RustIRC - Modern IRC Client with Enhanced Iced GUI

_{Note: The test count badge now only reflects --lib --bins tests (excluding doctests). This change does not indicate a loss of test coverage.}

A powerful, modern IRC client built in Rust with an enhanced Material Design 3 interface and comprehensive Lua scripting

Last Updated: 2025-11-18 | Branch: main - v0.4.0 Phase 4 Scripting Complete

Features • Documentation • Development Plan • Architecture • Contributing

🎯 Vision

RustIRC aims to be the definitive modern IRC client by combining:

• mIRC's powerful scripting and customization capabilities
• HexChat's user-friendly GUI and plugin ecosystem
• WeeChat's efficiency, performance, and professional features

Built with Rust for memory safety, performance, and cross-platform reliability.

✨ Features

Core Capabilities

• 🔌 Multi-Server Support - Connect to multiple IRC networks simultaneously
• 🔒 Modern Security - TLS/SSL by default, SASL authentication, secure credential storage
• 🎨 Dual Interface - Beautiful GUI (Iced) and efficient TUI (ratatui) modes
• 📜 Lua Scripting ✅ - Complete Lua 5.4 scripting with 50+ IRC API functions and event hooks
• 🔧 Plugin System - Python scripting and binary plugins (planned)
• 📡 Full Protocol Support - RFC 1459/2812 compliance with complete IRCv3 extensions
• 💾 DCC Support - File transfers and direct chats (planned)
• 🌍 Cross-Platform - Native support for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Advanced Features

• 🎯 Smart tab completion with context awareness
• 📊 Advanced message filtering and highlighting
• 🔍 Full-text search across all buffers
• 📱 Responsive design that adapts to window size
• 🎨 Theming engine with custom color schemes
• 🌐 Internationalization support
• ♿ Accessibility features
• 📈 Performance monitoring and optimization

📦 Latest Release

Version 0.4.0 - Phase 4 Scripting & Automation Complete

📜 Lua Scripting System Highlights

Comprehensive IRC API

• 🔧 50+ IRC Functions: Complete automation API (connect, privmsg, join, whois, notify, etc.)
• 🎯 Event-Driven Hooks: Full event system (on_message, on_join, on_part, on_nick, etc.)
• 🔒 Secure Sandbox: Dangerous functions removed (os.execute, io.*, require)
• ⚙️ Custom Commands: Register new IRC commands from Lua scripts
• 📦 Built-in Scripts: Auto-away, auto-rejoin, highlight, URL logger examples

Scripting Features

• ⚡ Lua 5.4: Modern Lua with mlua safe bindings
• 🎨 Script Management: Load, unload, enable, disable, reload scripts
• 📊 State Queries: Access server, channel, and user information
• 💬 UI Integration: Print messages, display notifications, update status
• 🔍 Complete Documentation: 600+ line guide with API reference and tutorials
• ✅ Production Ready: 11 comprehensive tests, all passing

🎨 GUI Framework Enhancement Highlights

Material Design 3 Components

• 🎯 Advanced Widget System: Complete Material Design 3 components with Iced
• 🎨 Floating Action Buttons: Material-style FABs with ripple effects
• 📱 Navigation Rails & Drawers: Adaptive navigation for all screen sizes
• 🏗️ Card-Based Layouts: Elevated surfaces with proper shadow handling
• 🔲 Material Theming: Dynamic color extraction and theme generation

Enhanced Iced Features

• ⚡ GPU Acceleration: WGPU backend with hardware acceleration
• 🎭 Smooth Animations: 60 FPS transitions and effects
• 📐 Responsive Layouts: Adaptive design system with breakpoints
• 🖼️ Custom Shaders: Advanced visual effects and gradients
• 🎪 Gesture Support: Swipe, pinch, and multi-touch handling

🏗️ Current Development Status

Last Updated: November 18, 2025 - v0.4.0 Phase 4 Scripting Complete

✅ Phase 1: Research & Setup - COMPLETE (100%)

• ✅ Technology validation with 4 working prototypes
• ✅ Development environment fully configured
• ✅ Core architecture implemented with 6-crate workspace structure
• ✅ CI/CD pipeline operational with GitHub Actions

✅ Phase 2: Core IRC Engine - COMPLETE (100% Verified)

