Rachel Stantz Releases tycoon, a Simple Server for Staking a Claim in Geminispace

Developer Rachel Stantz has released a simple server designed for those who want to stick a flag in "Geminispace" — a section of the internet accessible only with the Gopher-inspired Gemini protocol, built for those who find the modern web unpleasantly overwhelming.

"I've released version 1.0.0 of tycoon," Stantz announced on Mastodon of the software's first major release. "This is the server that hosts my Gemini protocol site. It also includes an (optional) builtin finger server, if you, like me, find updating a .plan file easier than microblogging."

The Gemini protocol was announced back in 2019 as an application-layer alternative to the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which serves as the underpinning of the World Wide Web. Where HTTP has long since become a protocol for the transmission of everything from the hyperlinked text it was originally designed to carry to streaming audio, video, and more, Gemini is designed to be simpler — taking its cues from the classic Gopher protocol, first released in 1991.

Gemini is encrypted by default and with certificate-based authentication, but underneath that is designed to be simple. Documents are written in a markup language called "Gemtext," and are typically text-only with limited support for images — though, as you would expect, include hyperlinks between documents and sites. Gemini sites — or "capsules" — can't be served through a normal webserver, nor accessed through a normal browser.

This is, of course, where tycoon comes in. "tycoon is a small, simple server for the Gemini protocol," Stantz explains. "It lets you host your own site, or capsule, in Geminispace. Simple configuration syntax similar to Caddyfile or nginx.conf. Automatic certificate generation. Ships as a single binary with no runtime dependencies. Optional finger server: you can publish a .plan file alongside your Gemini capsule and view it right in a supported browser like Lagrange."

Those interested in trying the software out can find it on Stantz's Codeberg repository under the GNU Affero General Public License 3 or later; a list of compatible clients is available on the Gemini protocol website, along with alternative server software options.