2026.5

Added:

• Setting to limit reaction display length (buffer.channel.message.max_reaction_display) and maximum length (buffer.channel.message.max_reaction_chars)
• Emoji and command picker entries are now clickable and insert the selected completion directly into the input.
• Multi-line send support (uses IRCv3 multiline when available; note: incompatible with the current release of soju [v0.10.1], expected to be resolved in a future version)
• Typing indicator support (uses IRCv3 typing)
• Add emoji reactions for supported servers (uses IRCv3 react)
• New "config" option to sidebar.order_channels_by. Uses server.<server_name>.channels to determine order.
• Case insensitive sort of query names in sidebar
• Copied order_channels_by from sidebar to server.<name>, defaults to sidebar.order_channels_by if empty.
• Alias commands (see buffer.commands.aliases)
• Exec command support for generating input from shell command output (see buffer.commands.exec)
• The titlebar now displays the current buffer for each window.
• /plain-me, /format-me, /plain-msg, /format-msg, /plain-notice, and /format-notice commands were added to provide /plain//format functionality to the /me, /msg, and /notice commands

Fixed:

• Improved message length calculation (when known the bytes required to relay a message are included in the calculation, when unknown an estimate is used)
• Prevent interaction leakage behind open modals: clicks, cursor changes, and hover states no longer affect underlying UI while preserving outside-click and Esc to close
• Prevent clicks from passing through completion picker overlays to content behind them (for example nicknames in the buffer).
• Regression that could make the application slow to close
• Apply locale to context menu, copy, and date separator timestamps
• Fixed direct message notifications when excludes are present
• Fixed reloading config for channel sorting.
• Fixed handling of URLs ending with ).
• Auto-format rules are applied to the content of /me, /msg, and /notice commands

Changed:

• Spoilers (/f ||hello world||) now reveal on click instead of hover

Security:

• Fixed file transfer path traversal vulnerability when using DCC
• Config directories and config.toml are now created with owner-only permissions

Thanks:

• Contributions: @KaiKorla, @englut, @mango766, @ncfavier, @classabbyamp
• Bug reports: chmod222, @whitequark, @englut, sebbu, @ascarion, @4e554c4c, @BKVad1m, @mango766, esden
• Feature requests: @gAlleb, @jtbx, @cyrneko, @englut, @ascarion

2026.4

Added:

• Support for the IRCv3 react client tag.
• Correctly record window size if window is maximized

Changed:

• Notification toasts can now use a subtitle on supported operating systems
• New about screen accessible from the user menu in the sidebar
• Added setting to mark focused buffers as read on incoming messages
• Formatting inside code spans is now ignored in order to prevent breaks in code span styling
• Links inside code spans are not detected in order to prevent breaks in code span styling
• Setting to hide consecutive timestamps (buffer.timestamp.hide_consecutive)

Fixed:

• High CPU usage when opening very large buffers
• Window state is saved even if altered shortly before quitting
• Default dimmed value for server messages no longer overrides dimmed = false set for individual server message kinds
• Issue where context menu items would not respond to clicks
• Filters are loaded on first connection to server via bouncer-networks and updated on config file reload
• Compatibility with ZNC's backlog service
• Markdown formatting inside code spans is properly ignored

Security:

• Improve link preview management to mitigate spam-driven resource abuse

Thanks:

• Contributions: @melocene, @4e554c4c, @TheOneric, @bmndc, @RealKindOne, @englut
• Feature requests: @deepspaceaxolotl, @RoboDanjal
• Bug reports: @barretgoat, @TheOneric, @Erroneuz, @BKVad1m. @englut, @whitequark, petteri, xtracked

2026.3

Added:

