FAQ

What is repartee?

repartee is a terminal IRC client written in Rust, inspired by irssi and built as a port of kokoirc (TypeScript/OpenTUI/Bun) to Rust/ratatui/tokio.

Why Rust?

  • Performance: ~5MB binary, instant startup, minimal memory usage
  • Safety: Memory-safe without garbage collection
  • Concurrency: tokio async runtime handles multiple connections efficiently
  • Reliability: Rust's type system catches bugs at compile time
  • Distribution: Single static binary, no runtime dependencies

How does repartee compare to kokoirc?

Feature kokoirc repartee
Language TypeScript Rust
TUI framework OpenTUI/React ratatui
Runtime Bun Native binary
Binary size ~68MB ~5MB
Scripting TypeScript Lua 5.4
Config format TOML TOML (same format)
Theme format irssi-compatible irssi-compatible (same)

The config and theme formats are compatible — you can copy your kokoirc config to repartee with minimal changes.

How do I migrate from kokoirc?

  1. Copy ~/.kokoirc/config.toml to ~/.repartee/config.toml
  2. Copy ~/.kokoirc/.env to ~/.repartee/.env
  3. Copy ~/.kokoirc/themes/ to ~/.repartee/themes/
  4. Scripts need to be rewritten from TypeScript to Lua

How do I migrate from irssi?

repartee uses irssi-compatible format strings, so your theme knowledge transfers directly. The key differences:

  • Config is TOML instead of irssi's custom format
  • Scripts are Lua instead of Perl
  • Most /commands work the same

Does repartee support DCC?

Yes — repartee supports DCC CHAT with full irssi/erssi parity:

  • Active and passive (reverse) DCC CHAT connections
  • =nick buffer convention — DCC chats appear as =Alice in the buffer list
  • Auto IP detection from the IRC socket, with manual override via /set dcc.own_ip
  • Auto-accept masks, timeout, nick tracking, DCC REJECT
  • Tab-completable commands: /dcc chat, /dcc close, /dcc list, /dcc reject
  • Scripting events: dcc.chat.request, dcc.chat.connected, dcc.chat.message, dcc.chat.closed

Does repartee load chat history?

Yes. When you open a channel, query, or DCC buffer, the last 20 messages (configurable) are loaded from the SQLite log database. Set display.backlog_lines to adjust or disable.

Where are logs stored?

~/.repartee/logs/messages.db — a SQLite database with optional AES-256-GCM encryption.

Can I use multiple IRC networks?

Yes. Add multiple [servers.*] sections to your config. Each gets its own connection and set of channel buffers.

Does repartee support IRCv3?

Yes — repartee has comprehensive IRCv3 support negotiated at connection time:

  • server-time, echo-message, away-notify, account-notify, chghost, cap-notify
  • multi-prefix (e.g. @+nick), extended-join, userhost-in-names, message-tags
  • invite-notify, BATCH (netsplit/netjoin grouping)
  • SASL: PLAIN, EXTERNAL (client certificate), SCRAM-SHA-256
  • WHOX: auto-detected for account name and full host tracking
  • Extban: $a:account ban type with /ban -a shorthand

How do I keep repartee running in the background?

Use /detach (or press Ctrl+\ / Ctrl+Z) to detach from the terminal. repartee continues running — IRC connections stay alive, messages are logged, and scripts keep executing.

Reattach with repartee a from any terminal. You can also start headless with repartee -d and attach later.

See Sessions & Detach for the full guide.

Can I close my terminal and reconnect later?

Yes. When you close your terminal window, repartee catches SIGHUP and auto-detaches. The session stays running and you can reattach with repartee a.

This also works across SSH disconnections — start with repartee -d on a remote server, disconnect SSH, reconnect later, and repartee a picks up your session.

What does /cycle do?

/cycle parts and immediately rejoins a channel. Useful for refreshing your nick list, re-triggering auto-op, or clearing stale channel state. Channel keys are preserved. Alias: /rejoin.

Can I run shell commands without detaching?

Yes! Use /shell to open an embedded terminal inside Repartee. You get a full PTY-backed shell (zsh, bash, vim, htop) in a separate buffer. Press Ctrl+] to switch back to IRC input, or click another buffer in the sidebar. Type exit in the shell to close it automatically. You can open multiple shells — they appear under a "Shell" group in the sidebar.

The shell also works in the web frontend — each web session gets its own independent PTY sized to the browser viewport. The web shell uses a beamterm WebGL2 renderer with FiraCode Nerd Font, mouse text selection, Ctrl+/- font resize, and clipboard paste.

How do I report bugs?

Open an issue on the GitHub or visit repart.ee.