Provided by: senpai_0.4.1-1_amd64 
NAME
senpai - Configuration file format and settings
DESCRIPTION
A senpai configuration file is a scfg file. See https://git.sr.ht/~emersion/scfg.
Some settings are required, the others are optional.
SETTINGS
address (required)
The address (host[:port]) of the IRC server. senpai uses TLS connections by default unless you
specify tls option to be false. TLS connections default to port 6697, plain-text use port 6667.
An optional scheme can be specified (scheme://host[:port]):
• irc:// is the implicit default, TLS is enabled or disabled according to the tls configuration
value.
• ircs:// enables TLS.
• irc+insecure:// disables TLS (plain-text IRC).
• ircs+insecure:// enables TLS but skips TLS certificate verification. This protects against
passive MITM attacks but not against active MITM attacks.
nickname (required)
Your nickname, sent with a NICK IRC message. It mustn't contain spaces or colons (:).
realname
Your real name, or actually just a field that will be available to others and may contain spaces and
colons. Sent with the USER IRC message. By default, the value of nick is used.
username
Your username, sent with the USER IRC message and also used for SASL authentication. By default, the
value of nick is used.
password
Your password, used for SASL authentication. See also password-cmd.
password-cmd command [arguments...]
Alternatively to providing your SASL authentication password directly in plaintext, you can specify a
command to be run to fetch the password at runtime. This is useful if you store your passwords in a
separate (probably encrypted) file using `gpg` or a command line password manager such as pass or
gopass. If a password-cmd is provided, the value of password will be ignored and the first line of
the output of password-cmd will be used for login.
The command and arguments are already quoted by scfg, so there is no need to additionally quote the
whole command string. For example:
password-cmd pass "Messaging/irc"
channel
A space separated list of channel names that senpai will automatically join at startup and server
reconnect. This directive can be specified multiple times.
This directive should not be used when using a bouncer, as the bouncer already remembers and joins
senpai to its saved channels automatically.
highlight
A space separated list of keywords that will trigger a notification and a display indicator when said
by others. This directive can be specified multiple times.
By default, senpai will use your current nickname.
on-highlight-beep
Enable sending the bell character (BEL) when you are highlighted. Defaults to disabled.
pane-widths { ... }
Configure the width of various UI panes.
Pane widths are set as sub-directives of the main pane-widths directive:
pane-widths {
nicknames 16
}
This directive supports the following sub-directives:
nicknames
The number of cells that the column for nicknames occupies in the timeline. By default, 14.
channels
The number of cells that the column for channels occupies on screen. By default, 16. Use special
value 0 to make the channel list horizontal. If the value is negative, the channel list will be
horizontal by default and will take the positive (opposite) width value when toggled with F7.
members
The number of cells that that the column for the list of channel members occupies on screen. By
default, 16. Use special value 0 to disable. If the value is negative, the member list will be
disabled by default and will take the positive (opposite) width value when toggled with F8.
text
The maximum message text line width for messages, in number of cells. By default, the value is
zero, which means that there is no maximum. Useful for keeping a readable line width on large
screens.
tls
Enable TLS encryption. Defaults to true.
typings
Send typing notifications which let others know when you are typing a message. Defaults to true.
mouse
Enable or disable mouse support. Defaults to true.
colors { ... }
Settings for colors of different UI elements.
Colors can be set either by name ("red"), by number (from 0 to 255, for the default 256 terminal
colors; -1 meaning default), or by RGB hex true color (#rrggbb).
Colors are set as sub-directives of the main colors directive:
colors {
prompt green
}
┌────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Sub-directive │ Description │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ prompt <color> │ color for ">"-prompt that appears in command mode │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ unread <color> │ foreground color for unread buffer names in buffer lists │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ status [...] │ foreground color for status event lines (e.g. join, part, nick changes) in buffers, │
│ │ see table below │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ nicks [...] │ color scheme for user nicks, see table below │
└────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ status sub-directive │ Description │
├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ status <color> │ show status events with the specified color │
├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ status disabled │ hide status events │
└──────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ nicks sub-directive │ Description │
├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ nicks base │ show nicks with 16 different colors (default) │
├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ nicks extended │ show nicks with 256 different colors │
├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ nicks fixed [<others>] │ show nicks with a fixed color, optionally specifying the colors for other │
│ │ nicks │
├────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ nicks self <self> │ show self nick with a fixed specified color (can be added along other │
│ │ directives) │
└────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
debug
Advanced. Dump all sent and received data to the home buffer, useful for debugging. Defaults to
false.
-transient
Advanced. Run an ephemeral instance without disk reads/writes (except for the initial configuration).
Can be useful for public instances. Defaults to false.
-local-integrations
Advanced. Enables integrations with the local system (e.g. notifications through DBus). Can be useful
to disable on systems planned to be used through SSH. Defaults to true.
on-highlight-path
Advanced. senpai will notify you by default without the need for a custom highlight script.
Alternative path to a shell script to be executed when you are highlighted. By default, senpai looks
for a highlight shell script at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/senpai/highlight. If no file is found at that path,
and an alternate path is not provided, highlight command execution is disabled.
If unset, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME defaults to ~/.config/.
Before the highlight script is executed, the following environment variables are populated:
Shell scripts MUST ENSURE VARIABLES appear QUOTED in the script file, OR YOU WILL BE OPEN TO SHELL
INJECTION ATTACKS. Shell scripts must also ensure characters like '*' and '?' are not expanded.
┌──────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Environment variable │ Description │
├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ BUFFER │ buffer where the message appeared │
├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ HERE │ equals 1 if BUFFER is the current buffer, 0 otherwise │
├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ MESSAGE │ content of the message │
├──────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ SENDER │ nickname of the sender │
└──────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Note: when passing those to notify-send(1), some notification daemons use \ for escape sequences in
the body, which causes \ to disappear from the message or triggers unintended side-effects (like
newlines).
To get around this, you can double the backslash with the following snippet:
#!/bin/sh
escape() {
printf "%s" "$1" | sed 's#\#\\#g'
}
notify-send "[$BUFFER] $SENDER" "$(escape "$MESSAGE")"
EXAMPLES
A minimal configuration file to connect to Libera.Chat as "Guest123456":
address irc.libera.chat
nickname Guest123456
A more advanced configuration file that fetches a password from an external program, changes the width of
some panes, and enables more colors for user nicks:
address irc.libera.chat
nickname Guest123456
username senpai
realname "Guest von Lenon"
password-cmd gopass show irc/guest # use your favorite CLI password solution here
channel "#rahxephon"
pane-widths {
nicknames 10
channels 16
members 16
}
colors {
nicks extended
}
SEE ALSO
senpai(1)
2025-04-14 senpai(5)