Mirrorward | Through the Glass, Down the Rabbit Hole

The Mirrorward Manifest

The modern web is a Hall of Mirrors. Centralized networks reflect only the data they programmed you to consume, tracking your reflections across the glass.

Mirrorward stands as a sanctuary. Influenced by the fluid reality of the Looking Glass and the digital awakening of the Matrix, we explore technologies that bypass the watchtowers of the modern internet.

Our flagship creation, RabbitHole, is a Rust-engineered revival of the golden age of online communities—Hotline, KDX, BBSes, and AOL. We provide the protocol and the doors; you choose which tunnel to follow. Connect instantly to any Burrow via the browser-based gateway at rabbit.direct.

"You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

>_ SYSTEM RULES

01. Sovereignty: Every Burrow is fully self-hosted. No central authority can dim your looking glass.
02. Multiplicity: One account, many personas. Escape the singular profiles of surveillance capitalism.
03. Resilience: Signed Blake3 event boards and Bao-verified swarms. Data integrity verified cryptographically.
04. Syncretism: Modern QUIC and WebSockets living alongside Telnet BBS, Finger, NNTP, and Hotline.

The RabbitHole Architecture

A decentralized network of Burrows, federated via Tunnels, indexed by Looking Glasses.

The Burrow

The self-contained server node. Hosts chat rooms, message boards, file libraries, direct messages, and pirate radio. Gated by Argon2id credentials and multi-tier ACL permissions.

burrowd (Rust / QUIC / WS)

Looking Glass

The decentralized tracker directory. Self-certifying cryptographic descriptors and UDP gossip anti-entropy allow discovery of Burrows and verify node health. Explore the directory.

looking-glass (Gossip/Uptime)

The Warren

A swarm file-distribution layer. Files are indexed using Blake3/Bao manifests. Peers share pieces using a work-stealing scheduler with certificate tokens, preventing unauthorized leeching.

rabbit:// links (Swarm DHT)

Tunnels

Federation pipelines linking Burrows. Over server-to-server QUIC connections, admins establish trusted peering to replicate boards, route personas, and sync wishing wells.

S2S Encrypted Tunnels

THE ARSENAL

Applications & Clients

A suite of modular tools and clients engineered to navigate the RabbitHole network.

SERVER CORE ● ACTIVE

Burrow Daemon (burrow)

The headless server core. Hosts boards, DMs, file centers, and radio streams. Cross-compiles to Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Language:Rust / Tokio Protocols:QUIC / TLS 1.3 / TCP / UDP

View Readme

TERMINAL SHELL ● ACTIVE

Rabbit TUI (rabbit-tui)

A native console shell for terminal purists. Features full CP437/ANSI art rendering, box-drawing menus, private IMs, and a keyboard-driven navigation stack.

Language:Rust / rabbithole-screen Mode:Raw UTF-8 / ANSI Color

Try Local Console

WEB CLIENT ● IN PROGRESS

Rabbit Web (ui-web)

A zero-install Web Client SPA. Links directly to Burrow endpoints via RHP-over-WebSockets, syncing DMs, boards, and files with dynamic visual reconnect banners.

Language:Leptos 0.6 CSR / WASM Transport:WebSockets (ws://)

Connect via Web Gateway

The Legacy Doors

Connecting the past to the future. RabbitHole exposes your server across legacy protocols.

ASCII Sanctuaries & Door Games

Expose your Burrow to classic terminal clients. Supports full CP437/ANSI art coloring, board message rendering, and a file browser with ZMODEM uploads/downloads.

Admins can plug in legacy door games (DOOR32.SYS/DOOR.SYS) to run retro interactive programs inside modern secure containers.

Default Port:2323 Config Key:telnet_enabled

Telnet Connection: alice@wonderland

 CONNECT 127.0.0.1:2323 ... SUCCESS
 
  ██████╗  █████╗ ██████╗ ██████╗ ██╗████████╗
  ██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██║╚══██╔══╝
  ██████╔╝███████║██████╔╝██████╔╝██║   ██║   
  ██╔══██╗██╔══██║██╔══██╗██╔══██╗██║   ██║   
  ██║  ██║██║  ██║██████╔╝██████╔╝██║   ██║   
  ╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═╝  ╚═╝╚═════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝   ╚═╝   
 
 Down the rabbit hole we go.
 
 [C] Chat Lobby       [B] Boards
 [F] File Library     [W] Wishing Well
 [D] Door Games       [Q] Quit Burrow
 
 Command > █

The Hotline Protocol

Connect with vintage Hotline Client 1.2.3 or modern clones. Direct integration links Burrow chat rooms, file structures, and news boards to Hotline's UI.

Supports HTXF file transfers with resource fork offsets and resumable pipelines, letting vintage Macs download files directly from your Rust server.

Default Port:5500 / 5501 Config Key:hotline_enabled

Hotline Server Matrix

RedQueen: OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!

Cheshire: We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.

Neo: I know kung fu.

Alice: Welcome to the rabbit hole. Watch the speed limit.

Input: > █

Finger Status queries

A simple, secure implementation of RFC 1288. Query your Burrow state and see active personas and their status updates from the command line.

Users can maintain an active `.plan` and `.project` file inside their Burrow account settings, readable by anyone who fingers their persona.

Default Port:7979 Config Key:finger_enabled

Terminal: finger alice@wonderland

$ finger alice@wonderland.co --port 7979
Login: alice                            Name: Alice in Wonderland
Directory: /personas/alice              Shell: /usr/bin/rabbit-tui
On since Fri Jul  3 23:55:01 on tty01 (idle 2m)
Project: engineering the looking-glass routing fabric.
Plan:
  - Wire E2EE tunnels for cross-burrow flood-fill.
  - Drink tea with the Mad Hatter.
  - Follow the white rabbit. 
  "Curiouser and curiouser!"

Burrow Pirate Radio

Broadcast directly from your Burrow using an Icecast-compatible listener interface. Stream DJ sets and ambient soundtracks to web clients and players.

Includes an ingest port for live DJ software, and automatic track metadata updates using metadata pipelines.

Default Port:8000 / 8001 Config Key:radio_enabled

LIVE - PIRATE STATION

White Rabbit (Matrix Edit)

Jefferson Airplane vs. Clubbed to Death

🔊

NNTP Feeds & FidoNet Tossers

Expose Burrow boards to standard Usenet clients. Read and reply to posts using native newsreaders like Thunderbird, MacSOUP, or Gnus.

Supports full STARTTLS encryption and feeds updates from peer boards. Also includes a FidoNet FTN mailer (binkp) for classic store-and-forward bulletin boards.

Default Port:1119 / 24554 Config Key:nntp_enabled / ftn_enabled

Usenet Reader: alt.bbs.rabbithole

Path: wonderland.co!tunnels!chesire
From: cheshire@wonderland.co (Cheshire Cat)
Newsgroups: alt.bbs.rabbithole,alt.sys.hotline
Subject: Re: How do I escape the looking glass?
Date: Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:01:12 UTC
Message-ID: <12345678@wonderland.co>

> How do I escape? I am trapped in the reflection.

If you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't
much matter which way you walk. Just stay in the shadows
and watch the smile. 

😸

Connect to the Warren

Interact with our virtual Burrow node directly from your browser. Peer through the glass.

guest@mirrorward-burrow:~

PING: 24ms

Initializing connection to Mirrorward gateway...

Establishing tunnel via Ed25519 handshake...

CONNECTED TO BURROW: alice@wonderland (RHP/0.61.0)

Type help to view available commands, or connect to sign in.

guest@wonderland:~$

Through the Looking Glass Into the Rabbit Hole