fix: HTML-escape IRC username in Owncast chat, fix WebSocket auth, fix echo suppression

- Escape angle brackets around IRC username so Owncast doesn't swallow
  them as HTML tags (&lt;nick&gt; instead of <nick>)
- Register a chat user via POST /api/chat/register to obtain an
  accessToken, then pass it as a query param when connecting to /ws
  (Owncast closes the WebSocket immediately without one)
- Cache the access token across reconnections; re-register only on
  rejection
- Add ws_display_name config option (default "IRC Bridge")
- Fix echo suppression: record_sent and is_echo now both compare
  raw body instead of mismatched formatted/raw values

Made-with: Cursor

chat-summaries/2026-03-10_21-00-summary.md

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+# Debug: IRC + WebSocket connection failures
+
+## Task
+Investigated why both IRC and WebSocket connections were failing immediately after connecting, entering infinite reconnection loops with exponential backoff.
+
+## Findings
+
+Both issues were **external/environmental**, not code bugs:
+
+1. **IRC** (`irc.zeronode.net`): Server was rejecting with `ERROR :Closing link: ... [No more connections allowed from your host via this connect class (global)]`. Too many existing connections from the same host IP.
+
+2. **WebSocket** (`wss://owncast.bowlafterbowl.com/ws`): Caddy proxy successfully upgraded (101), but the Owncast backend immediately reset the connection. Owncast instance was offline.
+
+## Changes Made
+None (instrumentation added for debugging was fully reverted after diagnosis).
+
+## Follow-up Items
+- Consider logging the actual IRC ERROR message content instead of the generic "IRC stream ended" — would make future diagnosis faster without instrumentation.
+- Consider detecting fatal IRC errors (connection class limits, K-lines) and stopping reconnection attempts rather than continuing to hammer the server.

chat-summaries/2026-03-10_21-30-summary.md

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+# Fix IRC-Owncast Bridge Issues
+
+## Task
+Fix three issues: IRC username stripped in Owncast chat, WebSocket connection always failing, and echo suppression bug.
+
+## Changes Made
+
+### 1. HTML-escape username in IRC->Owncast messages (`src/router.rs`)
+- Changed `<username>` to `&lt;username&gt;` in the formatted message sent to Owncast's chat API
+- Owncast renders chat as HTML, so bare angle brackets were being interpreted as HTML tags and swallowed
+
+### 2. Fix WebSocket authentication (`src/websocket.rs`, `src/owncast_api.rs`, `src/main.rs`)
+- **Root cause**: Owncast's `/ws` endpoint requires an `accessToken` query parameter from a registered chat user. The bridge was connecting without one.
+- Added `register_chat_user()` to `OwncastApiClient` -- calls `POST /api/chat/register` to get a user-level access token
+- Updated `run_websocket_task` to register a chat user, cache the token, and pass it as `?accessToken=` in the WebSocket URL
+- Token is cached across reconnections; re-registration happens only if rejected
+- Added `base_url()` accessor to `OwncastApiClient`
+
+### 3. Add `ws_display_name` config field (`src/config.rs`, `config.toml`, `config.example.toml`)
+- New `ws_display_name` field on `OwncastConfig` (default: "IRC Bridge") controls the display name of the WebSocket chat user in Owncast
+
+### 4. Fix echo suppression bug (`src/router.rs`)
+- `record_sent` was storing the full formatted string (`[IRC] <nick> body`) but `is_echo` compared against raw `body` -- they never matched
+- Changed `record_sent` to store the raw `body` so echo suppression actually works
+- Moved the `is_echo` check before formatting in the Owncast->IRC path to avoid unnecessary work
+
+## Follow-up Items
+- Owncast admin still needs to configure webhook URL pointing to the bridge's port 9078
+- The bridge's WebSocket user will appear as "IRC Bridge" in Owncast's connected users list