Addons

Addons

mcIRC itself is chat. Everything else is an addon. A new setup installs and switches on MeshCore tools; everything else you choose. Open Tools > Addons:

• Browse online catalog - addons reviewed and tested by the maintainers. Pick one, press Install.
• Install from file / folder - an addon you downloaded or are developing.
• Update - installs newer versions of your addons from the catalog. Help > Check for updates does this too, together with mcIRC itself.
• Switch them on and off in the same window. Double-click an addon (or Settings...) to open its settings in their own window, including Use on these nodes when you connect more than one node (default: the main node), and for every bot Send answers by private message instead of in the channel.
• Settings per node (mcIRC 3.0): with more than one node connected, the settings window has tabs - All nodes and one per node. Anything you change on a node's tab is for that node only (the tab gets a *); everything else follows All nodes. The addon then answers each node with that node's settings - e.g. a bot on one channel for one node and another channel for the other. Use 'All nodes' settings for this node clears a node's own settings.
• Every bot's settings window also has (mcIRC 2026.10.10-1): Wait 5 seconds before answering, then 9 seconds between parts - change the wait before an answer (repeaters are still repeating the question for a few seconds; 0 answers at once) and the gap between the parts of a long answer - and Command names...: your own words for any command, e.g. p for path. Both work, or tick not to 'path' itself and only yours do; bothelp lists them (path/p).
• No bots in Public (default): a bot's answer to a question asked in Public goes to that person privately, and a bot's own posts there are dropped. The toolbar switch Bots in Public: OFF/ON (red when on) and Options > Display change it.
• A channel an addon posts to that your node doesn't have is added to the node (as #name, in the first free slot) instead of the message being lost.
• Calling a bot command: the command word first - stats, !stats, /stats, .stats, or after addressing the bot: @[mcIRC] stats, @mcIRC: stats (also bothelp). The bots answer private messages too (Also answer private messages in their settings - on by default).
• Every switched-on addon has its own submenu in the Addons menu: its own entries (MeshCore tools > Node clock..., Map uploader > Recent uploads..., Packet upload > Status..., ...), then Settings... and Switch off.
• The bots and uploaders (Fun bot, Weather bot, Mesh bot, Channel list, Bot help, Map uploader, Packet upload) also have an ON/OFF switch on the toolbar, like Auto reply. Too many? Untick Show its ON/OFF switch on the toolbar in that addon's settings.

