grappa

Modern IRC — always-on, usable from a phone.
Without making it not-IRC.

Try it now → Why I'm doing this → GitHub

Log in with a nick and you're in. A password is only for registered users.

See it

Four clients, one bouncer. Pick a tab; tap any shot for detail.

shottino — a terminal client by nextime, on the same bouncer. Nothing to install on the server: it talks to grappa over the socket, so the scrollback is the one you already have.

shottino in a terminal — networks and channels on the left, chat in the middle, member list on the right
Three panes, in a terminal
 shottino with the member list folded into the left sidebar, chat using the full width
Members folded into the sidebar
 shottino reply picker — an overlay listing recent lines, filter as you type
Pick the line you're replying to
 images and an animated GIF rendered inline in the terminal scrollback
Images and GIFs, inline

Resentin — a native Android client by Lucy, on the same bouncer. Not a wrapper around the web client: Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, with UnifiedPush notifications. Screenshots by the author.

Resentin home — the connected network, its channels and open queries
Networks and channels
 a channel rendered as chat bubbles, with joins and quits folded in
Chat as bubbles
 the same channel in classic IRC one-line layout, timestamp and nick in brackets
Or the classic IRC line
 the channel directory, sorted by users, with topics and counts
Browse the directory
 the member list of a channel, nicks coloured by name
Who's in the channel
 settings — chat layout, timestamps, language, UnifiedPush and registered devices
Settings and UnifiedPush
 the admin panel — networks, vhosts, users, sessions
Admin, from the phone

Cordiale — a native desktop client by Sythos, on the same bouncer. Rust and Slint, for people who would rather not keep 600 MB of browser open to read a channel. Beta. Screenshots by the author.

Cordiale on the desktop — two networks in the sidebar, #linux scrollback in the middle, the member list on the right
Two networks, one window
 the home view — welcome text and the networks, each with its connection state and a disconnect button
Home and networks
 settings — language (English, Italiano, Français, Deutsch, Español), theme, away and quit messages, uploads, connection, identity per network
Settings, five languages
 the actions menu — home, rooms, archive, user modes, settings, themes, radio, administration, mute this conversation, switch account
The actions menu
 settings, radio — add your own MP3, Ogg Vorbis or FLAC stations, kept on this device
Your own radio stations
 a busy channel — lines that mention you highlighted, links clickable, members down the right
Mentions stand out
 settings, security — two-factor (TOTP), share this session to another device by link or QR code, passkeys
Two-factor, passkeys, session sharing
cicchetto home on a phone — welcome, connected networks, channels worth a look the channel directory on a phone a channel open on a phone the member list of a channel on a phone the side menu — home, rooms, radio, themes, archive, settings, admin the theme picker — colour swatches, your themes and a gallery notification settings — sound, per-channel and per-nick triggers open on another device — a QR code and a single-use link the radio panel — a list of stations with genre and bitrate the full three-pane desktop client shottino in a terminal — networks and channels on the left, chat in the middle, member list on the right shottino with the member list folded into the left sidebar shottino reply picker — an overlay listing recent lines images and an animated GIF rendered inline in the terminal scrollback Resentin home — the connected network, its channels and open queries a channel rendered as chat bubbles the same channel in classic IRC one-line layout the channel directory, sorted by users the member list of a channel settings — chat layout, timestamps, language, UnifiedPush the admin panel — networks, vhosts, users, sessions Cordiale on the desktop — two networks in the sidebar, #linux scrollback in the middle, the member list on the right the home view — welcome text and the networks, each with its connection state and a disconnect button settings — language (English, Italiano, Français, Deutsch, Español), theme, away and quit messages, uploads, connection, identity per network the actions menu — home, rooms, archive, user modes, settings, themes, radio, administration, mute this conversation, switch account settings, radio — add your own MP3, Ogg Vorbis or FLAC stations, kept on this device a busy channel — lines that mention you highlighted, links clickable, members down the right settings, security — two-factor (TOTP), share this session to another device by link or QR code, passkeys

The server

grappa 1.5.9

An always-on IRC bouncer with a REST API. It stays connected so you don't have to, and it is the only thing here that speaks IRC.

The clients

cicchetto 1.5.9

A PWA that looks like irssi and speaks only REST. Install it on your home screen.

shottino beta

A terminal client (ncurses, C) over the same REST + WebSocket surface, by nextime. IRC back in a terminal.

bicchierino beta

A stateless IRC-facade bridge by Sonic: point irssi, WeeChat or HexChat at it and talk to a grappa account as if grappa spoke IRC. On GitHub, current version on the releases page.

Resentin beta

A native Android client by Lucy (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose) — not the PWA. Notifications work, and a tap opens the right channel. The interface speaks English and Italian. On GitHub, APK and current version on the releases page.

Cordiale 0.1.18

A native desktop client by Sythos (Rust + Slint), written against the published protocol rather than the source. On GitHub, packages for Linux, Windows and macOS (Apple silicon) on the releases page.

The bouncer does the real work: it stays on IRC for you whether the app is open or not. Close the tab, come back later — you're still on, scrollback and all. None of the clients parse a line of IRC; the protocol stays on the server. Running live on the Azzurra network, and on other people's servers too. Stable since 1.0, and still moving fast.

Is grappa for you? It is if you want to stay connected and never miss a line, chat from a phone without installing anything, or keep a name that stays yours. It is not if you already have a client on your desktop and you are happy with it. — the long answer →

Your own, end to end. Install grappa — server and client together — on your own machine: signed Debian, Fedora and Arch repositories, a container image, or one click on AWS. Other people already run their own. — how to run your own →

who am I? →

Ready?

Log in with a nick — you're on IRC in seconds.

Try it now →