57 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
Executable File
57 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
Executable File
# nirc-rs 0.9.0
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I just released nirc-rs 0.9.0 — a multi-protocol terminal chat client I wrote in Rust. It runs entirely in your terminal and puts eight chat protocols behind a single interface. No web browsers, no Electron, no JavaScript runtime. Just a binary and a terminal.
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## Why I Built It
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nirc-rs descends from naim, the terminal AIM/ICQ/IRC client from the late 1990s. naim had a simple idea: one terminal window, all your chat networks, zero graphical dependencies. I liked that idea, but the world moved on. naim's codebase stayed stuck in C89, its protocol support stopped at IRC and the now-defunct AIM/ICQ, and it couldn't handle TLS, E2EE, or modern protocols like Matrix and Discord.
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I wanted that same experience back — a TUI client that treats every protocol as a first-class citizen — but built on modern foundations. Rust for memory safety and async I/O. ratatui for the terminal UI. rustls for TLS without OpenSSL. libp2p for peer-to-peer. The result is roughly 10,000 lines across 27 source files.
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## Architecture
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nirc-rs is structured around a multi-protocol dispatcher. Each protocol (IRC, ADC/DC++, Matrix, Discord, Stout, Spacebar, Nerimity, BitChat) implements a common trait and feeds messages into a unified ChatMessage type. The TUI layer doesn't care which protocol a message came from — it renders it the same way, with color-coded timestamps and protocol badges.
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The async runtime is tokio with multi-threaded scheduling. File transfers run over yamux-multiplexed streams with 256 KiB buffers and in-flight SHA-256 verification. The identity vault uses AES-256-GCM encryption with Argon2id key derivation. Matrix's megolm E2EE runs on a dedicated OS thread because the matrix-sdk crypto types aren't Send — a necessary compromise that I handle transparently.
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## What's New in 0.9.0
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This release focused on navigation and discoverability. I added Ctrl-P (previous buffer), Ctrl-A (next active buffer), and Ctrl-Z (highlight word cycling) for faster window management. The Insert key now scrolls to the bottom of chat and re-enables auto-scroll.
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The biggest UI change is the F1 dropdown menu. It provides a visual, navigable command tree. If you can't remember whether it's /whois or /wi, press F1 and find it. This replaced the old debug console binding, which I'm reassigning in a future patch.
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The transfer ticker now shows real-time speed and ETA in the footer bar, so you don't need to toggle a separate panel to see how your file transfers are progressing. I also fixed /nick to update all tab titles immediately and added the local IP address to the status bar.
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## The Tested Frontier: IRC and ADC/DC++
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Two protocols are battle-tested in 0.9.0: IRC and ADC/DC++.
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IRC has full TLS support via rustls, SASL PLAIN authentication, CTCP auto-response, ISUPPORT negotiation, and operator commands. It connects to Libera, OFTC, and other networks without issue. ADC/DC++ connects to hubs, performs the HSUP/HSID/INF handshake, supports hub search, and handles file transfers with the full yamux-multiplexed pipeline. ADC also has a varnish-style security guard pipeline that does rate limiting, IP validation, SSRF prevention, and path traversal blocking.
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## The Untested Frontier
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Six protocols are fully implemented but haven't been tested against live servers yet: Matrix (with megolm E2EE via matrix-sdk 0.18), Discord (Gateway WebSocket), Stout and Spacebar (Revolt-compatible forks), Nerimity (a custom platform), and BitChat (P2P over libp2p with mDNS discovery and gossipsub).
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These aren't stubs — they're complete protocol handlers with connection management, message parsing, event dispatch, and TUI integration. They just need to be pointed at a real server to verify the wire protocol matches reality. That's the top priority for the next release cycle.
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## Security
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nirc-rs never phones home. There's no telemetry, no analytics, no update checker. The identity vault encrypts credentials with AES-256-GCM and Argon2id (64 MiB memory, 3 iterations), and keys are zeroed from RAM on lock via the zeroize crate. ADC connections go through a guard pipeline that rejects private IPs, blocks path traversal, and prevents SSRF. TLS is handled by rustls with the webpki-roots CA bundle — no system OpenSSL needed.
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## Build It
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```sh
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git clone https://git.dcos.net/dcosnet/nirc-rs.git
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cd nirc-rs
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cargo build --release
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./target/release/nirc-rs
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```
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One binary, no runtime dependencies beyond your terminal emulator. Config lives at ~/.nirc/config.toml and is created automatically on first run.
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## What's Next
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The roadmap for 0.10.0 and beyond is straightforward: test the six untested protocols, fix ADC CID generation to use proper Base32/Tiger hashes, integrate the transfer widget into the main draw loop, and add IRC SASL EXTERNAL with client certificates. I'm aiming for a 1.0.0 release once all eight protocols are verified against live servers and the plugin API has a stability guarantee.
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If you want to help test a protocol, write a plugin, or contribute a patch, the repository is at git.dcos.net/dcosnet/nirc-rs. It's GPL-3.0-or-later, and contributions are welcome.
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