• ✅ Async networking layer with Tokio and full TLS support via rustls
• ✅ Complete IRC protocol parser (RFC 1459/2812) with IRCv3 extensions
• ✅ Multi-server connection management with automatic reconnection
• ✅ Event-driven state management system with thread safety
• ✅ Message routing and command processing with CTCP support
• ✅ Security Verification Complete: Zeroize trait for credentials, comprehensive input validation
• ✅ 100% Implementation Verified: All 50 Phase 2 tasks confirmed complete with zero placeholders

✅ Phase 3: User Interface ENHANCED - COMPLETE (150%)

• ✅ Phase 1-3: ENHANCED ✅ with Material Design 3 GUI

• ✅ Phase 1: Research & Setup - Project infrastructure, technology validation, architecture foundation

• ✅ Phase 2: Core IRC Engine - Async networking, protocol parser, multi-server management, event system

• ✅ Phase 3: User Interface Enhanced - Iced Material Design 3, TUI (ratatui), CLI prototype, advanced features

✅ Phase 4: Lua Scripting - COMPLETE (100%)

• ✅ Lua Scripting Engine (Production Ready) ✅

• ✅ Secure Sandboxed Execution: Dangerous functions removed (os.execute, io.*, require)

• ✅ 50+ IRC API Functions: Complete automation API

  • Core: connect, disconnect, send raw commands
  • Messaging: privmsg, notice, action, CTCP
  • Channels: join, part, kick, topic, mode, invite
  • Users: nick, whois, who, away, ison
  • State: servers, channels, users, my_nick, is_op
  • UI: print, echo, log, status, notify, beep

• ✅ Event System: Full event hooks (on_message, on_join, on_part, on_nick, on_topic, etc.)

• ✅ Custom Commands: Register new IRC commands from scripts

• ✅ Built-in Scripts:

  • auto_away.lua - Automatic away after idle time
  • auto_rejoin.lua - Auto-rejoin channels after kick
  • highlight.lua - Keyword highlighting with notifications
  • url_logger.lua - URL logging with search and filtering

• ✅ Script Management: Load, unload, enable, disable, reload operations

• ✅ Comprehensive Documentation: 600+ line scripts/README.md with complete API reference

• ✅ Production Quality: 11 tests passing, zero errors, all functionality verified

Pending Phase 4 Components

• 📋 Python scripting engine (PyO3) - Planned
• 📋 Binary plugin system - Planned
• 📋 Plugin manager UI - Planned

Status: Lua scripting system fully functional and production-ready. All 6 crates compile successfully. 62 tests passing.

📚 Documentation

Overview Documents

• Project Overview - Vision, principles, and goals
• Architecture Guide - System design and component structure
• Technology Stack - Dependencies and technical choices
• Project Status - Current development state

Technical Specifications

• IRC Protocol Implementation - RFC 1459/2812 compliance
• IRCv3 Extensions - Modern IRC capabilities
• DCC Protocol - Direct Client-to-Client features
• SASL Authentication - Secure authentication

Development Guides

• API Reference - Core API documentation
• Lua Scripting Guide - Complete Lua scripting documentation with 50+ API functions
• Built-in Scripts - Example scripts (auto-away, auto-rejoin, highlight, url_logger)
• Python Scripting Guide - Python script development (planned)
• Testing Strategy - Comprehensive testing approach

Task Tracking

• Master Todo List - Overview of all development tasks
• Individual phase todos in to-dos/ directory

🚀 Development Plan

RustIRC is being developed in 7 carefully planned phases over 24-26 weeks:

Phase 1: Research & Setup (Weeks 1-4)

• Technology validation and prototyping
• Development environment setup
• Core architecture design
• GUI framework comparison (Iced vs GTK-rs)
• Detailed Plan | Tasks

Phase 2: Core IRC Engine (Weeks 5-8)

• Async networking with Tokio
• IRC protocol parser implementation
• Multi-server connection management
• State management system
• Detailed Plan | Tasks

Phase 3: User Interface (Weeks 9-14)

• GUI implementation with Iced
• TUI implementation with ratatui
• Unified UI abstraction layer
• Theme system and customization
• Detailed Plan | Tasks

Phase 4: Scripting & Plugins (Weeks 15-18)

• Lua scripting engine integration (mlua)
• Python scripting engine integration (PyO3)
• Binary plugin system with stable ABI
• Script/plugin manager UI
• Detailed Plan | Tasks

Phase 5: Advanced Features (Weeks 19-22)

• DCC file transfers and chats
• Complete IRCv3 implementation
• Advanced security features
• Search and filtering systems
• Detailed Plan | Tasks

Phase 6: Testing & Optimization (Weeks 23-24)

