Getting started

Welcome to The Lounge, a web-based IRC client for the modern world! ❤️

For an optimal experience, The Lounge must be installed on a server that runs 24/7. Once configured and started, users can access it from their browser or mobile device. Learn more about this in the install and upgrade section.

The Lounge is a progressive web app (PWA), and can be installed from any modern browser for a native-like experience without having a dedicated app.

In private mode, The Lounge acts like a bouncer and a client combined, in order to offer an experience similar to other modern chat applications outside the IRC world. Users can then access and resume their session without being disconnected from their channels.

In public mode, it acts as an open chat available to anyone without registration.

The Lounge is entirely free and open source. Its source code lives in a GitHub repository. You can report an issue in our issue tracker.

The Lounge started as a fork of Shout, authored by Mattias Erming. We owe him a lot and thank him very much for his work!

Enjoy The Lounge, and make sure to join us on our official Libera.Chat channel #thelounge!