Sock Chat is a chatting protocol that operates on a text-mode WebSocket ¹⁾. Messages sent between the client and server are a series of concatenated strings delimited by the vertical tab character, represented in most languages by the escape sequence \t and defined in ASCII as 0x09. This wiki documents all behaviour that can be expected from a Sock Chat client and server.

Updated behaviour will be added through extensions called capabilities at a later date. Not providing any capabilities will have the protocol continue behaving as defined by the original PHP implementation.

• Types - Describes all data types that occur in packets.
• Client to Server (C2S) Packets - Describes all packets that a client can send to a server.
• Server to Client (S2C) Packets - Describes all packets that a server may send to a client.
• Capabilities - Describes all capabilities and what changes in behaviour they cause.
• Commands - Describes all client commands a server is expected to understand.
• Notices - Describes all formatting strings for informational and error messages.
• BB Codes - Describes common BB Code formats.
• Old Documentation - Previous version of the documentation, will remain available until all information has been moved over.

• Sock Chat was created by reemo.
• Current version of the protocol is maintained by flashwave.
• Mami and SharpChat for Flashii Chat are currently considered the reference client and server implementations for new developments.
• What is described as “Core” in this documentation is equivalent to the behaviour of the original PHP client and server source.