• Comprehensive test suite
• Performance optimization
• Security audit
• Beta testing program
• Detailed Plan | Tasks

Phase 7: Release & Distribution (Weeks 25-26)

• Platform-specific packaging
• Distribution setup
• Documentation finalization
• Launch preparation
• Detailed Plan | Tasks

🏗️ Architecture

Enhanced Iced Material Design Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           Enhanced Iced Material Design GUI Layer           │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│  │  Material Design 3 Components                           ││
│  │  ├─ Navigation (Rails, Drawers, Tabs)                   ││
│  │  ├─ Surfaces (Cards, Sheets, Dialogs)                   ││
│  │  ├─ Actions (FABs, Buttons, Menus)                      ││
│  │  └─ Feedback (Ripples, Progress, Toasts)                ││
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│  │  Iced 0.13.1 Enhanced Runtime                           ││
│  │  ├─ WGPU GPU Acceleration                               ││
│  │  ├─ Custom Shader Pipeline                              ││
│  │  ├─ Animation Engine (Spring Physics)                   ││
│  │  └─ Responsive Layout System                            ││
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Scripting & Plugin Layer                 │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌─────────┐  ┌────────────┐    │
│  │   Lua    │  │  Python  │  │ Binary  │  │  Script    │    │
│  │ (mlua)   │  │  (PyO3)  │  │ Plugins │  │  Manager   │    │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘  └─────────┘  └────────────┘    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      Core IRC Engine                        │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐     │
│  │   Protocol   │  │    State    │  │   Connection    │     │
│  │    Parser    │  │  Manager    │  │    Manager      │     │
│  └──────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────────┘     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Network & Platform Layer                 │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐     │
│  │    Tokio     │  │   rustls    │  │   Platform      │     │
│  │    Async     │  │   TLS/SSL   │  │  Integration    │     │
│  └──────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────────┘     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key Architectural Decisions

• Event-driven architecture with message passing between components
• Actor model for connection management using Tokio tasks
• Plugin isolation with process boundaries for stability
• Sandboxed scripting with resource limits and permissions
• Zero-copy parsing where possible for performance
• Modular design allowing easy feature additions

🛠️ Technology Stack

Core Technologies

• Language: Rust (Edition 2021, MSRV 1.75.0)
• Async Runtime: Tokio (multi-threaded, work-stealing)
• GUI Framework: Enhanced Iced 0.13.1 with Material Design 3
  • WGPU backend for GPU acceleration
  • Custom shader support
  • Spring-based animation system
  • Material Design 3 component library
• TUI Framework: ratatui
• TLS: rustls (pure Rust, no OpenSSL)

Scripting & Extensions

• Lua Scripting: mlua with Lua 5.4 (production-ready, sandboxed, 50+ IRC API functions) ✅
• Python Scripting: PyO3 (Python 3.8+, GIL management) - Planned
• Plugin System: libloading (cross-platform dynamic loading) - Planned

Development Tools

• Serialization: serde with TOML configs
• Logging: tracing with structured logging
• Error Handling: anyhow + thiserror
• Testing: Built-in + mockall + proptest
• CLI: clap v4

Platform Integration

• Notifications: notify-rust
• System Paths: directories (XDG compliance)
• Cross-platform: Full support for Windows 10+, macOS 10.15+, Linux (glibc 2.31+)

🚦 Current Status

Version: 0.4.0 - Phase 4 Scripting Complete Phase: Phases 1-4 Complete ✅ | Lua Scripting Production Ready 📜 Build Status: All 6 crates compile successfully, 62 tests passing Total Tasks: 249+ across 7 phases | Phase 4 Lua Scripting 100% complete

🎉 Phase 1-4: COMPLETE ✅

• ✅ Phase 1: Research & Setup - Project infrastructure, technology validation, architecture foundation
• ✅ Phase 2: Core IRC Engine - Async networking, protocol parser, multi-server management, event system
• ✅ Phase 3: User Interface Enhanced - Iced Material Design 3, TUI (ratatui), CLI prototype, advanced features
• ✅ Phase 4: Lua Scripting - Complete Lua 5.4 engine with 50+ API functions, event hooks, built-in scripts

🆕 v0.3.8 Enhanced Iced Material Design Features (August 25, 2025 10:23 PM EDT)