• Support requesting window attention (setting urgency) for notifications (notifications.<type>.request_attention)
• Default server message pseudo-type, allowing the default values for server message types to be user-specified
• Default internal message pseudo-type, allowing the default values for internal message types to be user-specified
• Add setting to specify queries to be added to the sidebar after connecting to a server
• Added ability to disconnect on SASL authentication failure
• Setting to configure font line height (font.line_height)
• Ability to add multiple keybinds for a single shortcut
• Sidebar actions can now be configured separately for channel and query buffers (actions.sidebar.channel, actions.sidebar.query)
• URL context menu now supports Hide Preview / Show Preview
• New shortcuts:
  • new_horizontal_buffer (not bound by default)
  • new_vertical_buffer (not bound by default)
  • quit_application (defaults to Ctrl+Q on linux, not bound on Windows/MacOS)
• Expand show_access_levels to allow all access levels (in addition to highest or no access levels) in buffer/nicklist/input
• Configuration setting to allow locale specification used when formatting timestamps
• Configuration setting to include chantypes / prefixes when sorting channels in the sidebar
• When leaving a server (via context menu on sidebar entry or /quit), the server will not be automatically removed from the sidebar
• Manual disconnection from a server will disable auto-reconnect
• Disconnected servers can be connected to via the "Connect to server" entry in the context menu for its sidebar entry
• Servers can be prevented from connecting on launch (or configuration reload) with the servers.<name>.autoconnect setting
• /connect (without an argument) and /reconnect can be used in open buffers for disconnected servers to (re-)connect to the server
• /join (without an argument) can be used in channel buffers where the channel is not joined in order to (re-)join the channel

Fixed:

• Channel mode in pane headers not updating immediately after mode changes
• Cycle next/previous (unread) buffer shortcuts work from an empty pane
• Virtualize message rendering to improve buffer performance
• Default proxy used when checking for an update
• Detect system locale when formatting timestamps with locale-specific stftime formats
• When changing connection details for server (e.g. address, port, SASL authentication, etc) the connection details will be properly updated and the connection re-initiated
• Server configurations are properly updated when reloading configuration file

Changed:

• Condensed server messages are now enabled by default for nick changes, joins, parts, and quits
• The default condensed server message icon is now "none"
• sidebar.user_menu.show_new_version_indicator setting has been changed to check_for_update_on_launch to clarify that it prevents the check for an update
• Default settings:
  • buffer.server_messages.condense.messages: [] → ["change-host", "change-nick", "join", "part", "quit"]
  • sidebar.padding.buffer: [5,5] → [4,4]
  • sidebar.spacing.server: 12 → 6

Fixed:

• When joining a channel fails (for example, invite-only or channel full), we now show the
  failure reason

Thanks:

• Contributions: @Hummer12007, @chamlis, @englut
• Feature requests: @megumintyan, @4e554c4c, @RoboDanjal, @stacyharper, @zZzUP3RzZz, @Porkepix, @vidje
• Bug reports: @someone2037492034, @deepspaceaxolotl, @whitequark, @sebbu2, @esden, @Porkepix, @someone2037492034, @Hexorg, @sulrich, @Erroneuz

2026.2

Added:

• Settings to disable (selectively, or for the entire server) confirmation of delivery for sent messages
• Setting to adjust inner spacing and outer padding for panes (pane.gap.inner, pane.gap.outer)
• Setting to style unread query buffers as highlights in the sidebar (sidebar.unread_indicator.query_as_highlight)
• Settings to configure card and image preview dimensions
• Support for transparent background.

Fixed:

• Buffer not showing history until resize
• Previews are fetched through the same proxy as the server (or default proxy) for HTTP/SOCKS5 proxies
• No longer highlight nickname mentions in sent messages in certain scenarios
• Filters applied to one server will no longer hide query panes for other servers
• Card preview description text is now limited in height to prevent excessive text display

Changed:

• No longer highlight matches in sent messages
• No longer show notifications for messages where the relevant buffer is open and Halloy is focused

Thanks:

• Contributions: @Hummer12007
• Bug reports: @e00E, @oooo-ps, @csmith, @bw1, @deepspaceaxolotl

2026.1.1

Note: Windows

Windows build didn't like our extra version number here, so please use 2026.1 until we release 2026.2.

