nirc-rs/quickstart.md

Quickstart

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.75 or newer: rustup.rs
• C compiler (gcc, clang, or musl-gcc) — needed for sha2, ring, etc.
• A terminal emulator that supports 256-color and Unicode

Install

git clone https://git.dcos.net/dcosnet/nirc-rs.git
cd nirc-rs
cargo build --release
# Binary: target/release/nirc-rs

Or use the build script:

./build.sh release

First Run

No config is required to start. On first launch, nirc-rs creates ~/.nirc/config.toml with example server entries:

./target/release/nirc-rs

Connect to IRC

1. Edit ~/.nirc/config.toml and add:

[[servers]]
name = "libera"
protocol = "irc"
address = "irc.libera.chat:6697"
tls = true
nick = "your_nick"

2. Start nirc-rs and connect:

/connect libera
/join #nirc

Connect to Matrix

[[servers]]
name = "matrix"
protocol = "matrix"
address = "https://matrix.org"
user_id = "@you:matrix.org"
[servers.extra]
password = "your_password"

Connect to Discord (bot)

[[servers]]
name = "mybot"
protocol = "discord"
address = "https://discord.com/api"
bot_token = "BOT_TOKEN_HERE"

Connect to BitChat (P2P)

[[servers]]
name = "p2p"
protocol = "bitchat"
address = "/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/9394"
[servers.extra]
nickname = "handle"
# Optional: bootstrap to a known peer
# bootstrap = "/ip4/1.2.3.4/tcp/9394/p2p/QmPeerId"

Key Bindings

Key	Action
Ctrl+N	Next window
Ctrl+P	Previous window
Alt+1-9	Switch to window 1-9
PgUp/Dn	Scroll chat
Tab	Nickname complete
/	Command mode

Next Steps

• Add more servers to config.toml
• Explore /help for the full command list
• Press Ctrl+^ to toggle the debug console overlay