Known Limitations¶

Authentication¶

• DID method support: Only did:plc and did:web are supported.
  Other DID methods (e.g. did:key, did:ion) are not implemented.
• Key rotation: If a user rotates their DID document keys, existing
  sessions are not invalidated. The server does not poll for key changes.
• Handle verification: The server resolves handles to DIDs at auth time
  but does not re-verify handles periodically. If a handle changes ownership,
  the server won't notice until the next authentication.
• DPoP nonce rotation: PDS nonce rotation during SASL is handled via
  automatic retry (server signals nonce, client retries). If the PDS rotates
  nonces again during the retry, authentication will fail (requires reconnect).

IRC Protocol¶

• No user limits (+l): Channel user limits are not implemented.
• No secret/private channels (+s/+p): Channels always appear in LIST.
• No WALLOPS, LINKS, STATS: Server-to-server informational commands
  are not implemented.
• USERHOST is simplified: Returns nick@host with a cloaked hostname
  rather than the real connected host.
• No services integration (NickServ/ChanServ): Identity is DID-based,
  not services-based.

S2S Federation¶

• Channel key removal: -k cannot propagate via SyncResponse (additive
  only). Needs a protocol change or CRDT-backed key state.
• Outgoing peer enforcement: --s2s-allowed-peers only checks incoming
  connections. Outgoing connections go to whatever --s2s-peers specifies.
  Ensure both flags are consistent for mutual authorization.
• Founder race condition: If two servers simultaneously create the
  same channel, both may assign different founders. The CRDT resolves
  this deterministically after sync (first-write-wins), but there is a
  brief inconsistency window.
• Topic merge strategy: SyncResponse ignores remote topic if local is set,
  but CRDT reconciliation uses last-write-wins. The two merge strategies can
  cause flapping in edge cases.

Persistence¶

• No message retention by age: Message pruning is count-based only
  (--max-messages-per-channel). There is no --message-retention-days.
• No full-text search: SQLite FTS5 is not wired up. Message search
  would require a separate index.
• Single-server SQLite: The database is a single SQLite file. There
  is no replication or multi-server persistence (state sync happens at
  the CRDT/S2S layer instead).

E2EE¶

• No forward secrecy for channels: Channel encryption keys are derived
  from a static passphrase. There is no ratcheting or key rotation.
  (DMs use X3DH + Double Ratchet and do have forward secrecy.)
• Key distribution is manual: Users must share the channel passphrase
  out-of-band. There is no key exchange protocol for channels.
• ENC2 group size: DID-based group encryption requires all members'
  DIDs to derive the group key. Very large groups would have slow key
  derivation.

Transports¶

• WebSocket is uncompressed: No per-message compression.
• iroh relay dependency: iroh uses relay servers for NAT traversal.
  If iroh's relay infrastructure is unavailable, direct connections may
  fail for users behind restrictive NATs.

Web Client¶

• No offline mode: Requires active WebSocket connection. No service
  worker message caching.
• No push notifications: Desktop notifications only work while the
  tab is open.

TUI Client¶

• No auto-reconnection: If the connection drops, you must restart.
• Not a full IRC client: The TUI is a reference implementation. It
  lacks DCC, scripts, multiple networks, etc.
• No mouse support: Terminal mouse events are not handled.

Plugin System¶

• Compiled-in only: Plugins must be compiled into the server binary.
  There is no dynamic loading. New plugins require a rebuild.
• No async hooks: Plugin hooks are synchronous. Long-running plugin
  logic should spawn tasks rather than blocking the hook.
• Limited hook set: Currently only on_connect, on_auth, on_join,
  on_message, and on_nick_change are available.

Resolved (no longer limitations)¶

The following were previously listed as limitations and have been fixed:

• ~~No server operators (OPER)~~ → OPER command + --oper-dids auto-oper
• ~~No hostname cloaking~~ → freeq/plc/xxxxxxxx for DID users, freeq/guest for guests
• ~~No S2S ban enforcement~~ → Bans sync via S2S, enforced on join (nick + DID)
• ~~No S2S authorization~~ → Mode/kick/topic/join all verified server-side
• ~~No S2S invite sync~~ → Invites sync via S2S, consumed on join
• ~~No CHATHISTORY~~ → IRCv3 CHATHISTORY with batch support
• ~~No account-notify~~ → IRCv3 account-notify + extended-join
• ~~Open federation by default~~ → --s2s-allowed-peers for allowlist mode
• ~~Per-IP connection limits~~ → 20 connections/IP on TCP + WebSocket