Open Source IRC Client
A multiple-document interface IRC client for Windows and Linux
Download MERK 0.032.018

MERK is a graphical open source Internet relay chat client. The current development version is 0.032.018. It uses a multiple-document interface, much like the popular Windows IRC client mIRC. MERK is written in Python 3, using the PyQt5 and Twisted libraries, and runs on both Windows and Linux. MERK is updated frequently with new features and bugfixes.

MERK is still in development, but it works, and can be used for most IRC activities.

Join me on the official MERK IRC channel, #merk on the Libera Chat network! Connect to Libera in the client as one of the built-in server suggestions, or at irc.libera.chat, port 6667 (you can also connect via SSL on port 6697). Honestly, I work a lot, so I'm almost always idle, but I pop in and chat a few times a day!

Screenshots

MERK connected to Libera, EFnet, and a local IRC server, on Windows 11.

MERK connected to EFnet, Freenode, and Libera on Linux Mint 20.2.

Features

• Runs on Windows and Linux
• Supports multiple connections (you can chat on more than one IRC server at a time)
• Open source (GPL 3)
• Uses a multiple document interface, much like popular Windows IRC client mIRC
  • Multiple channel and server windows can be open for viewing and chatting at once
  • All chat windows are contained in a single "parent" window
• Dark mode! Dark mode can be enabled from the commandline, or from the settings dialog (restart required).
• Very configurable, without having to manually edit a configuration file
  • Nearly all settings are configurable in the settings dialog
  • Control application behavior, logging, features, and more!
  • Over 80 different settings can be changed, allowing you to customize MERK to look and function exactly the way you want it to look and function.
  • Most settings can be set in the app without requiring a restart. Have fun testing different options!
  • Configuration data is stored in JSON
• A built-in list of over 80 IRC servers to connect to
• All text colors (and backgrounds) can be customized
  • Text customization can be saved to importable files
  • Individual channels can have their own color schemes
  • Styles are saved and loaded automatically
    • Channel styles are saved and loaded by network, so they work no matter what server you connect to.
  • Easy to use GUI text style editor is built-in
  • Changes to text style are immediate, without having to restart!
• Built-in spell checker (supports English, Spanish, French, and German)
• Emoji support
  • Insert emojis into chat by using shortcodes (such as :joy: 😂, :yum: 😋, etc.)
  • A list of supported emoji short codes can be found here
• Command/nickname/channel auto-completion
• Full IRC color support
• Full scripting engine
  • Includes a built in script editor, with scripting macros and syntax highlighting
  • Automatically execute scripts on connection (to join channels, login in ChanServ, etc.)
• Multithreaded
• Automatic logging of channel and private chats
  • Includes a utility to export logs to JSON, CSV, or your own custom format
  • Logs are stored in JSON, so parsing/scraping your own logs in easy

Requirements

MERK requires Python 3, PyQt5, and Twisted. PyQt5 and Twisted can be installed by using pip:

pip install pyqt5
pip install Twisted

To connect to IRC servers via SSL, two additional libraries may be needed:

pip install pyOpenSSL
pip install service_identity

MERK is being developed with Python 3.13 on Windows 11 and Linux Mint.

If you're running Windows, and you're getting errors when trying to run MERK, you may have to install another library, pywin32. You can also install this with pip:

pip install pywin32

To run properly on Linux, the latest version of all required software is recommended.

There are three libraries that comes bundled with MERK:

• qt5reactor
• pyspellchecker
• emoji

Running MERK

First, make sure that all the requirements are installed. Next, download MERK. Extract the zipfile to a directory of your choice using your favorite archive/zip program. Open a command prompt, navigate to the directory you extracted MERK to, and type:

python merk.py

Usage

usage: python merk.py [-h] [--ssl] [--reconnect] [-p PASSWORD] [-c CHANNEL[:KEY]] [-n NICKNAME]
                      [-u USERNAME] [-a NICKNAME] [-r REALNAME] [-C NAME] [-D DIRECTORY] [-L]
                      [-S DIRECTORY] [-Q NAME] [-N] [-X][-M]
                      [SERVER] [PORT]


options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Connection:
  SERVER                Server to connect to
  PORT                  Server port to connect to (6667)
  --ssl, --tls          Use SSL/TLS to connect to IRC
  --reconnect           Reconnect to servers on disconnection
  -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
                        Use server password to connect
  -c CHANNEL[:KEY], --channel CHANNEL[:KEY]
                        Join channel on connection
  -n NICKNAME, --nickname NICKNAME
                        Use this nickname to connect
  -u USERNAME, --username USERNAME
                        Use this username to connect
  -a NICKNAME, --alternate NICKNAME
                        Use this alternate nickname to connect
  -r REALNAME, --realname REALNAME
                        Use this realname to connect