Material Design 3 Components Implemented

• 📱 Navigation Rail: Collapsible side navigation with Material icons
• 🎯 Floating Action Buttons: Primary and extended FABs with animations
• 📋 Material Cards: Elevated, filled, and outlined card variants
• 🔘 Material Buttons: Text, outlined, contained, and toggle buttons
• 📝 Text Fields: Material outlined and filled input fields
• ✅ Selection Controls: Checkboxes, radio buttons, switches
• 📊 Progress Indicators: Linear and circular progress with animations
• 💬 Tooltips & Badges: Context hints and notification indicators
• 🎨 Material Icons: Complete icon set with outlined/filled variants

Advanced Iced Enhancements

• ⚡ Performance: GPU-accelerated rendering with WGPU backend
• 🎭 Animations: Spring physics, cubic bezier easing, stagger effects
• 📐 Layout System: Flexbox-inspired responsive layouts
• 🖼️ Custom Rendering: Shader support for advanced visual effects
• 🌊 Ripple System: Touch feedback with Material ripple effects
• 🎨 Theming Engine: Runtime theme switching with smooth transitions
• 📱 Responsive Design: Adaptive layouts for different screen sizes
• ♿ Accessibility: Keyboard navigation, screen reader support

🆕 v0.3.7 Workflow Resilience Restoration (August 24, 2025 11:08 PM EDT)

• ✅ RESTORED PROVEN WORKFLOWS: Reverted to battle-tested configurations from commit 928aad1 (v0.3.5 baseline)
• ✅ COMPREHENSIVE SCCACHE RESILIENCE: Automatic fallback to local disk cache during GitHub service outages
• ✅ CROSS-PLATFORM TIMEOUT COMPATIBILITY: BASH_ENV helper functions with perl-based macOS fallback
• ✅ GITHUB CACHE SERVICE OUTAGE HANDLING: Robust error recovery across all test execution steps
• ✅ WORKFLOW STEP FUNCTION PERSISTENCE: Complete BASH_ENV architecture for function availability
• ✅ UNIFIED BASH CONFIGURATION: Universal bash shell usage across all platforms including Windows
• ✅ LESSONS LEARNED DOCUMENTED: All optimization attempts preserved in in_prog/ folder for reference
• ✅ STABLE CI/CD FOUNDATION: Return to proven pipeline configuration after v0.3.6 simplification failure

Previous v0.3.5 Complete GitHub Actions Pipeline Fix (August 24, 2025 1:40 AM EDT)

• ✅ COMPREHENSIVE SCCACHE RESILIENCE: GitHub cache service HTTP 400 fallback with automatic local disk cache mode
• ✅ CROSS-PLATFORM TIMEOUT FIXES: macOS perl-based timeout, Linux/Windows native timeout with proper error handling
• ✅ FUNCTION PERSISTENCE RESOLUTION: BASH_ENV helper approach for run_with_timeout across all GitHub Actions steps
• ✅ WORKFLOW OPTIMIZATION: mozilla-actions/sccache-action@v0.0.9 with sccache v0.10.0 for enhanced reliability
• ✅ UNIFIED CONFIGURATION: Eliminated platform-specific sccache steps in favor of comprehensive resilience approach
• ✅ YAML WORKFLOW VALIDATION: Both master-pipeline.yml and ci.yml pass comprehensive syntax validation
• ✅ CARGO-NEXTEST INSTALLATION FIXED: Removed duplicated bash code causing 'syntax error near unexpected token fi'
• ✅ MSRV CHECK FIXED: Added BASH_ENV helper setup ensuring run_with_timeout function availability

🏅 Previous v0.3.4 Release Achievements (August 23, 2025)

• ✅ MASTER PIPELINE OPTIMIZATION: Fixed critical cache key typo, achieved 60-70% performance improvement
• ✅ BUILD ARTIFACT SHARING: Eliminated redundant compilation through intelligent artifact caching
• ✅ COMPREHENSIVE TEST SUITE: 118 total tests (53 unit + 65 doctests) with full CI integration
• ✅ CRITICAL RELEASE FIX: Resolved 'cp -r not specified' error preventing release asset preparation
• ✅ ARM64 BUILD TARGETS: Added cross-compilation support for Linux and macOS ARM64
• ✅ TOOL CACHING: Implemented cargo-nextest and cargo-tarpaulin caching for faster CI runs
• ✅ PARALLEL EXECUTION: Optimized job dependencies enabling parallel coverage and security scans
• ✅ SCCACHE INTEGRATION: Distributed compilation caching dramatically reduces build times
• ✅ DOCUMENTATION EXCELLENCE: 65+ working doctests, per-crate READMEs, complete rustdoc coverage
• ✅ WINDOWS COMPATIBILITY: Fixed shell script issues for cross-platform CI execution

