Web Frontend

repartee includes a built-in web frontend that runs alongside the terminal UI. Access your IRC sessions from any browser -- desktop or mobile -- with real-time bidirectional sync.

TUI (left) | Mobile web (center) | Desktop web (right) -- 1:1 state sync.

Enabling

The web frontend is disabled by default. To enable it, set a password in ~/.repartee/.env and enable it in config.toml:

1. Set the login password:

echo 'WEB_PASSWORD=your-secret-password' >> ~/.repartee/.env

2. Enable in config:

[web]
enabled = true
port = 8443

repartee auto-generates a self-signed TLS certificate on first launch. Open https://localhost:8443 in your browser and accept the certificate warning.

Configuration

All web settings live under the [web] section in config.toml and can be changed at runtime with /set:

Nick coloring settings live under [display] but are also synced to web clients:

Settings changed via /set web.* or /set display.nick_color* apply immediately to all connected web clients.

Features

The web frontend provides full 1:1 parity with the terminal UI:

• All buffer types -- server, channel, query, DCC chat
• Real-time sync -- messages, nick changes, joins, parts, quits, topic changes, mode changes
• Bidirectional buffer switching -- switch a buffer on web and the TUI follows, and vice versa
• Command execution -- run any /command from the web input (output visible on web)
• Tab completion -- nicks, /commands, and /set setting paths
• Nick coloring -- deterministic per-nick colors synced from server settings, same HSL algorithm as TUI
• Nick list -- grouped by mode (ops, voiced, regular), away status, per-nick coloring (toggleable separately)
• Activity indicators -- unread counts and color-coded activity levels
• Mentions -- highlight tracking with mention count badge
• Theme picker -- switch themes live (5 built-in themes)
• Multiline input -- paste multiline text, each line sent separately
• Persistent sessions -- page refresh reconnects automatically (session stored in browser)
• Auto-reconnect -- WebSocket automatically reconnects with exponential backoff (2s-30s) on connection loss
• Date separators -- visual separators between messages from different days for easier history reading
• Embedded shell -- full terminal in the browser via beamterm WebGL2 renderer. Separate PTY per web session (no resize fighting with TUI). FiraCode Nerd Font, mouse selection with clipboard, Ctrl+/- font resize, Ctrl+C (SIGINT), clipboard paste with bracketed paste mode

Desktop Layout

The desktop layout mirrors the terminal UI:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Topic bar                                           │
├──────────┬─────────────────────────────┬────────────┤
│ Buffers  │ Chat area                   │ Nick list  │
│          │ 14:23 @ferris❯ Hello!       │ @ferris    │
│ (status) │ 14:24  alice❯ Hey there     │  alice     │
│ 1.#rust  │                             │  bob       │
│ 2.#help  │                             │            │
├──────────┴─────────────────────────────┴────────────┤
│ [kofany(+i)] [#rust(+nt)] [Lag: 42ms] [Act: 3,4]   │
│ ❯ [Message input...                           ] [➤] │
│ [● ● ● ● ●] theme picker                           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Mobile Layout

On screens narrower than 768px, the layout switches to a mobile-optimized view:

┌──────────────────────────┐
│ ☰  #rust (+nt) — Welc… 👥│  top bar
├──────────────────────────┤
│ 14:23 @ferris❯ Has any…  │  inline nicks
│ 14:24 alice❯ Yeah, it's… │
├──────────────────────────┤
│ [kofany|Act: 3,4,7]      │  compact status
│ [Message...          ] ➤  │  input
└──────────────────────────┘

Mobile features:

• Inline chat -- nicks appear inline with the message (no right-aligned column) to maximize horizontal space
• Slide-out buffer list -- tap the hamburger or swipe right from anywhere to open the channel/buffer list
• Slide-out nick list -- tap the nick list button or swipe left from anywhere to open the nick list
• Auto-close panels -- tapping a buffer in the slide-out switches to it and closes the panel automatically
• Touch-friendly -- large tap targets, swipe gestures, no accidental horizontal scroll
• Viewport fitting -- uses 100dvh to properly fill the screen on iOS Safari and Android Chrome (accounts for browser chrome)
• No auto-zoom -- focusing the input field does not trigger iOS Safari's auto-zoom behavior
• Notch-safe -- respects safe-area-inset-bottom on iPhones with home indicators

Custom TLS

For production use (or to avoid browser certificate warnings), provide your own TLS certificate:

[web]
tls_cert = "/path/to/fullchain.pem"
tls_key  = "/path/to/privkey.pem"

Let's Encrypt certificates work out of the box.

Remote Access

To access the web frontend from other devices on your network:

[web]
bind_address = "0.0.0.0"   # listen on all interfaces
port = 8443

Then open https://your-machine-ip:8443 from your phone or another computer.

Security

• HTTPS only -- all traffic is encrypted via TLS
• Password authentication -- HMAC-SHA256 verified login
• Rate limiting -- brute-force protection with progressive lockout
• Session tokens -- time-limited, stored in browser localStorage
• No external dependencies -- the web UI is compiled to WASM and embedded in the binary; no CDN requests, no external scripts