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.

One bouncer, many ways in

grappa 1.3.0

An always-on IRC bouncer with a REST API. It stays connected so you don't have to.

cicchetto 1.3.0

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. IRC back in a terminal.

bicchierino alpha

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 alpha

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.

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.

See it

Three 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
cicchetto login screen — nick or email login with advanced options — password, real name, ident grappa home screen — welcome, networks, channels channel directory — search thousands of channels a channel open on a phone 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

Is this for you?

grappa is for you if…

  • You want to stay connected and never miss a thing: close the window, come back whenever you like, and everything's still there — channels, conversations, and the messages that arrived while you were away. You never start from scratch
  • You just want to drop in and chat: pick a name and you're in, no signup. And even without an account you stay connected: as long as you don't clear your browser data you'll find everything where you left it, and you can move your session to another device — just come back within a couple of days
  • You want a name that stays yours: sign up, that name is reserved and no one else can take it. Log back in with your name and password from any device — for good, even if you've wiped everything, with no two-day limit. And if you'd rather leave nothing behind, you can delete your account and your data whenever you like
  • You don't want to install anything: open the site and chat from your phone, like any website. If you like it, add it to your phone's home screen and it feels like an app
  • You want IRC on your phone, done right: a fast, slick mobile experience like no other client. IRC that's still IRC — on your phone

…and not for you if:

  • You already have a program on your computer and you're perfectly happy with it
  • You want nothing kept anywhere at all: incognito gets close — no account, and the session is deleted about an hour after you close it — but while it is open your messages do sit on the server, because that is what lets you close the tab and find them again

Your own, end to end. Install grappa — server and client together — on your own machine: Debian, Fedora and Arch packages, a container image, or one click on AWS. Other people already run their own. — the code is on GitHub

who am I? →

Ready?

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

Try it now →