Use the terminal client

Omairc ships two clients: the desktop window and omairc-tui, a terminal client written in Go. The terminal client speaks the same IRC protocol, follows the same workflows and keyboard chords, and uses the same window title. Its rendering differs, and it has a few behavior differences listed below. Use it over SSH, inside tmux, or on a machine where you prefer to stay in the terminal.

When to use it

You work in a terminal, over SSH, or inside a multiplexer.
You want the keyboard-only workflow without a Qt window.
You already have Omairc profiles and want the same networks in a terminal.

The terminal client is a full IRC client. It is not the local control CLI: the JSON commands in the CLI reference control the desktop window, and omairc-tui does not open that control socket.

Install

These installs need a release that carries omairc-tui assets, so check the latest release first. install.sh, the desktop installer, still installs the Qt client only.

Linux or macOS without a package manager

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fredimachado/omairc/main/install-tui.sh | sh

install-tui.sh resolves the latest release, downloads the static binary for your OS and architecture, checks its --version, and installs it to ~/.local/bin. Re-run it to upgrade. The same script is a release asset:

curl -fsSL https://github.com/fredimachado/omairc/releases/latest/download/install-tui.sh | sh

Read install-tui.sh before piping it if you prefer.

Arch and Omarchy

The official Omarchy Edge package installs the desktop client. omairc-tui stays a separate package.

Once the [omairc] pacman repository is configured (see Install Omairc):

sudo pacman -S omairc-tui

Go 1.25 or newer

@vX.Y.Z is the module version; the git tag on the same commit is tui/vX.Y.Z.

go install github.com/fredimachado/omairc/tui/cmd/[email protected]

Homebrew

brew tap fredimachado/omairc https://github.com/fredimachado/omairc
brew install fredimachado/omairc/omairc-tui

Windows

There is no setup program for the terminal client. Use Scoop:

scoop bucket add omairc https://github.com/fredimachado/omairc
scoop install omairc-tui

Or unzip omairc-tui-<version>-windows-amd64.zip from the latest release and run omairc-tui.exe in Windows Terminal.

Run the client

omairc-tui                  # start the terminal client
omairc-tui --demo-server    # seed the two-network demo world and skip Connect
omairc-tui --help
omairc-tui --version

Expected result: the terminal client opens its Connect sheet and takes the terminal window. The window title shows the selected conversation.

What it shares with the desktop app

Both clients read and write the same platform locations:

Profiles and preferences — the same stored network profiles, /pref toggles, network order, and collapse state.
Credentials — the same platform credential store (macOS Keychain, Linux Secret Service, or Windows Credential Manager).
Transcripts — the same local conversation store, so restored lines are available in either client.

What differs from the desktop app

Presentation. The terminal client renders into the terminal with half-block avatars when the terminal supports 24-bit color (otherwise a nick identicon) and terminal colors. On Omarchy and other Linux systems it follows the live colors.toml theme; elsewhere it falls back to a fixed dark palette.
Desktop notifications. The terminal client notifies on Linux (freedesktop service) and macOS when osascript is available. It does not send Windows notifications, even though the desktop app does.
Session-only lists. The terminal client keeps your ignore, mute, monitor, and highlight lists for the current session only. They are not written to your saved preferences, so restarting omairc-tui clears them. The desktop app persists them.
One extra chord. Alt+U jumps to the first new message. Every other chord matches the desktop app.

Everything else, including slash commands, unread and inbox handling, history, and settings, matches the desktop client. See Keyboard shortcuts, Slash commands, and History, local logs, and bouncers.

Windows Terminal chords

On Windows, Windows Terminal keeps some chords for itself before the terminal client sees them. The terminal client accepts an alternate for each affected chord, and its in-app sheet lists both:

Action	Chord
Walk conversations	`Alt+Down` / `Alt+Up`, or `Ctrl+Alt+Down` / `Ctrl+Alt+Up`
Walk networks	`Alt+Left` / `Alt+Right`, or `Ctrl+Alt+Left` / `Ctrl+Alt+Right`
Collapse / expand network	`Alt+Shift+Left` / `Alt+Shift+Right`, or `Ctrl+Shift+Left` / `Ctrl+Shift+Right`
Move network	`Alt+Shift+Up` / `Alt+Shift+Down`, or `Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Up` / `Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Down`
Open Connect	`Ctrl+,` or `Ctrl+]`
Cycle Connect tabs	`Ctrl+Tab` or `Ctrl+PgDn`

The aliases apply only on Windows. The desktop app binds only the two Connect alternates (Ctrl+] and Ctrl+PgDn); the movement alternates are specific to the terminal client.

Crash log

If the terminal client panics or hits a runtime fatal, it writes the stack to <state>/omairc/omairc-tui.log, beside the desktop app’s omairc.log. The file stays empty until something crashes. See Troubleshooting if you need to find the state directory.