#halloy — Public Fediverse posts

Subject: Setup of GUI IRC client "Halloy"
For: Linux IRC admins and power users
Short link: https://dansu.org/halloy-review

I've used HexChat as my primary GUI IRC client for 1 to 2 decades. However, today, I've tested a lesser-known alternative named Halloy. Points of interest:

N1. Halloy is a tiling IRC client. It might go well with a tiling desktop manager.

N2. Supports emoji and the IRCv3 specification. In fact, I learned about Halloy because a gamedev student wanted to test emoji. HexChat didn't work, but Halloy did.

N3. Halloy loads faster than HexChat does. For me, at least, it's instant-on.

N4. #FOSS license. Actively maintained.

N5. Halloy can be built easily on any modern Linux box that includes Rust. You need to know a little about CLI and "git".

N6. The layout is simple. There's also an easy-to-use theme engine in the GUI. Additionally, external themes can be installed. [I created the theme in the screenshot.]

N7. I have a complex IRC setup that puts the "bip" bouncer between my IRC client and remote IRC hosts. Halloy was able to handle the setup, though it took some fiddling. [I've included a Halloy config file for the setup below.]

N8. One negative is that Halloy doesn't provide long-term chat logs in human-readable format. There is only a backlog pane that you need to copy manually.

The home page for Halloy is: https://halloy.chat/

One reason for posting here is that the program can be tricky to configure. So, for your Halloy #IRC enjoyment, here are three sample config-file templates. The examples range from very simple (#1) to complex (#3).

The config file used should be stored as:
$HOME/.config/halloy/config.toml

Example #1: This is a very simple setup. Default Halloy theme. Connect using SSL. The SSL cert is assumed to be valid. The IRC nick doesn't have a password.

[servers.SomeLabel]
server   = "irc.somehost.org"
port     = 6697
nickname = "YourIRC_Nickname"
channels = ["#salad", "#chess"]
use_tls  = true

Example #2. Same as Example #1 but the nick has an IRC password. In this case, add two lines of the following form to the block shown above:

sasl.plain.username = "YourIRC_NickName"
sasl.plain.password = "YourIRC_Password"

Example #3. Handle multiple setup issues.

Example #3 sets up Halloy to connect to a "bip" bouncer. The "bip" bouncer then connects to IRC for the user. An external Halloy theme is loaded.

The "bip" host is assumed to have a valid SSL cert. However, the IRC host may have a self-signed and/or expired cert.

The "bip" "user { name }" setting and the IRC nickname are assumed to be the same.

There are two setup steps before you get to the Halloy "config.toml" part:

theme setup: Create a subdirectory named:
$HOME/.config/halloy/themes/

In that directory, place one or more Halloy theme ".toml" files downloaded from:
https://themes.halloy.chat/

cert setup: Execute the following commands in "bash". Substitute the appropriate "bip" hostname and port for the sample values used here.

CE="CERTIFICATE"
echo | openssl s_client \
    -connect    bip.somehost.org:7555 \
    -servername bip.somehost.org \
    -showcerts  2>/dev/null | \
sed -n "/-----BEGIN $CE-----/,/-----END $CE-----/p" \
    > $HOME/halloy.crt

Subsequently, a Halloy "config.toml" file similar to the following should work:

# This should be a  theme-file name without the
# ".toml" part
theme = "some-theme-name"

[servers.SomeLabel]

# Replace this setting with the  "bip" hostname
server   = "bip.somehost.org"

# Replace this setting with the "bip" port
port     = 7555

nickname = "YourIRC_NickName"
channels = ["#salad", "#chess"]
use_tls  = true

sasl.plain.username = "YourIRC_Nickname"
sasl.plain.password = "YourBIP_Password"

dangerously_accept_invalid_certs = true
ssl_cafile = "~/halloy.crt"

# part1 is your IRC nickname
# part2 is your IRC password
# part3 is the "bip" connection name

password = "part1:part2:part3"

# You can use the [font] section  to tweak font
# settings.

[font]
family = "Liberation Serif"
size   = 20

Screenshot: Three IRC channels displayed concurrently in #Halloy tiled windows.

