diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+# ircrobots
+
+## rationale
+I wanted a very-bare-bones IRC bot framework that deals with most of the
+concerns one would deal with in scheduling and awaiting async stuff, e.g.
+creating and awaiting a new task for each server while dynamically being able
+to add/remove servers.
+
+## usage
+see [examples/](examples/) for some usage demonstration.
diff --git a/examples/simple.py b/examples/simple.py
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+++ b/examples/simple.py
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+import asyncio
+
+from irctokens import build, Line
+
+from ircrobots.bot    import Bot as BaseBot
+from ircrobots.server import ConnectionParams, Server
+
+SERVERS = [
+    ("freenode", "chat.freenode.net"),
+    ("tilde",    "ctrl-c.tilde.chat")
+]
+
+class Bot(BaseBot):
+    async def line_read(self, server: Server, line: Line):
+        if line.command == "001":
+            print(f"connected to {server.isupport.network}")
+            await server.send(build("JOIN", ["#testchannel"]))
+
+async def main():
+    bot = Bot()
+    for name, host in SERVERS:
+        params = ConnectionParams("BitBotNewTest", host, 6697, True)
+        await bot.add_server(name, params)
+    await bot.run()
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    asyncio.run(main())
diff --git a/ircrobots/__init__.py b/ircrobots/__init__.py
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+++ b/ircrobots/__init__.py
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+
diff --git a/ircrobots/bot.py b/ircrobots/bot.py
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+++ b/ircrobots/bot.py
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+import asyncio, inspect
+import anyio
+from queue  import Queue
+from typing import Any, Awaitable, Callable, cast, Dict, List, Tuple
+from irctokens import Line
+
+from .server import ConnectionParams, Server
+
+RECONNECT_DELAY = 10.0 # ten seconds reconnect
+
+class Bot(object):
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.servers: Dict[str, Server] = {}
+        self._server_queue: asyncio.Queue[Server] = asyncio.Queue()
+
+    # methods designed to be overridden
+    def create_server(self, name: str):
+        return Server(name)
+    async def disconnected(self, server: Server):
+        await asyncio.sleep(RECONNECT_DELAY)
+        await self.add_server(server.name, server.params)
+    async def line_read(self, server: Server, line: Line):
+        pass
+    async def line_send(self, server: Server, line: Line):
+        pass
+
+    async def add_server(self, name: str, params: ConnectionParams) -> Server:
+        server = self.create_server(name)
+        self.servers[name] = server
+        await server.connect(params)
+        await self._server_queue.put(server)
+        return server
+
+    async def _run_server(self, server: Server):
+        async with anyio.create_task_group() as tg:
+            async def _read():
+                while not tg.cancel_scope.cancel_called:
+                    lines = await server._read_lines()
+                    for line in lines:
+                        await self.line_read(server, line)
+                await tg.cancel_scope.cancel()
+
+            async def _write():
+                try:
+                    while not tg.cancel_scope.cancel_called:
+                        lines = await server._write_lines()
+                        for line in lines:
+                            await self.line_send(server, line)
+                except Exception as e:
+                    print(e)
+                await tg.cancel_scope.cancel()
+
+            await tg.spawn(_read)
+            await tg.spawn(_write)
+        del self.servers[server.name]
+        await self.disconnected(server)
+
+    async def run(self):
+        async with anyio.create_task_group() as tg:
+            while not tg.cancel_scope.cancel_called:
+                server = await self._server_queue.get()
+                await tg.spawn(self._run_server, server)
diff --git a/ircrobots/server.py b/ircrobots/server.py
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+++ b/ircrobots/server.py
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+import asyncio, ssl
+from queue       import Queue
+from typing      import Callable, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
+from enum        import Enum
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+
+from asyncio_throttle import Throttler
+from ircstates        import Server as BaseServer
+from irctokens        import build, Line, tokenise
+
+sc = ssl.create_default_context(ssl.Purpose.SERVER_AUTH)
+
+THROTTLE_RATE = 4 # lines
+THROTTLE_TIME = 2 # seconds
+
+@dataclass
+class ConnectionParams(object):
+    nickname: str
+    host:     str
+    port:     int
+    ssl:      bool
+
+    username: Optional[str] = None
+    realname: Optional[str] = None
+    bindhost: Optional[str] = None
+
+class SendPriority(Enum):
+    HIGH   = 0
+    MEDIUM = 10
+    LOW    = 20
+
+    DEFAULT = MEDIUM
+
+class Server(BaseServer):
+    _reader: asyncio.StreamReader
+    _writer: asyncio.StreamWriter
+    params:  ConnectionParams
+
+    def __init__(self, name: str):
+        super().__init__(name)
+        self.throttle = Throttler(
+            rate_limit=THROTTLE_RATE, period=THROTTLE_TIME)
+        self._write_queue: asyncio.PriorityQueue[Tuple[int, Line]] = asyncio.PriorityQueue()
+
+    async def send_raw(self, line: str, priority=SendPriority.DEFAULT):
+        await self.send(tokenise(line), priority)
+    async def send(self, line: Line, priority=SendPriority.DEFAULT):
+        await self._write_queue.put((priority, line))
+
+    def set_throttle(self, rate: int, time: float):
+        self.throttle.rate_limit = rate
+        self.throttle.period     = time
+
+    async def connect(self, params: ConnectionParams):
+        cur_ssl = sc if params.ssl else None
+        reader, writer = await asyncio.open_connection(
+            params.host, params.port, ssl=cur_ssl)
+        self._reader = reader
+        self._writer = writer
+
+        nickname = params.nickname
+        username = params.username or nickname
+        realname = params.realname or nickname
+
+        await self.send(build("NICK", [nickname]))
+        await self.send(build("USER", [username, "0", "*", realname]))
+
+        self.params = params
+
+    async def line_received(self, line: Line):
+        pass
+    async def _read_lines(self) -> List[Line]:
+        data = await self._reader.read(1024)
+        lines = self.recv(data)
+        for line in lines:
+            print(f"{self.name}< {line.format()}")
+            await self.line_received(line)
+        return lines
+
+    async def line_written(self, line: Line):
+        pass
+    async def _write_lines(self) -> List[Line]:
+        lines: List[Line] = []
+
+        while (not lines or
+                (len(lines) < 5 and self._write_queue.qsize() > 0)):
+            prio, line = await self._write_queue.get()
+            lines.append(line)
+
+        for line in lines:
+            async with self.throttle:
+                self._writer.write(f"{line.format()}\r\n".encode("utf8"))
+        await self._writer.drain()
+        return lines
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
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+ircstates ==0.7.0