ii-IRC: Event-Driven IRC for AI Agents

ii writes all channel activity to plain files. A watcher script monitors for mentions and triggers OpenClaw system events. Responses are sent by writing to a FIFO.

Architecture

~/irc/
├── irc.sh              # Management script (start/stop/status/send)
├── watch-daemon.sh     # Mention watcher → openclaw system event
└── <server>/
    └── <channel>/
        ├── in          # FIFO - write here to send messages
        └── out         # Append-only log of all channel messages

Quick Setup

1. Install ii

ii is in most package managers. On Arch: pacman -S ii. On Debian/Ubuntu: apt install ii. Or build from suckless.org.

2. Create scripts

Run the bundled setup script (creates ~/irc/irc.sh and ~/irc/watch-daemon.sh):

bash scripts/setup.sh --server irc.example.org --port 6667 --nick MyBot --channel "#mychannel"

Or create them manually — see scripts/irc.sh.template and scripts/watch-daemon.sh.template.

3. Create systemd user services (recommended)

For auto-start on boot:

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user

# IRC connection service
cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/irc-bot.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=IRC connection (ii)
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ii -s SERVER -p PORT -n NICK -i %h/irc
ExecStartPost=/bin/bash -c 'sleep 3 && echo "/j CHANNEL" > %h/irc/SERVER/in'
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF

# Mention watcher service
cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/irc-watcher.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=IRC mention watcher
After=irc-bot.service
Wants=irc-bot.service

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=%h/irc/watch-daemon.sh
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF

# Replace SERVER, PORT, NICK, CHANNEL in the service files, then:
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now irc-bot.service irc-watcher.service

Sending Messages

# Via the management script
~/irc/irc.sh send "Hello, world!"

# Or write directly to the FIFO
echo "Hello, world!" > ~/irc/<server>/<channel>/in

Important: ii splits long messages at byte boundaries, which can break mid-word or mid-UTF8 character. Keep messages under ~400 characters. For longer content, split into multiple messages with brief pauses between them.

Reading Context

# Last N messages (token-efficient)
tail -n 20 ~/irc/<server>/<channel>/out

# Quick status (last 5 messages)
~/irc/irc.sh status

Never read the entire out file — it grows indefinitely. Always use tail with a limit.

How Mention Detection Works

1. watch-daemon.sh runs tail -F on the channel's out file
2. Each new line is checked (case-insensitive) for the bot's nick
3. Own messages and join/part notices are skipped
4. On match → openclaw system event --text "IRC mention: <message>" --mode now
5. OpenClaw wakes and can respond via the in FIFO

This is event-driven — zero polling, instant response, minimal resource usage.

Joining Multiple Channels

ii supports multiple channels on the same server. For each additional channel:

echo "/j #other-channel" > ~/irc/<server>/in

To watch multiple channels, either run separate watcher instances or modify watch-daemon.sh to monitor multiple out files.

Troubleshooting

• Not connecting: Check ii is running (pgrep -f "ii -s"), verify server/port
• Not joining channel: The in FIFO must exist; check ExecStartPost timing (increase sleep if needed)
• Mentions not triggering: Verify watcher is running (pgrep -f watch-daemon), check nick matches
• Messages splitting weirdly: Shorten messages; ii has a ~512 byte IRC protocol limit
• Reconnection: systemd Restart=always handles this; ii exits on disconnect, systemd restarts it