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WeeChat

Extensible terminal-based chat client

Chat & Communication ★ 3.4k stars Medium setup GPL-3.0

WeeChat is a fast, lightweight chat client that runs in the terminal and supports IRC and many other protocols through plugins. Its relay protocol allows remote clients to connect to a persistent session.

Official siteSource code

Key features

  • Terminal interface
  • Scriptable in many languages
  • Relay protocol for remote clients
  • Highly extensible

Strengths

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Active community (3.4k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM

Is WeeChat secure?

No known vulnerabilities affect WeeChat's latest release (v4.10.1). OSV.dev lists 9 past advisories for the project; none of them applies to this release. No known vulnerabilities is not proof of security: it means none have been publicly catalogued.

  • Most recent fixed advisory CVE-2026-53525, published 2026-08-21 (54 days ago), fixed in 4.9.1, 4.9.0

Source: OSV.dev, checked 2026-10-14. How this is measured.

WeeChat replaces

Self-hosted Slack alternatives

Health badge

Maintain WeeChat? Add its health score to your README. The badge links back to this page.

SelfHostIndex: 90 · excellent

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<a href="https://selfhostindex.com/app/weechat/"><img src="https://selfhostindex.com/badge/weechat.svg" alt="SelfHostIndex health score for WeeChat"></a>
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   :alt: SelfHostIndex health score for WeeChat
   :target: https://selfhostindex.com/app/weechat/

The score is recomputed on every nightly rebuild from public repository data — see how it is calculated.

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