Relay

A modern, native IRC client for macOS. Liquid Glass looks. mIRC soul.

⬇ Download · 📖 Read the manual

IRC is the internet's original group chat — running since 1988, still alive, still weird in the best way. Relay gives it a first-class Mac home: SwiftUI three-column layout, Liquid Glass on macOS 26, Notification Center, hover link previews — with all the culture intact: /slap, ASCII art, +s back rooms, and a channel-service bot named X.

Features

A real Mac app

• Native three-column layout — networks & channels, conversation, member list
• Liquid Glass chrome on macOS 26 (graceful materials on 14/15)
• Mentions & DMs hit Notification Center when backgrounded — click to jump there
• Unread counts on the Dock icon, red/blue sidebar badges (mentions vs. activity)
• Hover any link for a live preview card; mIRC color codes render properly
• Fast: cached rendering, grouped messages, capped scrollback — floods don't lag it

Classic IRC, done right

• Multiple networks, TLS, SASL, server passwords, per-server identity
• Auto-reconnect with exponential backoff — runs your perform commands first, then rejoins your channels
• Tab completion that cycles through matches; ↑/↓ input history
• Built-in flood protection — paste 40 lines, keep your connection
• /whois with idle time & away, channel browser, ban lists, mode editors
• /ignore (client-side) and /silence (Undernet server-side) for pest control

Undernet native

• Full X channel-service integration: op/deop/voice, timed & levelled bans, userlists, suspend — all in right-click menus with proper parameter popups
• Join refused? Relay reads the reason and offers the fix: a key prompt on +k, one-click "Ask X for an Invite" on +i, "Ask X to Unban Me" on +b — then rejoins for you

The fun parts

• Private Sessions: one click reconnects you under a random nick into a random +s secret channel — no performs, no auto-joins, no trace
• An ASCII art catalog (rainbow greetings, table flips, trout) addressable to any nick — plus your own custom art with live preview
• A complete, human-readable built-in manual (⌘?)
• Quiet any channel: no counters, no notifications, just peace

Screenshots

Slash commands, discoverable	Everything on right-click

Join refused? One-click fix	Per-server everything

Hover a link, see the page	A manual humans can read

Install

1. Grab Relay-x.y.z.zip from the latest release
2. Unzip and drag Relay.app to /Applications
3. First launch: right-click → Open (the app is self-signed, so macOS asks once)

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. Looks its best on macOS 26 Tahoe.

Build from source

The Xcode project is generated from project.yml with XcodeGen; the .xcodeproj is not committed.

brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate
xcodebuild -project Relay.xcodeproj -scheme Relay -configuration Release build
swift test          # parser unit tests

Architecture (for the curious)

Sources/
  App/RelayApp.swift             Scenes (main, Settings, About, Help) + menu bar
  Models/                        Network, Conversation, Message, ServerConfig, art catalog
  Networking/
    IRCParser.swift              RFC 1459/2812 + IRCv3 tags parser/serializer (pure, tested)
    LiveIRCClient.swift          NWConnection TLS transport actor; paced send queue
    IRCHub.swift                 Multiplexes one live client per network into one event stream
  Services/NotificationManager   Notification Center bridge
  ViewModels/AppModel.swift      @MainActor @Observable — all state, intents, reconnect logic
  Views/                         Sidebar, conversation, composer, member list, help, settings…
Tests/                           Parser unit tests

One seam: everything talks to the IRCClient protocol emitting an IRCEvent stream. The app is sandboxed with the outgoing-connections entitlement only.

Issues & contributions

Found a bug? Open an issue — the template asks for your Relay version (About window), macOS version, and a screenshot. The server console (click the network's name in the sidebar) usually holds the interesting lines.

Ideas and PRs are welcome — read CONTRIBUTING.md first. Small, focused PRs with screenshots have the best odds. By contributing you agree your changes ship under the project license.

Versioning

Semantic versioning: breaking/major features bump minor, fixes bump patch. Every release ships a signed-ish zip of the app.

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Made by Rufus · 100% vibe-coded — the code has never been read, only felt

An homage to mIRC. Day ~11,000 of your 30-day evaluation period. Please consider registering.

🐟 slaps you around a bit with a large trout