Changelog

Fixed:

• Version number reported in AppData file

Thanks:

• Bug reports: @englut

2026.1

Added:

• Added Open URL entry to URL context menus
• Setting to not hide consecutive if previous message was a image preview
• Channel discovery buffer to view all channels on a server (using LIST). Can be opened via sidebar button or command bar.
• Setting to hide server icons in sidemenu
• Setting to adjust buffer padding and server spacing in sidemenu
• Setting to adjust entry padding in context menus
• Support for configuring a regex-based allowlist of URL patterns for Preview
• Setting to open a new pane, replace current pane, or open a new window after /join
• Emoji, channel, and user completion can be used with commands
• Auto-completion (emoji/channel/user) will auto-complete at the text cursor (instead of the end of the current input)
• Insert-nickname will place the nickname at the text cursor (instead of end of the current input)
• Backlog separator can be customized with a custom color and text (with the ability to remove text from it)
• Setting to disable unread indicators for specified channels/servers
• Users and messages can be filtered using regular expressions
• Added ability to set default QUIT and PART reason
• /connect command to temporarily connect to a server
• Setting for the font size of messages that contain only emojis

Fixed:

• No longer any delay in showing a tooltip after hovering
• Ignored users will not be suggested by user auto-completion
• Channel auto-completion works with all channel prefixes specified by the server
• Number pad enter now sends messages instead of adding a new line
• Join & monitor commands sent automatically on connection respect TARGMAX limits specified by the server
• /sysinfo is cleared from input when sent, and is recorded to the buffer even if the server doesn't support echoes
• Channel and user links in messages in the highlight buffer
• Remember fullscreen state across sessions

Changed:

• Keybindings for macOS default to Emacs-like by default, to match native text-input behavior

Thanks:

• Contributions: @csmith
• Bug reports: halloy3002, g00s, Eagle-1
• Feature requests: @tribly, @deepspaceaxolotl, @dieperdev, @Erroneuz, @lorenzosu, @Summertime, @WinnerWind, @vidje

2025.12

Added:

• Ability to exclude previews from specific server messages (e.g. topic, part, quit)
• Ability to expand & contract condensed messages via left-click
• Ability to hide nickname for consecutive messages from the same user
• Ability to hide the indicator when a new version of Halloy is available
• Ability to set Emacs-like keybindings for text input
• Ability to specify a distinct sound for each match highlight set
• Border radius on both image previews and cards displaying images through meta tags (configurable)
• Change-host and kick server messages messages can be condensed
• Context menu added to text input when right clicking
• Context menu item added to server-wide buffers to close all queries
• Exit application from user menu
• Fuzzy matching when searching in command bar
• Keyboard shortcuts can now be unset
• Messages that fail to send are dimmed and marked, and can be deleted or re-sent (for servers that support the echo-message capability)
• Per server custom proxy configuration option
• Reload Halloy by sending SIGUSR1 on Unix system
• Setting to disable file transfers (DCC), removing it from the UI
• Setting to notify for every message in a channel
• /plain command to send text with automatic formatting disabled
• Whowas instead of Whois action in context menu for offline nicknames

Fixed:

• Channels with the same name as servers now appear before servers when searching in command bar
• Flickering logo on Welcome screen
• Hide jitter in backlog divider caused by read marker updates when marking read on send
• Larger fonts (and font sizes) can be used without blanking out the input box
• NumLock status respected in input box & shortcuts
• Server messages reporting an inability to send to a nick/channel are routed to the relevant buffer
• Standard Exif rotation data is used when displaying images

Changed:

• Buffer context menu items in sidebar are sorted alphabetically
• By default the backlog separator is hidden when all messages in a pane have been marked as read (buffer.backlog_separator.hide_when_all_read)
• Unicode nicknames are now supported
• User menu configuration moved to [sidebar.user_menu] section

2025.11

Fixed:

• Regression when loading chat history in a channel

Thanks:

• Bug reports: @Erroneuz

2025.10

Added:

• /sysinfo command to send system information to current buffer
• Copy URLs from context menu by right-clicking on links
• Settings to condense multiple consecutive server messages into a single abbreviated message
• /detach command to detach from channels (soju feature)
• Support for USERINFO CTCP query
• Configurable anti-flood protection for servers that do not advertise SAFERATE
• Channel modes will be retrieved on joining a channel (to be shown in the pane title bar)
• Display own nickname next to text input field
• Server messages can be dimmed (enabled by default), to lessen their visual impact relative to user messages
• Context menu to timestamps that shows the message date, and will copy the timestamp to the clipboard when clicked
• Setting to open new buffers scrolled to the bottom (rather than scrolled to the last unread message, the default and current behavior)
• macOS: Ability to adjust content rendering to account for titlebar
• Setting to remove all window decorations
• New sounds: Zone, Bloop, Drop, Tweep.