@itsfoss

Back to back 🤟

#Halloy #azzurra

Another great release for #Halloy 🙏

Lots of new sidebar improvements, built-in config file editor, password keyring support, and many under-the-hood improvements & fixes!

https://github.com/squidowl/halloy/releases/tag/2026.8

#IRC #IRCv3

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.8. https://halloy.chat/

```
! [rejected] nightly -> nightly (would clobber existing tag)
```

what are you doing #halloy

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.7.2. https://halloy.chat/

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.7.1. https://halloy.chat/

I'm starting to think ergo (server) + halloy (desktop) / goguma (mobile) makes a credible alternative to discord for small community textual chat, based on some recent experiences.

At least this combo of IRCv3 servers and clients has a pretty high level of "just works" (not needing a bouncer, handles multiple simultaneous connections from different clients, history/state survives disconnects, basic image attachments / url unfurls / reactions, etc).

#IRCv3 #Halloy #Goguma

@andymandias you're doing awesome! Y'all make it really easy and a pleasure to contribute to #Halloy 🫶

Dear #IRC fans, there's another huge release of #Halloy today! Hit your update buttons to get version 2026.7 🙌

New #IRCv3 support in this release: reply, redact, metadata, websockets, network icons and bot mode!

Lots of great new features and fixes, especially if you're on a server that can support them 😏

Check out the full changelog:
https://github.com/squidowl/halloy/releases/tag/2026.7

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.7. https://halloy.chat/

@dansup I highly encourage and recommend this!

Lots of open source projects are on Libera which has some nice modern #IRCv3 features. But if you run your own ergo server, you can have even more like chathistory (without needing a bouncer!), reacts and replies! And of course if you use the client, Halloy, you'll get quite a nice user experience as well ❤️

https://ergo.chat
https://halloy.chat

#IRC #IRCv3 #Halloy

Make gemini:// links clickable in #Halloy #IRC
https://github.com/squidowl/halloy/pull/1958
#Rust #GeminiProtocol

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.6. https://halloy.chat/

@whitequark you could try this out: https://codeberg.org/classabbyamp/convoyeur

I'm going to look into this since filehost has been merged into the #halloy codebase 🫡

PSA to y'all #IRC users: the latest release of #Halloy supports more #IRCv3 specs! Including `typing` (now on @liberachat too), and `+draft/react` & `draft/multiline` on servers that support (ergo.chat) them!

It's been very pleasant to use Halloy for IRC, so many nice quality-of-life features 🫶

Full changelog: https://github.com/squidowl/halloy/releases/tag/2026.5

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.5. https://halloy.chat/

Thanks to anon, access to #I2P tun of our #IRC was fixed.

Working example for #Halloy client, btw:

``` config.toml
[servers.yggverse_i2p]
nickname = "test"
server = "gcb4makty5xwegsu4x472tjqugjluybama2rp5ne2jd636p757sq.b32.i2p"
port = 6667
use_tls = false
channels = [
"#general",
]
[servers.yggverse_i2p.proxy.socks5]
host = "127.0.0.1"
port = 4447
```

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.4. https://halloy.chat/

@serge @michelamarie For #IRC clients, I use #Halloy <https://halloy.chat/> and #TheLounge <https://thelounge.chat/>.

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.3. https://halloy.chat/

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.2. https://halloy.chat/

#Halloy #IRC master branch now includes the security correction mentioned in #1031, which prevents direct resource preload when the proxy is enabled:

https://github.com/squidowl/halloy/pull/1420

This update has not been reviewed yet, but it could be useful in the #privacy context.

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.1.1. https://halloy.chat/

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2026.1. https://halloy.chat/

Oneplus 6 SXMO PostmarketOS Stable - Dec 2025

https://friendica.world/display/84b6ef2b-2469-3766-1a63-ca8540756534

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2025.12. https://halloy.chat/

Allow proxy settings per server for the #Halloy #IRC - join to tests:

https://github.com/squidowl/halloy/pull/1318

#Rust #Iced

Squidowl Team released #Halloy version 2025.11. https://halloy.chat/