diff --git a/src/bin/poc-daemon/modules/irc.rs b/src/bin/poc-daemon/modules/irc.rs
index ee0d17b..a93030c 100644
--- a/src/bin/poc-daemon/modules/irc.rs
+++ b/src/bin/poc-daemon/modules/irc.rs
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ async fn connect_and_run(
 async fn register_and_read<R: tokio::io::AsyncRead + Unpin>(
     state: &SharedIrc,
     config: &IrcConfig,
-    reader: BufReader<R>,
+    mut reader: BufReader<R>,
     notify_tx: &mpsc::UnboundedSender<Notification>,
 ) -> io::Result<()> {
     // Register
@@ -273,9 +273,15 @@ async fn register_and_read<R: tokio::io::AsyncRead + Unpin>(
         s.send_raw(&format!("USER {} 0 * :{}", config.user, config.realname)).await?;
     }
 
-    let mut lines = reader.lines();
+    let mut buf = Vec::new();
 
-    while let Some(line) = lines.next_line().await? {
+    loop {
+        buf.clear();
+        let n = reader.read_until(b'\n', &mut buf).await?;
+        if n == 0 { break; }
+        // IRC is not guaranteed UTF-8 — lossy conversion handles Latin-1 etc.
+        let line = String::from_utf8_lossy(&buf).trim_end().to_string();
+        if line.is_empty() { continue; }
         let msg = match IrcMessage::parse(&line) {
             Some(m) => m,
             None => continue,
@@ -306,6 +312,19 @@ async fn register_and_read<R: tokio::io::AsyncRead + Unpin>(
                 let text = msg.params.get(1).map(|s| s.as_str()).unwrap_or("");
                 let nick = msg.nick().unwrap_or("unknown");
 
+                // Handle CTCP requests (wrapped in \x01)
+                if text.starts_with('\x01') && text.ends_with('\x01') {
+                    let ctcp = &text[1..text.len()-1];
+                    if ctcp.starts_with("VERSION") {
+                        let reply = format!(
+                            "NOTICE {nick} :\x01VERSION poc-daemon 0.4.0\x01"
+                        );
+                        state.borrow_mut().send_raw(&reply).await.ok();
+                    }
+                    // Don't generate notifications for CTCP
+                    continue;
+                }
+
                 // Log the message
                 let log_line = if target.starts_with('#') {
                     format!("[{}] <{}> {}", target, nick, text)
@@ -453,11 +472,13 @@ pub async fn handle_command(
             }
             let target = &args[0];
             let msg = args[1..].join(" ");
+            let nick = state.borrow().config.nick.clone();
             state
                 .borrow_mut()
                 .send_privmsg(target, &msg)
                 .await
                 .map_err(|e| e.to_string())?;
+            append_log(target, &nick, &msg);
             Ok(format!("sent to {target}"))
         }
         "status" => {