Textual is often the most recommended IRC client for macOS. You can buy it for $7.99 or you can simply build it from source. Let us look at how to do exactly that.

Prerequisites

Your mac needs to have Xcode 10.0 or newer.

Cloning the source

Clone the source from here wherever you desire. Don't forget to download the submodules used by Textual. If submodules aren't downloaded, Xcode will give the directory <directory> does not contain a xcode project build error.

$ git clone https://github.com/Codeux-Software/Textual.git
$ cd Textual
$ git submodule update --init --recursive

Setup code signing certificates

• Launch Keychain Access.app and use Certificate Assistance to Create a Certificate.

• Enter your name, set Identity Type to "Self Signed Root" and set Certificate Type to "Code Signing" and create the certificate.

• Your certificate should be visible in the "My Certificates" section of "login" Keychain

Changing config files

You will need to change two files: Code Signing Identity.xcconfig and

Enabled Features.xcconfig.

Code Signing Identity configuration

• Open Code Signing Identity.xcconfig with a text editor of choice. It should be located at Textual/Configurations/Build/.
• For CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY, type the name that was used to create the Certificate above.
• Leave DEVELOPMENT_TEAM, PROVISIONING_PROFILE_SPECIFIER empty.

Enabled Features configuration

• Open Enabled Features.xcconfig with a text editor of choice. It should be located at Textual/Configurations/Build/Standard Release/.
• Set TEXTUAL_BUILT_WITH_LICENSE_MANAGER to 0. This prevents the trial period countdown.

Building Textual

Open Textual in Xcode by launching Textual.xcworkspace file in Textual root. Xcode will start indexing and processes source files. Once that is complete, follow these steps:

1. On your Xcode menu bar, click Product > Scheme and select Textual (Standard Release).
2. Similarly, click on Product > Build to start building the app. This should start the build process.

1. Navigate to Textual/Build Results/Release and you should see a shiny new Textual.app. Drag this to your Applications folder.

You should now have a working Textual app (with no trial countdown) that you built yourself!