1. Start WeeChat

A recommended (but not mandatory) X terminal emulator for running WeeChat is rxvt-unicode. It has good UTF-8 support and works well with WeeChat’s default key bindings.

Run from your shell:

$ weechat

2. Online help

WeeChat has help for all commands, just issue:

/help

To get help on a specific command, issue:

/help command

Help is available for options as well:

/help config.section.option

(where config is configuration name (weechat for core, or a plugin name), section the section of this configuration and option the option name).

3. Set options

To set options, issue:

/set config.section.option value

WeeChat immediately uses the new value (you never need to restart WeeChat after changes to configuration).

All settings are saved when WeeChat ends (or with the /save command to force a write of the options).

It is not recommended to edit configuration files by hand because WeeChat may write them at any time (for example on /quit) and after any change you must run the command /reload (with the risk of losing other changes that were not yet saved with /save).
You can use the command /set, which checks the value and applies immediately the changes.

The plugin fset allows you to easily browse options and change them.

For example to display WeeChat options:

/fset weechat.*

IRC options:

/fset irc.*

The /fset command has completion on part of option names, so for example if you type /fset hot and press Tab this is completed as /fset hotlist. If you press Enter, options about the hotlist are displayed.

For more information about the /fset command and keys, see /help fset.

4. Core vs plugins

WeeChat "core" is only used to display data on screen and interact with the user, that means weechat core without plugins is useless (faithful users: IRC was part of core for versions ≤ 0.2.6).

All network protocols like IRC are provided in separate plugins.

Use the /plugin command to list loaded plugins, you should see "irc" and other plugins in the list.

5. Add an IRC server

You can add an IRC server with the /server command, for example:

/server add libera irc.libera.chat/6697 -tls

In this command, libera is the internal server name used by WeeChat: you’ll be able to connect with /connect libera and the server options are irc.server.libera.xxx.

As usual, help is available if you’re lost:

/help server

6. Set custom IRC server options

WeeChat uses default values for all servers ("fall backs"), if you don’t specify a specific value for a server option. These default options are "irc.server_default.*".

For each server option, WeeChat uses its value if it is defined (not "null"). Otherwise WeeChat uses default value ("irc.server_default.xxx").

For example there are default nicks (based on your un*x login), and you can override them for the libera server with following command:

/set irc.server.libera.nicks "mynick,mynick2,mynick3,mynick4,mynick5"

To set the user and real names:

/set irc.server.libera.username "My user name"
/set irc.server.libera.realname "My real name"

To enable auto-connect to server at startup:

/set irc.server.libera.autoconnect on

If SASL is available on the server, you can use it for authentication (you will be identified before you join channels):

/set irc.server.libera.sasl_username "mynick"
/set irc.server.libera.sasl_password "xxxxxxx"

To run a command after connection to server, for example to authenticate with nickserv (only if you don’t use SASL for authentication):

/set irc.server.libera.command "/msg nickserv identify xxxxxxx"
Many commands in option command can be separated by ; (semi-colon).

If you want to protect your password in configuration files, you can use secured data.

First setup a passphrase:

/secure passphrase this is my secret passphrase

Then add a secured data with your libera password:

/secure set libera_password xxxxxxx

Then you can use ${sec.data.libera_password} instead of your password in the IRC options mentioned above, for example:

/set irc.server.libera.sasl_password "${sec.data.libera_password}"

To auto-join some channels when connecting to server:

/set irc.server.libera.autojoin "#channel1,#channel2"

The /autojoin command lets you configure the autojoin option easily (see /help autojoin).

You can also configure WeeChat to automatically update the autojoin option when you join or leave channels:

/set irc.server_default.autojoin_dynamic on

To remove a value of a server option, and use the default value instead, for example to use default nicks (irc.server_default.nicks):

/unset irc.server.libera.nicks

Other options: you can setup other options with the following command ("xxx" is option name):

/set irc.server.libera.xxx value
You can complete name and value of options with the Tab key and Shift+Tab for a partial completion (useful for long words like the name of option).

7. Connect to IRC server

/connect libera

With this command, WeeChat connects to the libera server and auto-joins the channels configured in the "autojoin" server option.

This command can be used to create and connect to a new server without using the /server command (see /help connect).

By default, server buffers are merged with WeeChat core buffer. To switch between the core buffer and server buffers, you can use Ctrl+x.

It is possible to disable auto merge of server buffers to have independent server buffers:

/set irc.look.server_buffer independent

8. Join/part IRC channels

Join a channel:

/join #channel

Part a channel (keeping the buffer open):

/part [quit message]

Close a server, channel or private buffer (/close is an alias for /buffer close):

/close
Closing the server buffer will close all channel/private buffers.

Disconnect from server, on the server buffer:

/disconnect

9. IRC private messages

Open a buffer and send a message to another user (nick foo):

/query foo this is a message

Close the private buffer:

/close

10. Buffer/window management

A buffer is a component linked to a plugin with a number, a category, and a name. A buffer contains the data displayed on the screen.

A window is a view on a buffer. By default there’s only one window displaying one buffer. If you split the screen, you will see many windows with many buffers at same time.

Commands to manage buffers and windows:

/buffer
/window

For example, to vertically split your screen into a small window (1/3 width), and a large window (2/3), use command:

/window splitv 33

To remove the split:

/window merge

11. Key bindings

WeeChat uses many keys by default. All these keys are in the documentation, but you should know at least some vital keys:

  • Alt+ / Alt+ or F5 / F6: switch to previous/next buffer

  • F1 / F2: scroll bar with list of buffers ("buflist")

  • F7 / F8: switch to previous/next window (when screen is split)

  • F9 / F10: scroll title bar

  • F11 / F12: scroll nicklist

  • Tab: complete text in input bar, like in your shell

  • PgUp / PgDn: scroll text in current buffer

  • Alt+a: jump to buffer with activity (in hotlist)

According to your keyboard and/or your needs, you can rebind any key to a command with the /key command. A useful key is Alt+k to find key codes.

For example, to bind Alt+! to the command /buffer close:

/key bind (press alt-k) (press alt-!) /buffer close

You’ll have a command line like:

/key bind meta-! /buffer close

To remove key:

/key unbind meta-!

12. Plugins/scripts

On some distros like Debian, plugins are available via a separate package (like weechat-plugins). Plugins are automatically loaded when found (please look at the WeeChat documentation to load/unload plugins or scripts).

Many external scripts (from contributors) are available for WeeChat, you can download and install scripts from the repository with the /script command, for example:

/script install go.py

See /help script for more info.

A list of scripts is available in WeeChat with /script or on this page .

13. More documentation

You can now use WeeChat and read FAQ/documentation  for any other questions.

Enjoy using WeeChat!