IRC is still a simple model: one server, many channels, text over a long-lived TCP session. InspIRCd runs the network; ZNC is a bouncer that stays logged in when your client disconnects and replays backlog when you return.

In the lab both are plain Deployments under Flux, with TLS from cert-manager and a Gateway API TCPRoute for TLS on port 6697.

IRC is a good contrast to HTTP-only homelab apps: clients expect a long-lived TCP session and often TLS on a non-443 port. Gateway API TCPRoute covers that without bolting IRC into an HTTP ingress controller as a special case.