:

cd ~/pentaract

Make sure that you have Postgres database ran in your system (or available from network)
Set all needed environment variables. You can check them in the .env.example file. Don't forget to set right Postgres credentials, host and port:

export PORT=8000
export WORKERS=4
# ...

Finally run the app:

./pentaract

To check if everything works fine you can go to http://localhost:8000 or to http://<YOUR-PUBLIC-IP>:8000 if you run it on a server.

It's also recommended to use a HTTP reverse-proxy, like Nginx or Traefik if you use containarized version of the app and don't wanna work with Nginx and certbot.

Usage

The platform is tied to the "storages" concept. Every storage is a separated files system, like different volumes on your drive. It provides funcionallity to work with a file system like it's Google Drive: you can create files and folders, download files, see files and folders info and delete them on your wish.

In our case every storage has its own Telegram channel, where it will store all the data.

The platform also uses "storage workers". It is telegram bots that are used to upload and download files from the telegram API

Telegram API limitations

Telegram has its policy to limit some access to their platform. For us the main limitations are:

Requests per a period for one bot (RPM)
File size

Pentaract has ways to workaround them:

RPM

To workaround RPM users can create additional storage workers. For now one user can create up to 20 bots. You can also create additional accounts to create extra bots or ask your nearest for example to do so. This way from up to Telegram limitations it becomes up to you on how fast you can upload/download in Pentaract storage.

I should notice that current RPM (20 requests per minute) is completely fine to work with a single storage worker if you need the storage to be your own and don't need to upload/download big files fast.

File size

Currently Telegram API limits file download to 20 MB, hence we can't upload files more than that limit too.

Pentaract divides uploaded files into chunks and save them to Telegram separately and on downloading a file it fetches all the file chunks from the Telegram API and combine them into one in the order it was divided in. That grants ability to upload and download files with almost unlimited size (it's like you've ever downloaded a file with size >10 GB).

Current in storage features

Access

You can manage access to your storages by granting access to other users. For now, there are 3 possible roles:

Viewer
Can edit
Admin

So you can grant access, change it or restrict (delete access) for other users.

Future plans

Cloud storage system has a huge variety of possible ways to develop in. Like it can be a file hosting service, a cloud object storage, a cloud drive or anything else or everything in one place. And I personally don't have idea right now where to move and what users need so I'd like to know what features you would like this app to provide.

Contributing

Is highly welcoming! Create issues or take existing ones and create PRs!