HexChat ships with a handful of useful plugins that extend the functionality of the client. In order to auto-load custom ones you just place them in an addons subdir within your config folder, manually with /load and /unload, or with Window ‣ Plugins and Scripts.
With the included scripting interfaces you can also use easier to create but equally powerful scripts in languages such as Python. These are loaded/unloaded in the same manner as plugins.
This plugin can be used to perform an arbitrary command on multiple channels or contexts. List can be specific to networks, or any context on a separate network. Usage:
/doat [channel,list,/network] [command]
To change username on network FreeNode from some other network:
/doat /FreeNode nick ANewNick
With Exec you can perform commands as if you ran them in the command line. The output will be printed at once, in the end of execution. If the command takes more than 10 seconds to complete, it gets aborted to avoid locking down HexChat. Usage:
/exec ping google.com
Adds FiSH encryption support. You set a password for a conversation/channel, and then all your messages get encrypted. Only those who know the password will be able to read your messages. Usage is simple: first you set the password:
/setkey yoursecretkey
Then you let your fellow chatters know this password. Once they also set the password on their sides, they’ll receive messages decrypted and send them encrypted, too.
Automatically checks for updates available. Can be manually checked via Help ‣ Check for Updates or by the command:
/updcheck
Prints out basic system information on both Windows and Unix. You can either activate in Window ‣ Display System Info or type:
/sysinfo
Automatically calculates the SHA-256 checksum of files sent and recieved via DCC.
Displays your currently playing song via Window ‣ Display Current Song or by command:
/winamp
Note
Foobar can also be used with the foo_winamp_spam plugin.