Fixed:

• Enforce delay between notifications
• Larger fonts (and font sizes) can be used without blanking out the sidebar or pane title bar(s)
• The primary clipboard (with copy on selection & paste with middle click) is supported on Linux
• Sound effects are now properly reloaded when config file is refreshed from within the application
• Filters are applied only to the server they are specified for
• Filters are renormalized properly when ISUPPORT is updated
• Crash when typing /bouncer into the message box
• Scroll state no longer changes rapidly when long previews for URL(s) are present in history
• Sidebar menu always takes one click to open (would sometimes require two clicks)

Changed:

• The logs pane will only contain log messages since the last of launch of Halloy (i.e. for the current session only)
• Always show version number in user menu

Thanks:

• Contributions: @Toby222, @Frikilinux, @4e554c4c, @apollo7321, @Bartkk0, @seraxis
• Bug reports: @Toby222, @deepspaceaxolotl, @zhelezov, @Erroneuz, @dgz0, @csmith, @otonoton, @mefistoso
• Feature requests: @j0lol, @xcfrg, ThePendulum, i_like_halloy

2025.9

Added:

• Added different unread icons for highlights vs regular unread messages
• Setting to change icons for unread messages and unread highlight messages
• Setting to change server icon size
• Setting to control spacing between messages in buffers
• Ability to specific multiple themes which then gets picked randomly at launch
• Notification indicator on sidebar menu for warning & error log messages
• Ability to mark as read on buffer close only if scrolled to the bottom of the buffer (new default behavior)
• /part, /topic, /mode, /kick, and /ctcp commands can have their target(s) argument skipped when it can be inferred from context (e.g. /topic will target the current channel by default when used in a channel buffer)
• /cleartopic command to remove a channel's topic (will target the current channel by default when used in a channel buffer)
• Ability to hide and theme kick server messages
• Setting to control whether or not to restore on launch the panes that were open when Halloy last closed
• Setting for split axis chosen as the shorter dimension of the focused pane (new default behavior)
• Setting for split axis chosen as the shorter dimension of the largest splittable pane
• soju.im/bouncer-networks support
• Setting to hide the backlog divider when all messages in the buffer have been read
• Setting to specify whether nickname highlighting is case sensitive
• Setting to hide topic changes

Fixed:

• Receiving files over DCC will no longer stall when sender stops accepting received receipts
• Attempting to navigate to the next/previous unread buffer, when there is no such buffer, will no longer clear the buffer
• Window position is now validated, preventing windows from opening on disconnected monitors
• When kicked from a channel the kick message will be broadcast in the server buffer (which remains open) as well as in the channel history (which is closed on kick)
• Preview images with large dimensions will not be displayed if larger than the allowed buffer size
• Do not activate the mark as read buffer when blocked/hidden messages are unread in the buffer
• Nickname highlighting is case insensitive by default (and uses the server's specified casemapping)
• Nickname changes properly broadcast in all channels user is in
• Page up/down behavior moves by consistent page length, and will no longer get stuck at the top of a buffer
• file_transfer.save_directory is now affected by path substitutions (tilde expansion & relative path prefixing)

Changed:

• Relative paths in configuration files are now prefixed with config dir

Thanks:

• Contributions: @Death916, @4e554c4c, @freakyy85, @hashcatHitman, @5GameMaker
• Bug reports: @privacyadmin, @rlndd, @wingedonezero, @Seishiin, @Erroneuz, @andar1an, freakyy85, ThinkT510, alexia, @darienm, quaff, @zhelezov
• Feature requests: @deepspaceaxolotl, @4e554c4c, @seraxis, RebeLLz, @cvengler, @barretgoat, @remexre, @dmd