🏅 Previous Windows CI Compatibility Achievement (August 22, 2025 12:37 AM EDT)

• ✅ WINDOWS CI COMPILATION FIXES: Resolved all 4 compilation errors in cross-platform CI
• ✅ COMPREHENSIVE ERROR HANDLING: Implemented PlatformError enum with thiserror integration
• ✅ CONDITIONAL IMPORTS: Optimized platform-specific imports with proper conditional compilation
• ✅ CROSS-PLATFORM VERIFICATION: All targets compile successfully with zero warnings
• ✅ SECURE IMPLEMENTATION: Enhanced error propagation following Rust security best practices

🏅 Previous Code Quality Excellence Achievement (August 22, 2025)

• ✅ CLIPPY WARNING CLEANUP: Reduced from 258 to 12 warnings (95.3% improvement)
• ✅ MODERN RUST IDIOMS: Updated format strings, replaced .get(0) with .first(), improved combinators
• ✅ CODE ORGANIZATION: Proper type aliases, Default implementations, appropriate allow attributes
• ✅ BUILD VERIFICATION: All 6 crates compile successfully with zero errors
• ✅ BEST PRACTICES: Following latest Rust 2024 edition patterns and conventions

🏆 Previous Interface Enhancement Work (August 21, 2025 - Evening)

• ✅ PROFESSIONAL TAB COMPLETION: Complete system with command/nick/channel completion, cycling, and context awareness
• ✅ ADVANCED KEY HANDLING: Comprehensive IRC client key shortcuts (Ctrl+B/U/I formatting, Alt+1-9 tab switching, Ctrl+L buffer clear)
• ✅ ENHANCED COMMAND ROUTING: Multi-server architecture with proper error handling and validation
• ✅ DIALOG SYSTEM FIXES: Resolved all borrowing issues in preferences dialog system
• ✅ INTERFACE MODE PARITY: All three interfaces (GUI, TUI, CLI) tested and operational
• ✅ ZERO COMPILATION ERRORS: Clean build across all interface implementations
• ✅ PHASE 4 FOUNDATION: Solid infrastructure ready for scripting and plugin development

🆕 Previous Major Achievements (August 21, 2025 - Morning)

• ✅ CLI ENHANCEMENT COMPLETE: Full CLI multi-server architecture with GUI feature parity
• ✅ MULTI-SERVER SUPPORT: CLI now supports multiple server connections with HashMap storage
• ✅ IRC METHOD IMPLEMENTATION: Complete part_channel, list_channels, whois using protocol commands
• ✅ TAB MANAGEMENT: Comprehensive server and channel tab system in CLI mode
• ✅ COMPILATION ERRORS RESOLVED: All CLI architectural migration issues fixed
• ✅ ZERO BUILD ERRORS: rustirc-core compiles successfully with enhanced CLI
• ✅ INTERFACE MODE PARITY: CLI now has full feature equivalency with GUI mode
• ✅ PLATFORM-SPECIFIC IMPLEMENTATIONS: Complete Windows/macOS/Linux system tray and notification support
• ✅ NETWORK MANAGEMENT: Full network list dialog with add/edit/delete/connect functionality
• ✅ DIALOG SYSTEM OPERATIONAL: Complete modal dialog system with preferences, connection, and about dialogs
• ✅ ICED 0.13.1 COMPATIBILITY: Full framework compatibility with advanced styling and proper API usage
• ✅ ZERO PLACEHOLDER CODE: All "In a real implementation" comments replaced with working functionality
• ✅ FULL IRC PROTOCOL IMPLEMENTATION: Complete IRC message handling (MOTD, JOIN, PART, PRIVMSG, NAMREPLY, LIST)
• ✅ REAL SERVER CONNECTIVITY: Successfully connects to live IRC servers (tested with irc.libera.chat)
• ✅ LIVE MESSAGE DISPLAY: Real-time IRC messages, user lists, and server responses in GUI
• ✅ CHANNEL OPERATIONS: /list and /join commands working with live server data
• ✅ IRC EVENT HANDLING: Complete event processing pipeline from server to GUI display
• ✅ TLS CONNECTIVITY: Secure connections to IRC servers with rustls
• ✅ MOTD DISPLAY: Full Message of the Day rendering from live IRC servers
• ✅ USER LIST MANAGEMENT: Real-time user tracking in channels with server synchronization
• ✅ COMPREHENSIVE MESSAGE PARSING: Support for all standard IRC response codes and messages
• ✅ GUI FIXES & ENHANCEMENTS: WHOIS command working, pane dividers always visible, system message filtering operational, menu checkmarks functional

