In order to make IRC easier to use, we need a powerful relay to help connect channels across multiple networks. IRCRelayd will help IRC achieve something similar to the federation offered by protocols such as XMPP and Matrix.

To ensure the widest adoption, IRCRelayd is written in portable C and uses the permissive MIT license. It was based originally on <a href=“https://tools.suckless.org/sic”>sic</a>. It features a very simple config syntax. To deal with spam and abuse, it will include powerful tools to block join floods, nick change floods, and message floods. It will include powerful filters to block channel and PM spam as well as profanity. It will also include the ability to filter indecent images.

IRCRelayd is designed so that channel moderation can be centralized in the relay, so that there is less need to moderate each channel on each network.

IRCRelayd creates 1 connection per user in each relayed channel on each network. For this reason, the relay will appear transparent to the end user (ie, all users appear to be in the same channel).

Using IRCRelayd will require that the other irc network provides an i-line for the relay's IP address. However, apart from this, no other special privileges are needed to run the relay. IRCRelayd runs purely as a client (not as a server) on each network.