Short answer: ChaparKhoneh is a private, self-hosted communication workspace that brings email, messaging, contacts, calendars, and optional local AI together in one installable Progressive Web App. Its first release is designed for individuals and teams that want everyday communication to remain inside infrastructure they control.
The application can run in a browser or be installed as a PWA on supported desktop and mobile devices. It supports light and dark themes, responsive navigation, an offline application shell, in-app notifications, centralized administration, and device-specific registration.
What does ChaparKhoneh mean?
Chapar — چاپار — means a mounted courier or post rider responsible for carrying important messages rapidly between destinations. A ChaparKhoneh — چاپارخانه — was the courier house or post station where dispatches could be handed over, riders could change horses, and the next stage of a long journey could begin.
The historical Chapar and ChaparKhoneh tradition reaches back more than 2,500 years to the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Its coordinated roads, riders, and relay stations formed the earliest organized imperial messaging and postal relay system in recorded history.
The network carried royal correspondence, government orders, administrative reports, and intelligence across a vast empire. Darius I strengthened roads connecting Susa, Babylon, and provincial capitals. Herodotus later described riders and horses waiting at intervals so each dispatch could pass quickly from one stage to the next.
For additional historical context, see the Encyclopaedia Iranica history of Chapar.
Why use this name for a communication application?
The original ChaparKhoneh was a trusted communication station: messages arrived, were organized, transferred, and continued toward the correct destination. The modern application carries that central idea into a private digital workspace.
| Historical idea | Modern ChaparKhoneh |
|---|---|
| One trusted courier station | One unified communication workspace |
| Royal and administrative dispatches | Email and private messages |
| Routes between distant stations | Configured mail servers and messaging services |
| Controlled handoffs between couriers | Users, roles, groups, channels, and permissions |
| A protected post house | Private self-hosted application storage |
The name honors Persian communication history while describing what the application does today: it gives messages, contacts, events, and conversations one private home.
Mailbox client
Users can connect an email account and work with the mailbox without leaving ChaparKhoneh. The first release supports Inbox, Sent, Outbox, Drafts, and custom mail folders.
- Compose and send new email
- Reply, reply to all recipients, and forward messages
- Save and continue drafts
- Search and sort mailbox content
- Add stars, important markers, and tags
- Select multiple messages for bulk actions
- Receive in-app notifications when new mail arrives
Mail credentials are retained in a protected, short-lived session and are used only to connect to the configured mail server. Email remains on that mail server rather than being transferred to an unrelated external mail platform.
Private messaging, groups, and channels
The messaging workspace supports direct conversations, groups, and channels. Users can exchange text and encrypted file attachments, while administrators decide whether messaging is enabled and who may create shared spaces.
New-message notifications take a user directly to the relevant conversation. This makes ChaparKhoneh useful for internal communication where a team wants messaging and email close together without moving discussions into a third-party collaboration service.
Private contacts
Every user receives a private address book for creating, editing, and deleting contacts. Sensitive contact email addresses are encrypted in storage and are accessible only to their owner.
Keeping contacts beside mail and messaging reduces repeated address entry and gives each user a consistent personal directory without exposing it to other accounts.
Integrated calendar
The calendar provides day, week, and month views. Calendar invitations and events received by email can appear in the workspace, helping users manage upcoming meetings without switching applications.
The integration is especially useful when a meeting invitation begins as an email, becomes a calendar event, and later requires a message to another participant. Those related actions stay within one communication environment.
Private local AI
ChaparKhoneh can run an internal AI assistant from a locally hosted GGUF model. Users can ask the assistant questions or select mailbox messages and request concise summaries.
Email summaries follow the primary language of the original message, including Persian and English. The summarization workflow is designed to preserve important names, numbers, dates, deadlines, and requested actions instead of returning only a generic overview.
AI is inactive until the installation has a valid licence. After registration, an administrator can enable AI and select the self-hosted GGUF provider. The planned PWA AI Relay provider remains unavailable until relay support is configured.
