DarkIRC

DarkIRC is DarkFi’s peer-to-peer chat daemon. It exposes a local IRC server so standard IRC clients can use it, while DarkFi’s P2P network and Event Graph synchronize messages between DarkIRC nodes.

DarkIRC implements a practical subset of IRC rather than the complete IRC protocol. Public channel messages are public. A configured channel secret or contact keypair encrypts the corresponding message fields with crypto_box::ChaChaBox, but DarkIRC does not implement the Signal protocol.

Nicknames are included in message events and may be changed at any time. They are not proof of a real-world identity. Optional NickServ/RLN identities are a separate feature and RLN is disabled by default.

Build and install

Follow the repository build prerequisites, then build DarkIRC from the repository root:

% make darkirc

The binary is written to ./darkirc. To install it under $HOME/.cargo/bin, use the DarkIRC makefile:

% make -C bin/darkirc install

Run that command again after building a newer version.

Android

The Android container target builds a 64-bit ARM binary suitable for running inside Termux:

% make -C bin/darkirc podman-android

The result is bin/darkirc/darkirc.aarch64-android. Copy it to the phone, make it executable, and run it in Termux. Keep the process awake if Android would otherwise suspend it, then connect an Android IRC client to 127.0.0.1:6667 without IRC TLS. This local IRC connection is distinct from the encrypted P2P transports used between DarkIRC nodes.

Network privacy and message privacy

These are separate concerns:

• Direct P2P peers can observe the network address used for a connection.
• The generated configuration enables the built-in tor profile by default. See the Tor guide before changing transports.
• Nym can be used as an outbound SOCKS5 transport; see the Nym guide.
• Public channels store their channel name, nickname, and message as plaintext Event Graph content.
• A channel is encrypted only when every participant configures the same channel secret. Contact DMs require the keypairs described in the private-message guide.

Transport anonymity depends on the selected network and its threat model. It does not make messages unlinkable by itself, and encrypted content can still expose metadata through timing, participation, or the IRC client.

Choose a node mode

DarkIRC rotates its Event Graph once per hour. The default normal node syncs and retains 24 DAGs, a rolling full-day history window.

• Run a normal node for chatting and ordinary P2P participation. Old rotating DAGs are pruned.
• Run an archive node to retain every rotating DAG received after the archive starts and serve that history to peers.

dags_count controls startup and reconnect sync depth. archive_mode controls retention. When archive mode is selected, history_retention_dags is ignored, but dags_count still determines how many recent DAGs are requested during a sync. The node-mode guides explain the bootstrap implications.

First run

Start DarkIRC from the repository root:

% ./darkirc

On its first run it creates ~/.config/darkfi/darkirc_config.toml and continues starting. On macOS the configuration directory is ~/Library/Application Support/darkfi/.

The default runtime state is namespaced under ~/.local/share/darkfi/darkirc/:

Review the generated [net] settings before connecting. Stop the daemon with Ctrl-C, edit the file, and restart it when changing node mode, storage, RPC, or P2P settings. With the defaults, startup sync completes with:

Event DAG synced successfully (full mode, 24 dag(s))

Connect an IRC client

DarkIRC listens on tcp://127.0.0.1:6667 by default. For WeeChat, add the local server after starting the client:

/server add darkfi localhost/6667 -notls -autoconnect
/save
/connect darkfi

The displayed nick list is reconstructed from messages the local node has seen; it is not a live global presence list. Change nickname with /nick foo.

After editing only autojoin, [channel.*], or [contact.*], reload those settings without restarting:

/rehash

All other configuration changes require a daemon restart.

Encrypted channels

Generate a shared channel secret:

% ./darkirc --gen-channel-secret

Configure the exact same secret on every participant’s node:

[channel."#project"]
secret = "BASE58_CHANNEL_SECRET"
topic = "Private project channel"

Exchange this secret over an authenticated, confidential channel. Anyone with the secret can read all encrypted messages for that channel that they obtain; there is no per-member key rotation or forward secrecy.

Local two-node deployment

For development, use two independent configurations and datastores. The first node listens on 127.0.0.1:9700:

irc_listen = "tcp://127.0.0.1:6667"
datastore = "~/.local/share/darkfi/darkirc/localnet/a/darkirc_db"

[rpc]
rpc_listen = "tcp://127.0.0.1:9705"

[net]
localnet = true
active_profiles = ["tcp"]
p2p_datastore = "~/.local/share/darkfi/darkirc/localnet/a/p2p"
hostlist = "~/.local/share/darkfi/darkirc/localnet/a/p2p_hostlist.tsv"

[net.profiles."tcp"]
inbound = ["tcp://127.0.0.1:9700"]

The second node connects to it manually:

irc_listen = "tcp://127.0.0.1:6668"
datastore = "~/.local/share/darkfi/darkirc/localnet/b/darkirc_db"

[rpc]
rpc_listen = "tcp://127.0.0.1:9706"

[net]
localnet = true
active_profiles = ["tcp"]
p2p_datastore = "~/.local/share/darkfi/darkirc/localnet/b/p2p"
hostlist = "~/.local/share/darkfi/darkirc/localnet/b/p2p_hostlist.tsv"

[net.profiles."tcp"]
peers = ["tcp://127.0.0.1:9700"]

Start both with ./darkirc --config PATH. Connect separate IRC clients to ports 6667 and 6668. localnet = true is required because loopback P2P addresses are rejected in ordinary network mode.

Custom networks

Keep a custom DarkIRC network isolated from the public network:

• give every instance distinct DarkIRC, P2P, hostlist, and RPC paths;
• use only custom peers and seeds under the appropriate [net.profiles."..."] table;
• use the same non-public net.magic_bytes on every custom node; and
• do not reuse a datastore created with different Event Graph consensus parameters.

Changing magic_bytes separates P2P handshakes; it does not change DarkIRC’s compiled Event Graph genesis or RLN commitment set.

Operations and recovery

The DarkIRC datastore contains public Event Graph state and can also contain local NickServ account secrets. Stop the process and back up the complete datastore directory before recovery or migration. A clean resync can recover public DAG state from suitable peers, but it cannot recover local nullifiers and trapdoors that were never backed up or exported.

Do not hand-edit RLN counters, static DAG state, or individual sled trees. See Event Graph recovery and security invariants. For connection problems, see network troubleshooting.