*WeeChat QuickStart*
Impored From https://weechat.org/files/doc/stable/weechat_quickstart.en.html

_/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.