# RecFlare RecFlare is an implementation of RecNet — the Rec Room backend — built on Cloudflare Workers. It implements the network services the Rec Room client talks to — accounts, auth, rooms, matchmaking, economy, chat, notifications, and more — each as an independent Worker on their own subdomains, just how RecNet was. > **Disclaimer:** This is an unofficial, fan-made project for preservation and > experimentation. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Rec > Room Inc. "Rec Room" is a trademark of its respective owner. ## Why? There are already so many multiplayer clones, why? 1. None of them are fully open source (some had leaks of old code). 2. None of them run on microservice architecture, most on a single server. 3. None of them had unit tests. 4. "Upgrading the server" is not sustainable plan for growth. 5. This was fun (sort of). RecFlare uses a true microservice architecture which, if developed correctly, is near infinitely scalable and could support the same number of concurrent users as the original game. It will never run out of CPU, memory, or disk space. Being truly open source means that this project should have more eyes on it, resulting in bugs getting fixed faster. I hope. Of course, cloud services cost money. That's the only limitation. ## Client RecFlare is compatible with the [CannedNet client](https://github.com/djdevin/CannedNet) and the build of Rec Room with manifest `7859140924515540835`. Other client or game versions may expect different endpoints and response shapes and are not supported. Generally speaking any client that effectively rewrites the nameserver can be used with this server. See the above project page for information on how to mod the game to connect to this server. ## How it works The Rec Room client discovers every service by fetching an _endpoints document_ from the name-server (`ns`) worker at the apex domain. That document maps each service to a host like `https://match.`. Every service runs as a separate Cloudflare Worker attached to its own subdomain, so the client's traffic fans out across the workers in `apps/`. Authentication is a Bearer-JWT flow: the `auth` worker issues tokens from `/connect/token` and owns the shared `accounts` table; every other worker validates that token on its auth-gated routes. State is persisted with Cloudflare's storage primitives — the workers are completely stateless and no data is stored alongside the microservices. ## Services This is a list of every RecNet service the client discovers, taken from the service-discovery map in [`apps/ns/src/endpoints.ts`](apps/ns/src/endpoints.ts). Each is reached at `https://.`. Services with a worker in `apps/` are implemented here; the rest are advertised in the endpoints document but not yet backed by a Worker. Not all services are fully implemented. | Service | Subdomain | Worker | Notes | | --------------------- | ----------------------- | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Accounts | `accounts` | `accounts` | Player accounts & profile reads/writes (D1) | | AI | `ai` | — | Not yet implemented | | API | `api` | `api` | Core Game API — config, social, avatar, rooms, image uploads (D1, R2) | | Auth | `auth` | `auth` | OAuth token issuance (`/connect/token`); owns the accounts table (D1, KV) | | BugReporting | `bugreporting` | — | Not yet implemented | | Cards | `cards` | — | Not yet implemented | | CDN | `cdn` | `cdn` | Binary CDN — signature blobs & room build data (R2) | | Chat | `chat` | `chat` | Chat service | | Clubs | `clubs` | `clubs` | Clubs | | CMS | `cms` | — | Not yet implemented | | Commerce | `commerce` | `commerce` | Store / purchase endpoints | | Data | `data` | — | Not yet implemented | | DataCollection | `datacollection` | `datacollection` | Client telemetry / analytics sink | | Discovery | `discovery` | — | Not yet implemented | | Econ | `econ` | `econ` | Economy & avatar endpoints (separate from `api`) | | GameLogs | `gamelogs` | — | Not yet implemented | | Geo | `geo` | — | Not yet implemented | | Images | `img` | `img` | Image storage & signed delivery (R2) | | Leaderboard | `leaderboard` | — | Not yet implemented | | Link | `link` | — | Not yet implemented | | Lists | `lists` | — | Not yet implemented | | Matchmaking | `match` | `match` | Matchmaking & per-player presence (D1, KV) | | Moderation | `moderation` | — | Not yet implemented | | Notifications | `notify` | `notify` | Real-time notifications over SignalR/WebSockets (Durable Object) | | PlatformNotifications | `platformnotifications` | — | Not yet implemented | | PlayerSettings | `playersettings` | `playersettings` | Per-player settings (KV) | | RoomComments | `roomcomments` | — | Not yet implemented | | RoomieIntegrations | `roomieintegrations` | — | Not yet implemented | | Rooms | `rooms` | `rooms` | Room storage & queries; seeds the Dorm & Orientation rooms (D1) | | Storage | `storage` | — | Not yet implemented | | Strings | `strings` | — | Not yet implemented | | StringsCDN | `strings-cdn` | — | Not yet implemented | | Studio | `studio` | — | Not yet implemented | | Thorn | `thorn` | — | Not yet implemented | | Videos | `videos` | — | Not yet implemented | | WWW | `www` | — | Website host (not a Worker) | Additionally, the small `ns` worker itself serves this discovery document at the apex/`ns` host and isn't listed within it. Each implemented worker has its own `README.md` under `apps//` documenting its routes. ## Why Cloudflare? - **Makes it easy to mirror RecNet** Rec Room's backend is (was) a set of independent microservices, not one big monolith. Modeling each service as its own isolated Worker keeps RecFlare's structure close to the real thing — services scale, fail, and deploy independently — instead of collapsing everything into a single giant server. - **It's free/cheap to run a lot of service.** Cloudflare Workers' free tier is keyed to usage, not to the number of Workers — so whether you deploy 1 service or all 36, the baseline cost is the same. You only start paying once usage crosses the free-tier limits. Additionally for development or maybe a private instance, the cost is near zero when not in use. - **Bundled Cloud CDN/Storage/SQL** Cloudflare offers several cloud services we can rely on so the microservices can remain stateless (effectively read-only). They are also scalable by default so we don't need to worry about adding more disk space or upgrading services. If we start outgrowing the limits of these, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. - D1 (a SQLite-compatible distributed database) - R2 (service like S3 for mass file hosting) - KV (service to distributed offer key/value stores) - Durable Objects (for a notifications hub) ## Do I have to use Cloudflare? Short answer, no. The services are plain [Hono](https://hono.dev) apps, so the request-handling code isn't tied to Cloudflare and can be deployed to other hosting providers — AWS (Lambda), Vercel, Netlify, Fly.io, a plain Node/Bun server, and so on. Long answer: the catch is everything _around_ the code. RecFlare leans on Cloudflare for the deployment (Wrangler) and infrastructure layer — custom-domain routing per service, plus the storage bindings (D1, KV, R2, Durable Objects) the workers use. On another provider you'll need to provide equivalents (per-service routing, databases, object storage, a pub/sub or WebSocket layer) and wire up the deployment yourself. So for example if you wanted to run on Vercel, you'd have to swap out KV for Redis, which are very similar services but would require small code changes. ## Prerequisites - node (modern) - pnpm - bun - jq/awk/sed - A Cloudflare account with a zone (domain) you control, for deploying. Cloudflare's free plan is good enough for testing (100k worker requests/day) but the Rec Room client is pretty chatty. Frequent testing may exhaust that quota. The $5/month Worker plan includes 10M/month. See https://developers.cloudflare.com/workers/platform/pricing/#workers ## Getting Started **Install dependencies:** ```bash just install ``` **Configure your custom domain:** Create a new .env file from the template: ```bash cp .env.example .env ``` Edit `.env` and set `RECFLARE_DOMAIN` to your domain (or declare it with `export RECFLARE_DOMAIN=rec.example.com`) (Optional) - per-app subdomain overrides come from `RECFLARE_SUBDOMAINS` (a JSON object, e.g. `'{"playersettings":"settings"}'`). This would be used if you wanted to merge two services together. **Create the storage resources:** The workers bind Cloudflare storage primitive. Create them once against your Cloudflare account, then record the IDs in `.env`. The committed `wrangler.jsonc` files carry `"local"` placeholders; the real