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# Formatting of socket

IRC is quite a hassle to understand, so the first thing to know about the protocol is the **socket** and **server/client**.

TLDR:
```
↗️ PRIVMSG target :content
🔀 :nick!ident@host PRIVMSG target :content
^ Replace nick, ident, host, & target with the respective values described.
↗️ COMMAND arg :content
↙️ :server RPL nick data :content
^ Replace nick with the nickname of the current connection.
```



> [!CAUTION]
> If the command has content, the colon MUST be included, and is at the beginning of the content, not the end of the command/args.
> ```
> ↗️ COMMAND: content
> ↙️ :server 421 nick COMMAND: :Unknown command
> ^ Replace nick with the nickname of the current connection.
> ```
> For more info on 421, see [Not Found](notfound.md)