Central administration
The Admin panel provides one place to control the communication environment:
- Users, roles, access, passwords, and account status
- Incoming and outgoing mail-server settings
- Mail autoconfiguration imports
- Messaging availability and creation permissions
- AI availability and provider selection
- Application registration and licence status
Role-based permissions protect administrative operations. The system administrator account cannot be disabled, locked, or removed by another administrator, preserving a protected recovery authority.
Registration and licence behavior
Every ChaparKhoneh installation receives a unique device UUID. An administrator can request a licence for that installation and save the issued token through the Admin panel.
The application accepts only a correctly signed, active token issued for ChaparKhoneh and the matching device UUID. An unregistered or expired installation can continue using standard email, messaging, contacts, and calendar features, but AI entry points and AI requests remain disabled.
Installable Progressive Web App
ChaparKhoneh works in a browser and can be installed on supported desktop and mobile devices. Its responsive interface, application icon, offline shell, light and dark themes, and app-style navigation provide a consistent workspace across screen sizes.
The offline shell helps the application frame remain available, but communication features still require access to their configured servers. Installing the PWA does not turn mail or messaging into a completely offline service.
Who is ChaparKhoneh for?
| User or environment | How ChaparKhoneh helps |
|---|---|
| Individuals | Combines personal mail, contacts, calendar, messaging, and optional local AI in one private workspace. |
| Small teams | Provides direct messages, groups, channels, shared communication controls, and centralized administration. |
| Companies with private infrastructure | Keeps application data inside the organization's deployment and mail on the configured server. |
| Persian and bilingual users | Supports Persian and English email summaries while retaining important details from the source message. |
| Local-AI environments | Runs assistant and summarization requests through a self-hosted GGUF provider after licence activation. |
| PWA users | Offers an installable, responsive workspace across supported desktop and mobile devices. |
Privacy and self-hosted deployment
ChaparKhoneh is intended for self-hosted deployment. Mail remains on the configured mail server, application data remains in the deployment's private storage, and the local AI provider processes prompts without sending them to an external AI service.
Self-hosting provides control, not automatic security. Administrators should use HTTPS, restrict the Admin panel to trusted users, protect backups and configuration, update container images after testing, monitor service health, and expose only the network ports required by the deployment.
Getting started
- Review the image overview and release information on Docker Hub.
- Plan persistent storage, HTTPS, network access, backups, and mail-server connectivity.
- Pull the ChaparKhoneh image.
- Complete first-run administrator setup.
- Configure incoming and outgoing mail services.
- Create users and decide whether messaging, groups, and channels should be enabled.
- Request and install a device-specific licence if local AI is required.
- Test email, messaging, calendar events, notifications, backups, and recovery before wider use.
docker pull ssiroos/chaparkhonehFrequently asked questions
What is ChaparKhoneh?
ChaparKhoneh is a self-hosted communication application combining email, private messaging, contacts, calendars, administration, and optional local AI in an installable PWA.
What does the name ChaparKhoneh mean?
It means courier house or post station. The name refers to the Persian relay tradition in which mounted chapars carried messages between stations across long routes.
Does ChaparKhoneh replace an email server?
No. It connects to configured incoming and outgoing mail services and provides a unified mailbox client. Mail remains on the configured mail server.
Can ChaparKhoneh run without a licence?
Yes. Standard communication features continue to work without an active licence. A valid device-specific licence is required for AI features.
Does the AI send email to an external service?
The supported self-hosted GGUF provider processes prompts locally. The planned PWA AI Relay provider remains unavailable until relay support is configured.
Can ChaparKhoneh be installed on a phone or desktop?
Yes, when the browser and operating system support PWA installation. It can also be used directly in a browser.
A historic idea rebuilt for private digital communication
The first ChaparKhoneh release brings the idea of a trusted communication station into a modern, self-hosted application. Email, conversations, people, events, administration, and local AI are kept close together while organizations retain control over deployment and data.
Explore the ChaparKhoneh product page or open ChaparKhoneh on Docker Hub.