Configuration:
  -C NAME, --config-name NAME
                        Name of the configuration file directory (default: .merk)
  -D DIRECTORY, --config-directory DIRECTORY
                        Location to store configuration files
  -L, --config-local    Store configuration files in install directory
  -S DIRECTORY, --scripts-directory DIRECTORY
                        Location to look for script files

Miscellaneous:
  -Q NAME, --qtstyle NAME
                        Set Qt widget style (default: Fusion)
  -N, --noask           Don't ask for connection information on start
  -X, --nocommands      Don't auto-execute commands on connection
  -M, --dark            Run in dark mode

Why does MERK exist?

It's simple. I don't currently like any of the other IRC clients. I've used many, many other IRC clients for Windows and Linux, and they just didn't feel right. They weren't customizable enough, didn't have features that I wanted, or just plain looked ancient. I wanted a GUI IRC client that looked and felt modern, and could be heavily customized. My previous IRC client was called Ərk, and although I liked developing it and working on it, I honestly didn't use it that much. I fell out of love with the "single window" interface that so many other IRC clients use, and decided to try something "new" (and by "new" I mean 30 years old). I remembered using mIRC back when I was younger, and decided to try and write a new client that used the multiple-document interface style I remember fondly. And thus, MERK was born!

What does MERK mean?

Well, if you were to pronounce "IRC" as a word and not an acronym, it would probably be pronounced /Ərk/. Since the client allows a user to connect to multiple IRC servers at the same time, well, that might be what the "M" stands for. Either that, or "multiple-document interface". "MDIIRC" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so we combined the "M" with the word-pronunciation of IRC, and came up with MERK!

Developing MERK

Several tools are included in the official MERK repository for developing MERK. The pyrcc5 utility is required, and should be installed automatically when you install PyQt. These are only needed if you're developing MERK, and can be ignored if you're only using the MERK IRC client.

• compile_resources.bat - This batch file compiles the miscellaneous resources (graphics, fonts, etc) required by MERK into a single file, resources.py, and inserts the file into the MERK source code. This is for development on the Windows platform.
• compile_resources.sh - This shell script basically does the same thing that compile_resources.bat does, only it's for development on the Linux platform.
• build_readme.py - This is a Python 3 script that rebuilds the README:
  • ReadsREADME.txt into memory and replaces several symbols in it:
    • ! _VERSION_ ! (without spaces) is replaced with MERK's major version
    • ! _MINOR_ ! (without spaces) is replaced with MERK's minor version
    • ! _FULL_VERSION_ ! (without spaces) is replaced with MERK's major and minor version, with a period in between them.
  • Overwrites README.md with the edited contents of README.txt
• build_dist.py - This is a Python 3 script that, when executed, does several things:

  • Executes either compile_resources.bat (if the host system is Windows) or compile_resources.sh (if the host system is Linux); if the host system is not running either Windows or Linux, build_dist.py will exit with an error

  • Increments the MERK's minor version (which is stored in merk/data/minor.txt) and saves it

  • ReadsREADME.txt into memory and replaces several symbols in it:

    • ! _VERSION_ ! (without spaces) is replaced with MERK's major version
    • ! _MINOR_ ! (without spaces) is replaced with MERK's minor version
    • ! _FULL_VERSION_ ! (without spaces) is replaced with MERK's major and minor version, with a period in between them.

  • Overwrites README.md with the edited contents of README.txt

  • Creates a new directory named dist, and copies into it:

    • merk.py
    • LICENSE
    • merk.ico
    • The merk directory and its contents
    • The qt5reactor directory and its contents
    • The spellchecker directory and its contents
    • The emoji directory and its contents

  • Zips up the dist directory either using PowerShell (if the host system is Windows) or the zip utility (if the host system is Linux) into a file named dist.zip

  • Deletes the dist directory and its contents

  • Renames dist.zip to "merk-MAJOR VERSION.zip", referred to as merk.zip in this description.

  • If merk.zip exists in the downloads directory, the version in the downloads directory is deleted

  • If merk-latest.zip exists in the downloads directory, it is deleted

  • merk.zip is copied into the downloads directory, and is copied to merk-latest.zip