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+# Synapse demo setup
+
+**DO NOT USE THESE DEMO SERVERS IN PRODUCTION**
+
+Requires you to have a [Synapse development environment setup](https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/develop/development/contributing_guide.html#4-install-the-dependencies).
+
+The demo setup allows running three federation Synapse servers, with server
+names `localhost:8080`, `localhost:8081`, and `localhost:8082`.
+
+You can access them via any Matrix client over HTTP at `localhost:8080`,
+`localhost:8081`, and `localhost:8082` or over HTTPS at `localhost:8480`,
+`localhost:8481`, and `localhost:8482`.
+
+To enable the servers to communicate, self-signed SSL certificates are generated
+and the servers are configured in a highly insecure way, including:
+
+* Not checking certificates over federation.
+* Not verifying keys.
+
+The servers are configured to store their data under `demo/8080`, `demo/8081`, and
+`demo/8082`. This includes configuration, logs, SQLite databases, and media.
+
+Note that when joining a public room on a different HS via "#foo:bar.net", then
+you are (in the current impl) joining a room with room_id "foo". This means that
+it won't work if your HS already has a room with that name.
+
+## Using the demo scripts
+
+There's three main scripts with straightforward purposes:
+
+* `start.sh` will start the Synapse servers, generating any missing configuration.
+  * This accepts a single parameter `--no-rate-limit` to "disable" rate limits
+    (they actually still exist, but are very high).
+* `stop.sh` will stop the Synapse servers.
+* `clean.sh` will delete the configuration, databases, log files, etc.
+
+To start a completely new set of servers, run:
+
+```sh
+./demo/stop.sh; ./demo/clean.sh && ./demo/start.sh
+```