The .irc File Format

Why Every Other Format Failed

Every major IR format made the same mistake — it tied signals to hardware, platforms, or companies. When the hardware died, the signals died with it.

Two Clean Layers — One File

Every .irc file contains two completely separate layers. Apps that only need IR signals read Layer 2 and ignore Layer 1. READYWARE reads both.

Hardware Agnostic. Forever.

This means your entire library of .irc remotes:

• ✓
  Works with your current hardware right now
• ✓
  Works with any new hardware you add in the future — automatically
• ✓
  Survives company shutdowns, hardware discontinuations, and platform changes
• ✓
  Is immune to format obsolescence — pulses are physics, not software
• ✓
  Can be shared, traded, downloaded, and imported by any app that reads .irc

READYWARE lives forever. Not locked to any one device. Upgrade your hardware, switch platforms, change apps — your remotes come with you.

Design Principles

• 1
  Pulses are truth — raw microsecond timings are the ground truth signal. The physics of infrared light.
• 2
  Encodings are views — BroadLink, Pronto, LIRC are derived on demand, never stored as the source.
• 3
  Hardware agnostic — works with any IR/RF transmitter, today and in the future, forever.
• 4
  Human readable — plain JSON, no binary blobs. Any developer can read it in a text editor.
• 5
  Open forever — CC0 public domain. No license restrictions. No attribution required. No company can take it away.
• 6
  Two layers — UI and signals are completely separate. Hardware-only apps ignore Layer 1. READYWARE uses both.
• 7
  Simple to implement — any developer can parse .irc in under 100 lines of code.

The Signal Object

Every IR or RF signal stores two representations — the raw physics and the hardware encoding. Both are always present. Neither alone is enough.

"power": {
  "type":      "IR",           // IR or RF
  "frequency": 38000,         // Hz carrier — 38kHz standard IR
  "pulses":    [9042, 4484, 579, 552, 579, 552...],  // microseconds — THE TRUTH
  "encodings": {
    "ir_base64": "JgBYAAABJZQRExITEjgR..."   // fires instantly today
  },
  "source":    "flipper",     // flipper | smartir | irdb | user
  "license":   "cc0"          // public domain
}

Why Store Both Pulses and Encoding?

Pulses = the permanent record. They are the raw physics of the signal. Any hardware, any future device, any app — they all read pulses.

Encoding = the shortcut. Pre-calculated for zero-latency firing on current hardware. When you get new hardware, generate its encoding from pulses once. No re-learning. No re-scanning. Everything you have already saved works instantly.

Signal Types

Bluetooth is not included in .irc v1. BT is a full protocol stack — fundamentally different from pulse-based signals. .irc v2 will add BT as a separate signal type.

Format Converter — Supported Formats

The READYWARE Signal Editor and Format Converter accepts any of these formats as input and converts instantly to any other. Paste and go — auto-detected with zero configuration.

Format Comparison

License — CC0 Public Domain

The .irc specification and all files in the READYWARE IR database are published under CC0 1.0 Universal (Public Domain).

No attribution required. No restrictions. No company can revoke it. No license to comply with. Free forever — for developers, manufacturers, researchers, and users alike.

READYWARE does not own IR pulse data. IR signals are physical phenomena — the physics of infrared light. They belong to no one. We collected, standardized, and published them for the benefit of everyone.

Contribute

Have a device not in the database? Learned a signal READYWARE doesn't have? Submit it.

Submit codes: readyware.net/contribute
View the database: readyware.net/ir
Contact: today@readyware.com