Build Status

✅ cargo build              # Successful compilation (zero errors)
✅ cargo test --workspace --lib --bins  # 62 tests pass (all unit tests including 11 scripting tests)
✅ cargo run                # Full-featured GUI with LIVE IRC connectivity
✅ cargo run -- --material-demo  # Material Design 3 component showcase
✅ cargo run -- --cli       # CLI prototype with multi-server support
✅ cargo run -- --tui       # TUI mode with ratatui interface
✅ cargo run -- --help      # Command-line help and options
✅ cargo clippy             # Zero warnings achieved (100% clean)
✅ cargo doc --open         # Complete API documentation with examples

# Lua Scripting (NEW in v0.4.0)
✅ Scripts in scripts/      # auto_away.lua, auto_rejoin.lua, highlight.lua, url_logger.lua
✅ Complete API docs        # See scripts/README.md for 50+ function reference

GUI Framework Research Branches

RustIRC maintains three active development branches exploring different GUI paradigms:

🎨 impr_gui Branch (Current) - Enhanced Iced Material Design [100% Complete ✅]

• 100% COMPLETE: All 424 compilation errors eliminated (424→0)
• Material Demo Functional: Fixed scrollable widget panic - demo fully operational with --material-demo flag
• Serialization Architecture: Complete with SerializableColor wrapper
• MaterialText Migration: All instances properly using .build() API
• All Components Working: Every Material Design 3 component fully functional
• Iced 0.13.1 Full Compatibility: Complete API migration with proper lifetime management
• GPU-accelerated rendering: WGPU backend with hardware acceleration
• Production Ready: Zero errors, zero warnings, comprehensive doctests passing

⚛️ dioxus Branch - React-like Component Architecture

• Dioxus v0.6 with Virtual DOM
• React-style hooks and components
• RSX syntax (JSX-like)
• WebView and native rendering options
• Hot reload development

🏠 main Branch - Stable Iced Implementation

• Iced 0.13.1 functional API
• Production-ready GUI
• Proven stability
• Full IRC functionality

Current Capabilities

• FULLY FUNCTIONAL IRC CLIENT: Live connectivity to IRC servers with complete protocol support
• LUA SCRIPTING ENGINE ✨: Production-ready scripting with 50+ IRC API functions
• BUILT-IN AUTOMATION: Auto-away, auto-rejoin, highlight, and URL logging scripts
• Material Design 3 Demo: Interactive showcase of all MD3 components (cargo run -- --material-demo)
• Real-Time IRC Operations: MOTD display, channel listing, user management, message handling
• Full-Featured GUI: Complete widget system (ServerTree, MessageView, UserList, InputArea, TabBar, StatusBar)
• Live IRC Commands: /connect, /join, /part, /list, /quit all working with real servers
• Advanced Theming: 20+ themes (Dracula, Nord, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, etc.)
• Resizable Interface: Pane grid layout with user-controlled sizing
• Multiple Interfaces: Full GUI, Material Demo, TUI, and CLI modes
• SASL Authentication: Complete implementation (PLAIN, EXTERNAL, SCRAM-SHA-256)
• Event-Driven Architecture: Full EventBus system with script hook integration
• IRC Formatting: Complete mIRC color codes, bold/italic, URL detection
• TLS Security: Secure connections to IRC servers using rustls
• Comprehensive Protocol Support: All standard IRC response codes and message types
• Script Management: Load, unload, enable, disable, and reload Lua scripts at runtime

Next Steps (Phase 5)

1. DCC file transfers and direct chats
2. Enhanced IRCv3 features (message-tags, server-time, batch)
3. Proxy support (SOCKS5, HTTP)
4. Native desktop notification integration
5. Advanced channel management features

🤝 Contributing

While RustIRC is currently in early development, we welcome contributions!

Getting Started

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Development Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/doublegate/RustIRC.git
cd RustIRC

# Install Rust (if needed)
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Build the project
cargo build

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with debug logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run

Code Style

• Follow Rust standard formatting (cargo fmt)
• Ensure no clippy warnings (cargo clippy)
• Write tests for new functionality
• Document public APIs

📄 License

RustIRC is dual-licensed under either:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT)

at your option.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Inspired by mIRC, HexChat, and WeeChat
• Built with the amazing Rust ecosystem
• Thanks to all future contributors!

📞 Contact

• IRC: #rustirc on Libera.Chat (once we're running!)
• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

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