Websocket Server

A WebSocket server in Go.

Features

• WebSocket relay server with multiple operation modes: echo, broadcast, and log
• Rate limiting per connection and global
• Reverse proxy support (X-Forwarded-* headers)
• Privacy-focused: no IP address logging of connecting clients
• Configurable via environment variables or command-line flags

Installation

go build -o bin/server ./cmd/server

Usage

Environment Variables

• HOST - Server host (default: 0.0.0.0)
• PORT - Server port (default: 8080)
• MODE - Operation mode: echo, broadcast, or log (default: echo)
• DOMAIN - Domain name for CORS and WSS enforcement (default: empty)
• RATE_LIMIT - Rate limit per second (default: 10)
• BURST - Burst size for rate limiting (default: 20)
• CLIENT_LIMIT - Maximum concurrent clients (default: 1000)

Command-Line Flags

All environment variables can be overridden with command-line flags:

• --host - Server host
• --port - Server port
• --mode - Operation mode
• --domain - Domain name
• --rate-limit - Rate limit per second
• --burst - Burst size
• --client-limit - Maximum concurrent clients

Precedence

Configuration precedence: Environment Variables > Command-Line Flags > Defaults

Examples

# Using environment variables
export PORT=9000
export MODE=broadcast
export DOMAIN=example.com
./bin/server

# Using command-line flags
./bin/server --port 9000 --mode broadcast --domain example.com

# Development mode (no domain/WSS enforcement)
./bin/server --mode echo --port 8080

Operation Modes

• echo: Echoes received packets back to the sender
• broadcast: Broadcasts received packets to all connected clients except the sender
• log: Logs received packets (first 32 bytes in hex)

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.5 or later

Running Linters

Requires: revive, gosec

task lint

Individual linters:

task fmt
task vet
task gosec
task revive

Building

task build

Running

task run

Docker

Build and run with Docker:

docker build -t ws-relay .
docker run -p 8080:8080 -e PORT=8080 -e MODE=echo ws-relay

License

BSD 3-Clause License (c) 2025 Quad4.io