direct-message-language

What is direct-message-language and what is it for?

direct-message-language is a template repository published in the Coasys organisation for writing a direct message Language on AD4M, the agent-centric layer that organisation builds on Holochain. It exists so a developer has a working example of the component through which one person's instance sends and receives private messages with another, instead of starting such a Language from nothing.

This repository is a template rather than a finished app. Its README introduces it as "Language template: Direct Message Language" and describes what it demonstrates as "a Language about Languages - a way to publish and make available Languages to others." Its commit history, as published on GitHub, stops in early 2023 with no later work, so hAppRadar lists it as a historical project: a documented example rather than software a reader should expect to run or to be maintained today.

AD4M is a layer, built on Holochain, in which each person runs their own instance holding their own identity and data. Inside it, a Language is the pluggable piece that decides how data is stored, addressed and exchanged, and a direct message Language is the variant that lets one instance leave private messages at another. This repository provides that piece as a template another developer could copy and adapt.

The README's build note is the concrete example: the whole project compiles and bundles into a single file, build/bundle.js, through npm run build, and building the included Holochain DNA requires Nix. To understand what a Language is before reading the code, the AD4M documentation's Languages page explains the concept and the roles a Language can implement.

From 4 public sources, checked 23 September 2026.