IDs are spliced in at deploy time, so nothing in version control needs editing. Authenticate wrangler first (`wrangler login`). ```bash wrangler d1 create recflare wrangler kv namespace create RECFLARE_MATCH_PRESENCE wrangler kv namespace create RECFLARE_PLAYER_SETTINGS ``` Take the IDs output from the commands and put them into `.env`. (or with CI: `RECFLARE_KV='{"RECFLARE_MATCH_PRESENCE":"","RECFLARE_PLAYER_SETTINGS":""}'`) Then apply the schema. `just migrate` will set up the database and populate it with data. This runs non-interactively, so be careful! ```bash just migrate # migrate every worker that owns migrations just migrate -F rooms # or scope to one worker ``` ### R2 and Durable Objects You only have to create the buckets: ```bash wrangler r2 bucket create recflare-cdn wrangler r2 bucket create recflare-img ``` ### Durable Objects Nothing manual to do here. The object is created manually. **Run the development microservices:** > **Note:** This runs, but the name-server document still advertises the deployed > hosts, not your local instances — so service discovery won't resolve locally. > You can still call each service directly; each Wrangler instance runs on its own > port. Maybe we can get this working somehow. @todo ```bash just dev ``` **Deploy all workers:** This will deploy all workers to respective endpoints (*.example.com) Deploying requires `wrangler` to be authenticated against your Cloudflare account (`wrangler login`, or `CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKEN` / `CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_ID` in the environment). It requires the storage to be set up above, otherwise, deployments may fail. You can always re-run it as often as you wish. ```bash just deploy # for all services just deploy -F rooms # for a single microservice ``` ## Repository Structure - `apps/` - The service workers, one deployable Worker per subdirectory. Each has its own `README.md`, `wrangler.jsonc`, `src/`, and tests. - `packages/` - Shared libraries and configuration used across the workers. - `@repo/hono-helpers` - Hono framework utilities (logging, error handling). - `@repo/tools` - The `runx` CLI and the `bin/` scripts each worker's package.json delegates to, so build/test/deploy stays consistent. - `@repo/typescript-config`, `@repo/oxlint-config` - Shared TS and lint config. - `turbo/generators/` - `turbo gen` templates for scaffolding new workers/packages. - `Justfile` - Convenient aliases for common development tasks. ## Available Commands This repository uses a `Justfile`. Run `just` (or `just --list`) to see every command. Some key ones: - `just install` - Install all dependencies. - `just dev` - Start the dev server (context-aware: runs `bun runx dev`). - `just build` - Build all workers. - `just test` - Run tests (vitest). - `just check` - Check code quality: deps, lint, types, format. - `just fix` - Fix code issues: deps, lint, format, workers-types. - `just deploy` - Deploy all workers to your domain. - `just new-worker` (alias: `just gen`) - Scaffold a new service worker. - `just new-package` - Scaffold a new shared package. - `just update deps` - Update dependencies across the monorepo with syncpack. For a single worker, scope with -F, e.g. `just deploy -F playersettings`. ## FAQ ### What year is this for? This works with 2023 clients. It has been tested with manifest `7859140924515540835`. Other clients may not work. See the "Client" section above for instructions on how to modify a client to connect to this server. ### Can I run this locally on my PC? It's not currently supported. But theoretically, you could. See "Run the development microservices" above. It may be possible later as Wrangler will mock remote services. YMMV for now. ### Can I use this to make my own server? Yes, that's the point. Just set your custom domain and deploy it. ### Is there an admin panel? Not yet. But there could be. ### Can I copy this project and modify it? Yes, see the [LICENSE](LICENSE). I would love if you contributed your changes back. ### Why a monorepo? The services share types, auth logic, and tooling, so keeping them in one repo keeps those in sync: `pnpm` workspaces share dependencies, `@repo/` packages share code, Turborepo runs build/test/lint with a single cached task graph, and cross-service changes land in one atomic commit.