soju/doc/getting-started.md

Getting started

Server side

Start by installing soju via your distribution's package manager. Alternatively, you can compile it from source (see the README).

To create an admin user and start soju, run these commands:

sojudb create-user <soju username> -admin
soju -listen irc+insecure://127.0.0.1:6667

soju will listen for unencrypted IRC connections on the default port. This is enough for local experiments, but for a proper setup you will need to configure TLS (e.g. by setting up a reverse proxy, or by specifying the TLS certificates in the soju configuration file). Setting up on-disk chat logs is recommended.

If you're migrating from ZNC, a tool is available to import users, networks and channels from a ZNC config file:

go run ./contrib/znc-import <znc config file>

Client side

Client supporting soju.im/bouncer-networks

If you are using a client supporting the soju.im/bouncer-networks IRC extension (see the client list), then you can just connect to soju with your username and password.

If your client doesn't provide a UI to manage IRC networks, you can talk to BouncerServ. See the man page or use /msg BouncerServ help.

Other clients

You will need to setup one separate server in your client for each server you want soju to connect to.

The easiest way to get started is to specify the IRC server address directly in the username in the client configuration. For example to connect to Libera Chat, your username will be: <soju username>/irc.libera.chat. Also set your soju password in the password field of your client configuration.

This will autoconfigure soju by adding a network with the address irc.libera.chat and then autoconnect to it. You will now be able to join any channel like you would normally do.

For more advanced configuration options, you can talk to BouncerServ. See the man page or use /msg BouncerServ help.

If you intend to connect to the bouncer from multiple clients, you will need to append a client name in your username. For instance, to connect from a laptop and a workstation, you can setup each client to use the respective usernames <soju username>/irc.libera.chat@laptop and <soju username>/irc.libera.chat@workstation.