🧨 iNuke

iNuke is a terminal-first iMessage extractor for serious users.
Pulls everything from chat.db, offline, in seconds. No cloud. No license key. No bullshit.

• works great on Linux and macOS. Windows users… you might be waiting a bit. I can’t stand PowerShell — but bug me enough and maybe I’ll fix the binary. Or just wait for the GUI and thank me later.

⚙️ Features

• 🔍 Extracts full message history from Apple’s iMessage chat.db files
• 💾 Converts messages into clean CSVs for legal, forensic, or personal use
• 🚀 100% offline — nothing leaves your machine
• 🦀 Built with Rust for speed, precision, and safety

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🧨 Usage

📦 1. Build the App (One Time)

Make sure you have Rust installed.
Then run this in the root of the project:

cargo build --release

This creates the app binary at:

./target/release/iNuke

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💥 2. Run the Export

To extract your messages, you need two things:

1. The path to your chat.db file
2. The path where you want the CSV exported

Here’s the full command:

./target/release/iNuke /full/path/to/chat.db /full/path/to/output.csv

🔧 Example for macOS:

./target/release/iNuke /Users/yourname/Documents/chat/chat.db /Users/yourname/Documents/messages_full.csv

⚠️ Make sure:

• Your .db path is correct (no typos, full path only — no ~)
• The file exists and is not locked
• You have permission to read/write in the destination folder

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💻 Pro Tips

• You can test with copies of the database if needed
• If you're on Windows, use \\ double-backslashes for paths
• Want to verify the output? Open the CSV with Excel, Numbers, or any text editor
• You can pipe output directly into another script or CLI tool for batch processing

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🍎 macOS Gotchas

Because Apple hates unsigned binaries, you might see a scary “can’t verify” message.

To fix it:

chmod +x ~/Downloads/iNuke-mac
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/iNuke-mac

Then run like this:

~/Downloads/iNuke-mac ~/Downloads/chat.db 1234567890 ~/Downloads/messages.csv

Or, if you’re inside the Downloads folder:

cd ~/Downloads
./iNuke-mac chat.db 1234567890 messages.csv

✅ Make sure:

• Your chat.db file is in the same folder
• You include the target phone number (or leave it out to dump all messages)
• The output path is writable (Desktop, Downloads, etc.)

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📤 Output Format

ROWID	message_date	is_from_me	text	date_raw
1234345	2024-04-19 17:02:33	1	Yo can you send the file?	98765432109876
4567890	2024-04-20 08:14:12	0	Yeah one sec	87654321098765

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🧪 Tested On

• macOS Sonoma
• SQLite 3.45+
• chat.db pulled from /private/var/mobile/Library/SMS/chat.db
• Works with .db files pulled using iExplorer, iMazing, or full iOS backups
• Tested on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs
• Compatible with Terminal, iTerm2, and VS Code terminal

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⚖️ License

This tool is free for personal use only.
See LICENSE for full terms — no commercial forking, selling, bundling, or integration allowed without written consent.

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Built with ☠️ by BuiltByWill.
If this repo disappears, you were too slow.

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🧠 Need help or want to contribute? File an issue or fork the repo. BuiltByWill is watching.