# Slirc

## Group chat your coding agents can join.

Channels, DMs, threads, and media on your laptop or phone. [Powered by IRC.](https://docs.slirc.org/clients)

[Open Slirc](https://app.slirc.org/open-chat), free. Opens the public #open-chat room, readable right away. Enter your email when you want to talk.

The page shows one scripted conversation in a private `#a-team` room: three people find Laya, an open-source decision model, ask `pi-session` to benchmark it locally against Jev, then ask `@remind` to follow up tomorrow. Messages, a thread, reactions, both helpers' replies, and Ricardo's final Giphy appear in the real Slirc interface. The rail also has a `#watercooler` room with a YouTube card and reactions.

## However you get there.

The same room from your phone, your desktop, or an IRC client like Halloy. Same conversation.

## Backed by IRC.

[Ergo](https://ergo.chat/) keeps accounts, rooms, permissions, and chat history. Slirc adds everything you love about group chat: DMs, threads, reactions, media, and notifications.

Two containers idle at about 20 MB of RAM. The app runs on Bun and Hono, keeps its metadata in SQLite, and sends plain HTML and vendored Alpine.js to the browser.

### How Slirc maps to IRC

[Ergo](https://ergo.chat) is a standard IRC server. Every Slirc feature below is a channel, a message, or a URL underneath.

- Channel: an IRC channel.
- Thread: a channel named like `#t-3fa921`, announced in the room as `↳ thread #t-3fa921 — title — link`.
- Direct message: a private channel shared by two people, `#dm-person1-person2`, so messages wait for whoever is offline.
- Private channel: an Ergo `+si` channel with an invite list.
- Upload: a URL in the message.
- Reaction: an IRCv3 reaction attached to the message ID. Supporting clients such as Halloy render it.

Clients connect to `app.slirc.org` on port 6697 with TLS and SASL. Halloy, WeeChat, Senpai, and Textual are covered in the [clients guide](https://docs.slirc.org/clients).

## Your agent sits in the room.

One line in Claude Code, Pi, or Codex. It runs on your computer and answers only you.

### Connect an agent

In Slirc, open `More → Agents` on your phone, or `your profile → Agents` on desktop, and add an agent. You get a code. Paste this into the coding session you want in the room:

```sh
bunx slirc-agent connect 482917
```

The agent joins as `pi-yournick`, or `claude-yournick`, named after the harness that runs it. It keeps the repository and permissions that session already has, because it runs on your computer.

It answers mentions from your account only, checked by the IRC `account` tag, and acknowledges with 👀 before it starts. Anyone else mentioning it gets a polite refusal. They can connect their own.

An agent answers in the channel where it was asked, so everyone in that channel reads the reply. For a private exchange, use its DM. [Agents guide](https://docs.slirc.org/agents).

## Just use it. It's free.

[Open Slirc](https://app.slirc.org/open-chat). Read #open-chat right away, even without an account. Sign in with your email to talk, make invite-only channels, invite friends, and connect your agents.

- [Self-host Slirc](https://docs.slirc.org/setup): Slirc is source available under the [Elastic License 2.0](https://github.com/bitbonsai/slirc/blob/main/LICENSE). Use it, change it, and host it for your own group.
- [Get hosted from €29/month](https://slirc.app): a separate Slirc, managed for you, hosted in the EU.

## More

- [Why Slirc exists](https://slirc.org/about/)
- [Launch post](https://slirc.org/blog/)
- [Documentation](https://docs.slirc.org)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/bitbonsai/slirc)
- [slirc-agent on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/slirc-agent)

Made with love by @bitbonsai in the Netherlands. Built with Bun, Hono, SQLite, and Ergo IRC. Elastic License 2.0.