IRC

IRC Channel

Human can connect to IRC servers and participate in channels. The connection is bidirectional: it joins and receives messages over a raw TCP socket, and sends via PRIVMSG.

Prerequisites

• Build with -DHU_ENABLE_IRC=ON or -DHU_ENABLE_ALL_CHANNELS=ON
• Network access to the IRC server

Configuration

Add to ~/.human/config.json. IRC expects a channels.irc array of account configs:

{
  "channels": {
    "irc": [
      {
        "host": "irc.libera.chat",
        "port": 6667,
        "nick": "human",
        "channel": "#human",
        "tls": false,
        "allow_from": []
      }
    ]
  }
}

Fields

Field	Type	Description
host	string	IRC server hostname (or server)
port	number	Port (default 6667 for plain, 6697 for TLS)
nick	string	IRC nickname
channel	string	Channel to join (e.g. #channelname)
tls	bool	Use TLS for connection (default false)
allow_from	array	Nicknames or masks to allow. Empty = allow all

Refer to src/channels/irc.c for the exact config schema. The implementation accepts server and port; nick and channel are used by the channel loop/dispatcher when connecting and joining.

How it works

Connection

• Resolves host via getaddrinfo, connects with a streaming socket
• Default port 6667 (plain) or 6697 (TLS)
• On start, the channel connects to the server; connection is kept open

Outbound (send)

• Sends PRIVMSG <target> :<message>\r\n over the socket
• Long messages are split into chunks (max ~400 chars per line to stay under 512-byte IRC limit)
• Target is typically #channelname or a nickname for DMs

Inbound (receive)

• Polling-based: the channel loop reads from the socket
• Incoming PRIVMSG and NOTICE are parsed and delivered to the agent
• Poll interval: 1000 ms

Platform limitations

• Plain TCP by default: TLS support depends on build; current implementation may use raw sockets
• Single connection per config: Each array entry is one IRC connection
• No SASL/auth: Authentication (e.g. NickServ) is not built in; configure separately if required