Quick Start

This guide walks you through creating your identity, joining a community, and sending your first end-to-end encrypted message. The whole process takes under five minutes.

Step 1: Launch Static

Open the Static app. On first launch, you will see the onboarding screen. There is no sign-up form, no email field, no phone verification. Static creates a cryptographic identity locally on your device.

Step 2: Create Your Identity

Tap Create Identity. You will be asked for two things:

• Display name — The name others will see next to your messages. You can change this later. It does not need to be unique and is not verified against any registry.
• Device name — A label for this device (e.g., “MacBook Pro”, “Pixel 8”). This helps you identify which of your devices is which if you later link multiple devices to the same identity.

After entering these, Static generates your cryptographic identity:

• An Ed25519 master key pair that serves as your permanent identity.
• A device key pair delegated from the master key, specific to this device.
• MLS credentials derived from these keys for group encryption.

None of this requires a server, an account, or any personal information.

Step 3: Save Your Recovery Phrase

Static displays a 24-word recovery phrase (BIP-39 mnemonic). This phrase is the only way to recover your identity if you lose access to all your devices.

Write it down on paper and store it somewhere safe.

• Do not screenshot it.
• Do not paste it into a notes app or cloud service.
• Do not share it with anyone.
• If you lose this phrase and lose access to your devices, your identity is gone permanently. There is no “forgot password” flow, no customer support that can help, and no server-side backup.

After confirming you have saved the phrase, tap Continue.

Step 4: Join a Community

Communities in Static are similar to Discord servers — they contain channels for text and voice communication. To join a community, you need an invite code from someone who is already a member.

Tap Join Community and enter the invite code. Invite codes look like this:

static://join/a3f8c2e1...

When you join, the following happens behind the scenes:

1. Your client connects to the community’s supernode via an Iroh relay (your IP address is hidden from the supernode).
2. The community admin’s client creates MLS proposals to add you to each channel’s encryption group.
3. You receive MLS Welcome messages containing the encryption keys for each channel.
4. Your client processes these Welcomes and begins receiving encrypted messages.

You will see the community appear in your sidebar with its channels listed.

No invite code? You can create your own community instead — see Step 6 below.

Step 5: Send Your First Message

Select a text channel (e.g., #general) from the channel list. Type a message in the input field and press Enter or tap Send.

Your message is:

1. Encrypted using the channel’s MLS group key — only members of that channel can decrypt it.
2. Padded to a fixed size bucket to prevent traffic analysis.
3. Sent through an Iroh relay to the supernode, which fans it out to all online members.
4. Stored locally in your encrypted SQLite database for offline access and search.

The supernode relays the encrypted ciphertext to other members. It cannot read the message content. Other members’ clients decrypt the message locally and display it.

You can also:

• Search messages using the search bar. Static maintains a local full-text search index (FTS5) over your decrypted messages.
• Edit messages by long-pressing (mobile) or right-clicking (desktop) on your own messages.
• Delete messages the same way. Deleted messages are soft-deleted (tombstoned) — they are removed from view but the tombstone record remains in the local database.

Step 6: Create Your Own Community

If you want to host your own community rather than joining one:

1. Tap the + button in the sidebar.
2. Select Create Community.
3. Enter a community name.

Static creates the community and automatically:

• Assigns you the Owner role.
• Creates a default #general text channel.
• Generates an invite code you can share with others.

To invite others, share the invite code displayed in the community settings. Anyone with the code can join.

For larger communities (20+ members), you will want to run your own supernode for reliable message delivery. See the Self-Hosting Guide for instructions.

Step 7: Configure Privacy Settings

Open Settings from the sidebar or app menu. Under the Privacy section, you can configure:

Setting	Default	Description
Relay-only mode	On	Routes all traffic through relays, hiding your IP from supernodes and other peers.
Cover traffic	Off	Generates dummy encrypted messages at regular intervals to mask your activity patterns. Increases bandwidth usage.
Batch interval	1000 ms	How frequently outgoing messages are batched and sent. Higher values improve privacy but add latency.
Identity rotation	Every 4 hours	How often your ephemeral network identity rotates, preventing cross-session correlation.

The defaults provide a strong privacy baseline. See Privacy Model for a detailed explanation of what each setting does and the trade-offs involved.

What Happens Next

As you use Static, your client automatically manages MLS group encryption behind the scenes — rotating keys when members join or leave, handling epoch transitions, and syncing state with the supernode. You do not need to think about any of this.

For a deeper understanding of how Static works, read Core Concepts.