NorthernIRC

A self-hosted, web-based IRC client. Open a browser tab, connect to any IRC network, chat — no desktop app, no plugins, no build step. Inspired by The Lounge and IRCCloud.

Features

• Plain HTML/CSS/JS frontend, no bundler
• Node.js backend bridging browser WebSockets to IRC over TLS
• IRCCloud-inspired UI: navy palette, active-channel highlight, colour-coded join/quit/mode/topic events, op (@) and voice (+) prefixes in messages and userlist
• TLS connection indicator — green shield when connected over SSL/TLS, red when plaintext, grey when disconnected
• Option to accept self-signed / invalid IRC server certificates (off by default)
• Real TLS handshake errors surfaced on the connect screen instead of silent disconnects
• Auto-join channels fire as soon as the IRC registration completes (no fragile polling)
• User-count badge in the chat header; own nick (with mode prefix) shown next to the input
• Multiple channels and private messages per session
• Standard IRC commands: /join, /part, /msg, /me, /nick, /topic, /whois, /raw
• Nick tab-completion, per-nick colours, unread badges
• Connection settings persisted to browser localStorage (password is never stored)
• Mountable behind a reverse proxy at any sub-path (BASE_PATH)

Quick start (development)

npm install
npm start

Open http://localhost:3000/irc/.

Environment variables:

• PORT — HTTP port (default 3000)
• BASE_PATH — URL prefix the app is mounted under (default /irc)

Production install

A one-shot installer for Debian/Ubuntu is included. It sets up Node 22, installs the app to /opt/northernirc, generates a self-signed TLS certificate, configures nginx as a reverse proxy, and creates a systemd unit.

sudo ./setup.sh

Edit the variables at the top of setup.sh (SERVER_IP, INSTALL_DIR, APP_PORT) before running if the defaults don't match your environment.

After install:

• URL: https://<SERVER_IP>/irc
• Status: systemctl status northernirc
• Logs: journalctl -u northernirc -f

Architecture

One Node process serves static assets and a WebSocket endpoint. Each browser tab opens a WebSocket, which the server pairs with its own irc-framework client — one tab = one IRC connection. Browser ↔ server messages are typed JSON (connect, message, join, etc.); IRC events become the inverse set (connected, userlist, error, status, ...).

No database, no persistence, no auth — each WebSocket is an ephemeral session. Multi-network support and persistent sessions are on the roadmap.

See CLAUDE.md for contributor notes.

License

ISC — see LICENSE.