FAQ

Does siggy replace the Signal phone app?

No. siggy runs as a linked device, just like Signal Desktop. Your phone remains the primary device and must stay registered. siggy connects through signal-cli, which registers as a secondary device on your account.

Can I use siggy without a phone?

No. Signal requires a phone number for registration and a primary device. siggy links to your existing account as a secondary device.

Is my data encrypted?

Messages are end-to-end encrypted in transit by the Signal protocol (handled by signal-cli). Locally, messages are stored in an unencrypted SQLite database – the same approach used by Signal Desktop. If you want zero local persistence, use --incognito mode. See the Security page for full details and recommendations.

Can I send files and images?

Yes. Use /attach to open a file browser and select a file to send. Received images are rendered inline, and other files are saved to your download directory.

Does it work on Windows?

Yes. Pre-built Windows binaries are provided in each release. Use a modern terminal like Windows Terminal for the best experience (clickable links, proper Unicode, truecolor support).

Does it work over SSH?

Yes. siggy is a terminal application and works perfectly over SSH sessions. Make sure signal-cli and Java are available on the remote machine.

Can I use multiple Signal accounts?

Yes. Use the -a flag or config file to specify which account to use:

siggy -a +15551234567
siggy -a +15559876543

Each account needs its own device linking via signal-cli.

I locked the session and forgot my passphrase. Now what?

Quit siggy (or kill the process if the lock screen is in the way) and run:

siggy --reset-lock

The flag deletes the stored passphrase hash file and prints the path it removed. The next time you /lock, you will be prompted to set a fresh passphrase. By design there is no in-app recovery – the lock is a casual-snooping deterrent, not protection against file-system access.

Images aren’t rendering as native pixels inside tmux

tmux strips the Kitty / iTerm2 graphics escapes unless you opt into passthrough, and TERM_PROGRAM becomes tmux so siggy cannot auto-detect the outer terminal. Two steps:

1. In ~/.tmux.conf: set -g allow-passthrough on (requires tmux 3.3+).
2. Launch siggy with the outer terminal’s protocol named: SIGGY_IMAGE_PROTOCOL=kitty siggy (or iterm2, sixel, halfblock).

See the Troubleshooting page for details.

How do I update siggy?

Re-run the install script, or download the latest binary from the Releases page.

If you installed from source:

cargo install --git https://github.com/johnsideserf/siggy.git --force

What license is siggy under?

GPL-3.0. This is a copyleft license – forks must remain open source under the same terms.