Welcome to kirc
kirc is a tiny, dependency-light IRC client that follows the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” (KISS) philosophy. It’s designed for users who prefer a minimal, keyboard-driven IRC experience in a terminal environment.
What is IRC?
IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is one of the oldest forms of real-time text communication on the internet. Think of it as the grandfather of modern chat applications like Slack or Discord. IRC allows people to communicate in group channels or privately, and it’s still widely used by open-source communities, tech enthusiasts, and hobbyists worldwide.
Why kirc?
In a world of complex, feature-heavy applications, kirc takes a refreshingly different approach:
🚀 Lightweight & Fast
kirc is written in pure C with minimal dependencies. The entire codebase is small and portable, meaning it runs quickly even on older or resource-constrained systems. Its minimal resource footprint makes it suitable for embedded systems, lightweight containers, and resource-constrained environments.
⌨️ Keyboard-Driven
Everything in kirc is designed to be controlled from your keyboard. No mouse required. This makes it incredibly efficient once you learn the simple key bindings.
🔧 Unix Philosophy
kirc reads from STDIN and prints to STDOUT, allowing you to pipe, filter, and manipulate IRC traffic using standard Unix tools. This makes it incredibly flexible and composable with other programs.
📦 Easy to Build
With a simple make command, you can build kirc from source. No complex build systems or package managers required.
Key Features
- Small, portable C codebase with minimal runtime requirements
- Keyboard-centric editing and navigation
- Simple command and message aliases for fast interaction
- Lightweight build using a standard Makefile
- DCC file transfer support including XDCC
- SASL authentication for secure connections
- Environment variable configuration for persistent settings