thelounge

TheLounge (thelounge) is a self-hosted web IRC client/server that provides chat in the browser, typically used to connect users to IRC networks with features like channels/queries, notifications, and web UI access.

Evaluated Mar 30, 2026 (25d ago)
Homepage ↗ Repo ↗ Communication chat irc self-hosted web-ui messaging community
⚙ Agent Friendliness
15
/ 100
Can an agent use this?
🔒 Security
46
/ 100
Is it safe for agents?
⚡ Reliability
32
/ 100
Does it work consistently?

Score Breakdown

⚙ Agent Friendliness

MCP Quality
0
Documentation
0
Error Messages
0
Auth Simplicity
40
Rate Limits
0

🔒 Security

TLS Enforcement
60
Auth Strength
50
Scope Granularity
20
Dep. Hygiene
50
Secret Handling
50

Security posture depends heavily on deployment: TLS termination, user authentication configuration, and server hardening. No specific security documentation was provided in the prompt, so scores are conservative/assumption-based.

⚡ Reliability

Uptime/SLA
0
Version Stability
50
Breaking Changes
40
Error Recovery
40
AF Security Reliability

Use Cases

  • • Host an IRC web client for a community
  • • Provide browser-based access to IRC channels
  • • Centralize IRC access for teams/communities without native IRC clients
  • • Run a lightweight self-hosted chat front-end for IRC

Not For

  • • Production-grade real-time chat replacement where non-IRC protocols are required
  • • Use cases needing first-class OAuth/enterprise authentication out of the box
  • • Scenarios where you cannot self-host or manage the server

Interface

REST API
No
GraphQL
No
gRPC
No
MCP Server
No
SDK
No
Webhooks
No

Authentication

Methods: Local web app access (typical config/password or user auth depending on deployment)
OAuth: No Scopes: No

No evidence provided here of documented OAuth/scopes; auth details are deployment/config dependent and not described in the provided data.

Pricing

Free tier: No
Requires CC: No

Self-hosted open-source software; cost is infrastructure/maintenance rather than API usage pricing.

Agent Metadata

Pagination
none
Idempotent
False
Retry Guidance
Not documented

Known Gotchas

  • ⚠ No documented programmatic interface in the provided data (no REST/GraphQL/gRPC/MCP), so automation may require UI scraping or direct server integration.
  • ⚠ Chat systems often have rate/connection limits and stateful behavior (joining channels, reconnects), which can break naive stateless retries.

Alternatives

Slack/Discord (non-IRC) Matrix clients/bridges Self-hosted IRC clients with native clients (e.g., irssi, weechat) IRC-to-web gateways or other web IRC clients

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API endpoint ↗ Agent guide ↗ Report inaccuracy

Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-30.

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Packages Evaluated
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