diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 519dae6..c9d28e1 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,6 +4,6 @@ WORKDIR /app
 EXPOSE 8080
 ADD nginx.conf.sigil ./
 COPY requirements.txt .
-RUN apt update && apt install -y gcc && pip install -r requirements.txt
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y gcc && pip install -r requirements.txt
 COPY . .
 CMD ["python", "server.py"]
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index c5e2ee8..6255926 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,14 +1,14 @@
 sentry-sdk
-aioredis
-ariadne
-starlette
-sqlalchemy
+aioredis~=2.0.1
+ariadne~=0.20.1
+starlette~=0.31.1
+sqlalchemy~=2.0.21
 graphql-core
 gql
-uvicorn
-httpx
+uvicorn~=0.23.2
+aiohttp~=3.8.5
 itsdangerous
-pydantic
+pydantic~=2.4.2
 psycopg2-binary
 ######## development deps
 isort
diff --git a/resolvers/messages.py b/resolvers/messages.py
index 5725a7d..97356d9 100644
--- a/resolvers/messages.py
+++ b/resolvers/messages.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import json
 from datetime import datetime, timezone
 from services.auth import login_required
+from services.presence import notify_message
 from services.redis import redis
 from resolvers import mutation
 
@@ -53,11 +54,7 @@ async def create_message(_, info, chat: str, body: str, reply_to=None):
         # await FollowingManager.push("chat", result)
 
         # subscribe on updates
-        channel_name = (
-            f"chat:{chat['id']}" if not chat["title"] else f"group:{chat['id']}"
-        )
-        new_message["kind"] = "new_message"
-        await redis.execute_pubsub("PUBLISH", channel_name, json.dumps(new_message))
+        await notify_message(new_message, chat["id"])
 
         return {"message": new_message, "error": None}
 
diff --git a/server.py b/server.py
index b79c14d..acb6887 100644
--- a/server.py
+++ b/server.py
@@ -2,12 +2,6 @@ import sys
 import uvicorn
 from settings import PORT
 
-
-def exception_handler(exception_type, exception, traceback, debug_hook=sys.excepthook):
-    print(vars(traceback))
-    print("%s: %s" % (exception_type.__name__, exception))
-
-
 log_settings = {
     "version": 1,
     "disable_existing_loggers": True,
@@ -53,6 +47,11 @@ local_headers = [
 ]
 
 
+def exception_handler(exception_type, exception, traceback, debug_hook=sys.excepthook):
+    traceback.print_exc()
+    print("%s: %s" % (exception_type.__name__, exception))
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     sys.excepthook = exception_handler
     uvicorn.run(
diff --git a/services/auth.py b/services/auth.py
index 8dd8313..96ee73e 100644
--- a/services/auth.py
+++ b/services/auth.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 from typing import Optional
+
+from aiohttp.web import HTTPUnauthorized
+from aiohttp.client import ClientSession
 from pydantic import BaseModel
 from functools import wraps
 from starlette.authentication import AuthenticationBackend
 from starlette.requests import HTTPConnection
-from graphql.error import GraphQLError
-from httpx import AsyncClient
 from services.db import local_session
 from settings import AUTH_URL
 from orm.author import Author
@@ -24,19 +25,13 @@ class AuthCredentials(BaseModel):
 
 class JWTAuthenticate(AuthenticationBackend):
     async def authenticate(self, request: HTTPConnection):
-        scopes = {}  # TODO: integrate await user.get_permission
         logged_in, user_id = await check_auth(request)
         return (
-            AuthCredentials(user_id=user_id, scopes=scopes, logged_in=logged_in),
-            AuthUser(user_id=user_id, username=""),
+            AuthCredentials(user_id=user_id, logged_in=logged_in),
+            AuthUser(user_id=user_id),
         )
 
 
-class Unauthorized(GraphQLError):
-    code = 401
-    message = "401 Unauthorized"
-
-
 async def check_auth(req):
     token = req.headers.get("Authorization")
     gql = (
@@ -45,14 +40,16 @@ async def check_auth(req):
         else {"query": "{ session { user { id } } }"}
     )
     headers = {"Authorization": token, "Content-Type": "application/json"}
-    async with AsyncClient() as client:
-        response = await client.post(AUTH_URL, headers=headers, data=gql)
-        if response.status_code != 200:
-            return False, None
-        r = response.json()
-        user_id = r.get("data", {}).get("session", {}).get("user", {}).get("id", None)
-        is_authenticated = user_id is not None
-        return is_authenticated, user_id
+    async with ClientSession(headers=headers) as session:
+        async with session.post(AUTH_URL, data=gql) as response:
+            if response.status != 200:
+                return False, None
+            r = await response.json()
+            user_id = (
+                r.get("data", {}).get("session", {}).get("user", {}).get("id", None)
+            )
+            is_authenticated = user_id is not None
+            return is_authenticated, user_id
 
 
 async def author_id_by_user_id(user_id):
@@ -87,7 +84,7 @@ def auth_request(f):
         req = args[0]
         is_authenticated, user_id = await check_auth(req)
         if not is_authenticated:
-            raise Unauthorized("You are not logged in")
+            raise HTTPUnauthorized()
         else:
             author_id = await author_id_by_user_id(user_id)
             req["author_id"] = author_id
diff --git a/services/presence.py b/services/presence.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0447e19
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/presence.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+import json
+from redis import redis
+
+
+async def notify_message(message, chat_id: str):
+    channel_name = f"chat:{chat_id}"
+    data = {**message, "kind": "new_message"}
+    try:
+        await redis.execute_pubsub("PUBLISH", channel_name, json.dumps(data))
+    except Exception as e:
+        print(f"Failed to publish to channel {channel_name}: {e}")