[![#thelounge IRC channel on freenode](https://img.shields.io/badge/irc%20channel-%23thelounge%20on%20freenode-blue.svg)](http://avatar.playat.ch:1000/)
[![npm version](https://img.shields.io/npm/v/thelounge.svg)](https://www.npmjs.org/package/thelounge)
[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/thelounge/lounge.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/thelounge/lounge)
[![Dependency Status](https://david-dm.org/thelounge/lounge.svg)](https://david-dm.org/thelounge/lounge)
[![devDependency Status](https://david-dm.org/thelounge/lounge/dev-status.svg)](https://david-dm.org/thelounge/lounge#info=devDependencies)

# The Lounge

__What is it?__

The Lounge is a web IRC client that you host on your own server.

*This is the official, community-managed fork of @erming's great initiative, the [Shout](https://github.com/erming/shout) project.*

__What features does it have?__

- Multiple user support
- Stays connected even when you close the browser
- Connect from multiple devices at once
- Responsive layout — works well on your smartphone
- _.. and more!_

__Why the fork?__

We felt that the original [Shout](https://github.com/erming/shout) project
"stagnated" a little because its original author wanted it to remain his pet
project (which is a perfectly fine thing!).

A bunch of people, excited about doing things a bit differently than the upstream
project forked it under a new name: “The Lounge”.

This fork aims to be community managed, meaning that the decisions are taken
in a collegial fashion, and that a bunch of maintainers should be able to make
the review process quicker and more streamlined.

## Install

To use The Lounge you must have [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/download/) installed.
The oldest Node.js version we support is 4.2.0.

If you still use 0.10 or 0.12 we strongly advise you to upgrade before installing The Lounge.
For more information on how to upgrade, read the [documentation](https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/).

```
sudo npm install -g thelounge
```

## Usage

When the install is complete, go ahead and run this in your terminal:

```
lounge --help
```

For more information, read the [documentation](https://thelounge.github.io/docs/).

## Development setup

To run the app from source, just clone the code and run this in your terminal:

```
npm install
npm start
```

You will have to run `npm run build` if you change or add anything in
`client/js/libs` or `client/views.`

## License

Available under the [MIT License](LICENSE).

Some fonts licensed under [SIL OFL](http://scripts.sil.org/OFL) and the [Apache License](http://www.apache.org/licenses/).