Ferrite is an implementation of the Telegram server API in C#/.NET. It speaks MTProto over TCP and WebSocket and implements the Telegram client API at layer 214, including messaging, channels and supergroups, media and file transfer, secret chats, and voice, video and group calls.
Ferrite is independent software. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Telegram Messenger Inc.
Ferrite classifies every function declared by its layer-214 schema. It dispatches
494 of 732 operations: 490 through concrete method handlers and four through
core request-pipeline wrappers. The other 238 methods are deliberately disabled
and return 403 METHOD_DISABLED; no method falls through to
501 METHOD_NOT_IMPLEMENTED.
| Namespace | Dispatched | Layer-214 total |
|---|---|---|
messages |
167 | 230 |
account |
95 | 120 |
channels |
64 | 66 |
phone |
37 | 37 |
contacts |
26 | 27 |
auth |
22 | 23 |
help |
19 | 25 |
| Core functions and wrappers | 14 | 15 |
chatlists |
11 | 11 |
stickers |
11 | 11 |
langpack |
5 | 5 |
photos |
5 | 5 |
stats |
5 | 7 |
users |
5 | 6 |
upload |
4 | 8 |
updates |
3 | 3 |
folders |
1 | 1 |
The bots, payments, stories, premium, smsjobs, and fragment
namespaces are currently disabled. Dispatch coverage describes which RPCs have a
server implementation; it is not a claim of complete behavioral parity with
Telegram's production service or every client.
- .NET SDK 10.0.100 or later (
global.jsonpins the feature band) - Node.js 20+ and Docker, if you need group calls — the media plane is a
mediasoup worker in
group-call-worker/
dotnet build Ferrite.sln
dotnet run --project FerriteThe server listens on port 5222 and advertises 10.0.2.2 by default, which suits an Android emulator talking to its host. Point a client at your own address with:
FERRITE_PUBLIC_ADDRESS=192.0.2.10 FERRITE_PORT=5222 dotnet run --project FerriteState is written under data/. The repository ships sample server keys so a
fresh clone runs immediately; delete default-private.key and
default-public.key before any real deployment so Ferrite generates its own.
Clients need the server's public key and address — see
docs/installation.md.
This runs a single process against local file-backed storage, with no external dependencies. To bring up the distributed topology instead — Cassandra, Redis, Kafka, object storage, search, TURN, and the group-call worker — use the .NET Aspire host:
dotnet run --project Ferrite.AppHostThat graph is a local development environment: it publishes fixed ports, uses development credentials, and advertises loopback, so it serves clients on the same machine. See docs/deployment.md.
deploy/ holds a Compose definition that builds and runs the server together
with the group-call worker:
docker compose -f deploy/docker-compose.yml up --buildRelayed calls additionally need a TURN server; deploy/coturn/ contains a
working configuration. See docs/deployment.md.
Everything is configured through FERRITE_* environment variables. Ferrite runs
out of the box on local file-backed storage and needs no external services. It can
also be pointed at Cassandra, Redis, Kafka, S3-compatible object storage, and
Elasticsearch. See docs/configuration.md.
Report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md. Please do not open a public issue for a security problem.
Copyright (C) 2022-2026 Aykut Alparslan KOÇ
Ferrite is free software: you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or later. It is distributed WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See LICENSE for the full text.
Ferrite.Transport contains files derived from ASP.NET Core, used under the MIT
license; see Ferrite.Transport/LICENSE.aspnetcore.