A shared daily safe-word for your people. Whisper generates a two-word phrase, rotates it on a schedule (daily or weekly), and pushes it as a notification to every member of a group. No app install. No accounts. No cost to run.
- Couple/family verification ("prove it's you on the phone")
- Child pickup authentication (only go with someone who knows today's word)
- Fun daily shared ritual between partners or friends
- You add approved Gmail addresses to the allowlist.
- Approved users log in with Google, create or join groups.
- Each day (or week), a new two-word phrase is generated and pushed to every group member's phone via ntfy.sh.
- Members can also see the current phrase by logging in to the web UI.
- Java 21 (Spring Boot, Spring Security OAuth2, virtual threads) — core service, REST API, Google login
- Rust — word generator, called from Java via JNI. CSPRNG selection, no-repeat guarantee.
- SQLite — local file database. Groups, members, rotation history, email allowlist.
- ntfy.sh — free push notifications to phone, zero signup for recipients.
- React + TypeScript — web UI (login, create/join groups, view today's phrase + history).
- Kubernetes — Helm chart for self-hosters. Local dev via OrbStack/minikube.
- OCI Always Free — Production hosting on Oracle Cloud ARM VM ($0).
Whisper runs as a single Java process calling a native Rust library. No Docker or Kubernetes required. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
# Build the Rust word generator (produces a native shared library)
cd wordgen
cargo build --release
cd ..
# Build the Java service
cd service
./mvnw package -DskipTests # macOS/Linux
mvnw.cmd package -DskipTests # Windows
cd ..The Rust build produces a platform-specific library:
| OS | File | Path |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | libwhisper_wordgen.dylib |
wordgen/target/release/ |
| Linux | libwhisper_wordgen.so |
wordgen/target/release/ |
| Windows | whisper_wordgen.dll |
wordgen\target\release\ |
Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your values:
cp .env.example .envGOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-id.apps.googleusercontent.com
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-secret
SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=oauth
WHISPER_ALLOWED_EMAILS=you@gmail.com,partner@gmail.comFor Google OAuth setup, create credentials at
console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials
with authorized redirect URI http://localhost:8080/login/oauth2/code/google.
Without a .env file, the app runs without authentication (useful for local testing).
macOS / Linux:
./run.shWindows (PowerShell):
# Load .env manually
Get-Content .env | ForEach-Object {
if ($_ -match '^([^#].+?)=(.*)$') {
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable($matches[1], $matches[2], "Process")
}
}
java -D"java.library.path=.\wordgen\target\release" `
-jar service\target\whisper-service-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jarThe service starts on http://localhost:8080.
The app rotates phrases when POST /api/rotate is called. Set up a daily trigger:
Windows (Task Scheduler):
- Open Task Scheduler → Create Basic Task
- Name: "Whisper Rotate"
- Trigger: Daily, at 8:00 AM
- Action: Start a program
- Program:
curl - Arguments:
-sf -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/rotate
- Program:
- Finish
macOS / Linux (cron):
# Add to crontab (crontab -e)
0 8 * * * curl -sf -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/rotateTo keep Whisper running 24/7 on a Windows machine without a terminal window:
- Install NSSM (Non-Sucking Service Manager)
- Run as admin:
nssm install Whisper "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21\bin\java.exe" `
"-Djava.library.path=C:\path\to\Whisper\wordgen\target\release" `
"-jar" "C:\path\to\Whisper\service\target\whisper-service-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar"
nssm set Whisper AppDirectory "C:\path\to\Whisper"
nssm set Whisper AppEnvironmentExtra "SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE=oauth" "GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=..." "GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=..." "WHISPER_ALLOWED_EMAILS=..."
nssm start WhisperThis survives reboots and runs without a visible console window.
MIT