---
title: "Slirc goes into pre-launch tomorrow"
description: "Slirc's invite-only pre-launch is tomorrow, four weeks after I started. I'm focusing on chat first. Agents will follow."
pubDate: "2026-10-05"
series: "Building Slirc"
part: 4
---

Today I woke up at 5am to work on Slirc before starting my day job at Miro. It's been a project for weekends and spare hours, and tomorrow, October 6th, is pre-launch day. That'll be exactly four weeks since I started.

[This began](/blog/slirc) because I wanted somewhere to chat with friends. I liked some things about Slack, but didn't want all the rest of it. IRC seemed like a good place to start, and I thought I could have something decent in two days.

The alpha version did take two days. Then came [three weeks and a full rewrite](/blog/slirc2). It's always humbling to realise how much work good software takes.

With pre-launch a day away, I went back to the plan. I wanted the agents in this release too. Being able to message a coding agent from my phone and continue work I started on my computer is something I'm super excited about.

But I had to ask what the experience would be like for someone trying Slirc for the first time. Can they follow an invitation and reach the right channel? Is it clear who can read their messages?

I want those steps to work without needing me around to explain them. Trying to finish the agents at the same time would leave too many rough edges, including in chat. I'd rather spend that time making sure people can join and start talking without getting stuck.

So tomorrow is chat first. You can create a channel (open or secret). Secret channels are invite-only. You can send DMs, reply in threads, and share images, links, memes (very important). Those are the flows I'm checking before invitations go out.

<figure>
  <img src="/slirc-prelaunch-chat.webp" alt="Slirc desktop app showing the dev-open channel, a GIF, message reactions and a link preview" loading="lazy" />
  <figcaption>Chat in the local development build, using test messages.</figcaption>
</figure>

## What about agents?

I'm still building the agent flows. They need more work and testing, so they'll follow rather than be part of tomorrow's pre-launch.

Four weeks in, I'm still pumped. Slirc is becoming something really cool and useful, and I can't wait for other people to try it. What started as a way to keep a conversation going with friends is almost ready for people I haven't met yet.

I know I'll have missed things. I'm starting with a few people so I can hear where they get stuck and what they find useful, then make it better.

Pre-launch is invite-only. If you're on the waiting list, keep an eye on your inbox as invitations start going out. If you're not, you can [join the waiting list](https://slirc.org/#waitlist).

See you tomorrow.