In the catalog

• MeshCore tools - node clock, channels, backup & restore, firmware check / update, firmware builder (USB / Bluetooth / Wi-Fi companions, repeaters, room servers, sensors), path tools, packet monitor, radio health, coverage map. See MeshCore Tools.
• Weather bot - answers wx <place> (city, postal code, ZIP, node name or lat,lon), gwx, aqi, sun, moon, solar, rain, aurora, satpass and more, in the channels you choose (default #weather).
• Fun bot - dice, roll, magic8, joke, dadjoke, hacker, catfact, wc (World Cup), each on for the channels you choose.
• Bot help - answers bothelp with the bot commands that work in that channel; optional daily reminder.
• Channel list - answers channel list with the channels you keep in its list. People can add one with channel list add #name (checked names, at most 30; you see who added what in Status and can switch it off in its settings - or only in some channels: ...but not in these channels).
• Auto reply - keyword rules: choose the words, the channels they are heard on, the reply text and the channels the reply goes to, with a per-person cooldown.
• Dolphins - fun actions in the right-click menu on any name (Fun): slap with a large trout, a pod of dolphins, water balloon, anvil, penguins, a fresh battery and more - your own list; /dolphins, /slap, /fun. Also a picture behind the channel list (on with the addon): a pod of dolphins, or your own picture - see Themes. It replaces the retired Slap addon.
• Modern look - flat, modern window chrome in the colours of your skin or theme.
• Area alerts - alerts for the areas you choose anywhere in the world (pick a country, then a region, then an area): natural disasters (GDACS), earthquakes (USGS), tsunami warnings (NOAA), official weather warnings (Canada, the US and 38 European countries), public transit service alerts (489 agencies in 28 countries - tick the ones to follow; by default only service stops and big delays) and road closures (21 road-information sites in Canada and the US). Most sources need no key; the ones that need a free key say step by step how to get it, with a button to the sign-up page. Alerts show in the Area alerts window; they go to the mesh only with Broadcast to the mesh ticked - each alert once, at most one every 30 s and 10 messages an hour, never in Public. Each kind, transit agency or road source has its own channel (or several: #weather, #alerts). The first check after starting, switching on or adding areas only shows what is already in force. Needs pip install requests gtfs-realtime-bindings.
• Mesh bot - the meshcore-bot commands the other bots don't have: ping, hello, path (the repeaters your message came through - when they aren't known it says how many hops and why), prefix A1 / prefix free, multitest (the paths your message took), stats / stat (last 24 h: the nodes your node heard, the busiest channels from the chat logs, and the packets heard since mcIRC started), sports, version / ver, firmware / fw (the newest MeshCore releases - read-only), and a greeter that welcomes each newcomer once with a random greeting from a list you can edit - {nick} and {channel} are filled in, and the defaults include mIRC Invision-style ones like »» Name has entered the room. Everyone act natural... «« (plain text - the mesh can't carry mIRC colours). Off by default; anyone already in mcIRC's node memory counts as known.
• Map uploader - puts the repeaters, room servers and sensors your node hears on map.meshcore.io. Each upload is signed by your node itself; its private key never leaves the radio. People's companions are never uploaded.
• Packet upload - sends the packets your node hears to community packet analyzers (28 to choose from - pick the ones that cover your area; none is ticked when installed, nothing is sent until you choose) so they can map coverage and routes. Set your 3-letter area code (the IATA code of the airport nearest you, e.g. LHR, JFK, SYD) and tick the servers; you log in with a token your node signs. Needs pip install paho-mqtt. Your node then appears as an observer under its own name (on live.meshcore.ca: Filters > Observers) - online while mcIRC runs. The area code decides where your node is listed: analyzers group nearby codes into their own regions.
• Traffic, transit and weather (formerly BC traffic bot; for British Columbia, Canada - an example of a regional alerts addon) - road, ferry, transit, earthquake and tsunami alerts from BC's public feeds, and Environment Canada weather warnings for the areas you pick in any province or territory. Broadcasting to the mesh is OFF by default: switch it on in the addon's settings (Broadcast alerts to the mesh, with a switch per alert type). Channels tab: where each kind of alert goes - one channel or several, and blank means that kind isn't sent. A new install starts with every box blank, so each station chooses channels its own group uses instead of everyone posting the same alerts to the same channels (installs from before keep the channels they had). With it off, the addon still keeps the map's DriveBC incidents and Earthquakes layers up to date. Needs pip install requests gtfs-realtime-bindings. If several stations in range broadcast, leave it off or untick what you don't need so identical messages don't pile onto the mesh.
  • route <address> - directions by private message (Settings > Route, off until you tick it). Someone sends the bot a private message route 1234 Main St, Town (also directions / gps, or route <from> to <to>); it answers privately: the route (distance, time, main roads), what is on the way (DriveBC closures, incidents and roadwork - British Columbia only) and where it started - the position the asker's node last advertised, and how long ago (moved since? send an advert and ask again). The quickest route is taken; about as quick (within 3 minutes): the one with fewer incidents and roadwork; a road closed on the way is avoided while another route is open. Travel times are without live congestion. Private only: asked in a channel, the bot never repeats the address - it only says to ask by private message; addresses are never logged; one route per person every 2 minutes. Free services, no key: OpenStreetMap (addresses) and OSRM (routes).

Bots are off until you switch them on, wait a few seconds before answering (so the answer doesn't collide with repeaters still repeating the question) and never transmit on their own otherwise.

Fun actions

Right-click a name in the chat > Fun sends one line about that person to the window in front, for example slaps @[Bob] around a bit with a large trout 🐟 or sends a pod of dolphins to rescue @[Bob] from a boring conversation 🐬. Out of the box: the trout slap, a pod of dolphins, dolphins that swim circles / rescue / do backflips / splash / carry them off to a tropical island, a clue-by-four, a water balloon, an anvil, wild penguins, fixing their antenna and a fresh battery.

Change the list by double-clicking Dolphins in Tools > Addons: Add, Edit, Remove, Up / Down, or Defaults to start over. In a message, {nick} is where the person's name goes; a counter checks it fits one mesh message. From the input line: /fun lists them, /fun <number or name> <nick> sends one, /slap <nick> and /dolphins [nick] still work. One per 10 seconds - the mesh is a small shared channel. Nothing is ever sent unless you click or type it.

The Slap addon is retired: its trout is one of the fun actions. If you still have it, it keeps working and mcIRC tells you once that you can remove it.

An addon runs Python code with full access to your PC - install only addons you trust. The catalog lists only reviewed ones.

Addons from other GitHub repos

The catalog can list addons kept in their authors' own GitHub repos, and addons that build on other projects follow them. mcIRC installs exactly the version the maintainers reviewed. When the author publishes something newer, Browse online catalog shows "... upstream (waiting for review)" and nobody gets it until it has been reviewed - then Check for updates brings it to everyone. Map uploader, Packet upload and Mesh bot follow recrof/map.meshcore.io-uploader, agessaman/meshcore-packet-capture and agessaman/meshcore-bot this way.

Want to make one? See Writing an Addon.