#Ashcord

Vencord-style plugins for Discord, built for Discord's native Rust client ("Phoenix") and working with today's client too.

Vencord works by patching the JavaScript of Discord's web app. Discord is rewriting its desktop app in Rust, and a compiled native binary has no JavaScript to patch. Ashcord changes Discord where every client has to talk to it instead: the network. It runs as a small local proxy between your client and Discord, and plugins change what passes through: API calls, API answers and live gateway events.

$ ashcord selftest
✓ REST: discord.com intercepted, local CA accepted, API reachable
✓ gateway encoding=json&compress=zlib-stream: HELLO round-tripped (heartbeat 41250 ms)
✓ gateway encoding=etf&compress=zstd-stream: HELLO round-tripped (heartbeat 41250 ms)
...
all checks passed

Status: early. The network layer works with today's Discord. Phoenix isn't out yet; when it ships, Ashcord gets support for it plus a theme layer and code hooks (see docs/PLUGINS.md). Client mods break Discord's Terms of Service, like Vencord does. Use it at your own risk.

#Features

• Plugins: NoTrack, SilentTyping, MessageLogger, FakeNitro (emoji), RelationshipNotifier, GameActivityToggle and Unindent, the same ideas as their Vencord namesakes. Full list and roadmap in docs/PLUGINS.md.
• Client-agnostic: handles both gateway encodings (JSON and Erlang ETF) and every compression mode (zlib-stream, zstd-stream, none). Unchanged events pass through as they were sent.
• Live config: switch plugins on and off without restarting anything.
• Imports your Vencord setup: ashcord import-vencord reads Vencord, Vesktop or Equicord settings.
• Narrow by design: only Discord's API and gateway hosts are opened up. Media, CDN, voice and every other site are tunnelled through untouched.
• Safe certificate: each install makes its own local CA, limited by an X.509 name constraint to discord.com, discordapp.com and discord.gg. Even if its key leaked, it couldn't be used to impersonate any other site. The proxy only accepts connections from your own computer.

#Install

Download a binary for Linux, Windows or macOS from the latest release, or build it:

cargo install --git https://github.com/Tjabooo/ashcord

Linux needs NSS's certutil for setup (Arch: nss, Debian/Ubuntu: libnss3-tools, Fedora: nss-tools).

#Usage

ashcord setup      # config, local CA, trust it, import Vencord plugin choices
ashcord launch     # quit Discord first; starts the proxy and Discord through it

Then:

ashcord plugins                 # what's on
ashcord enable message_logger   # or disable / toggle
ashcord log                     # deleted and edited messages the logger saved
ashcord selftest                # check everything against the real Discord (no login)

ashcord launch finds Discord (Stable, Canary or PTB; Flatpak on Linux) and passes it --proxy-server. For another client: ashcord launch -- /path/to/client. To run the proxy on its own (e.g. as a service): ashcord run, then point the client at http://127.0.0.1:18463.

Gateway plugins (the message logger, for example) take effect when Discord reconnects: press Ctrl+R in Discord after enabling one.

#Configuration

ashcord paths shows where things live (Linux: ~/.config/ashcord/config.toml, ~/.local/share/ashcord/). The config is TOML and is reloaded live:

listen = "127.0.0.1:18463"

[plugins.message_logger]
enabled = true
ignore_self = true    # leave your own deletions alone
show_edits = true
cache_size = 5000
write_log = true

[plugins.fake_nitro]
enabled = true
emoji_size = 48
hyperlinks = true     # [name](link) instead of a bare link

Environment: ASHCORD_CONFIG and ASHCORD_DATA move the config and data, ASHCORD_LOG=ashcord=debug for more logging, ASHCORD_NO_NOTIFY=1 turns off desktop notifications.

#How it works

1. The client connects to Ashcord as its HTTPS proxy (CONNECT discord.com:443).
2. For Discord's API and gateway hosts, Ashcord finishes TLS itself with a certificate from your local CA and opens its own TLS connection to the real Discord (checked against the normal public roots). Every other host is a plain byte tunnel.
3. API calls go through the plugins' request and response hooks. The gateway websocket is decoded (zlib/zstd stream, JSON/ETF) into one value type, handed to the plugins, and re-encoded with Ashcord's own compression stream so the client sees a valid stream throughout.

When Phoenix ships, the plan is: check which proxy and certificate settings it honours, add a launcher and trust path for it, then build the theme layer and a small set of code hooks for UI plugins.

#Uninstall

ashcord untrust    # removes the CA from the stores setup added it to

Then delete the binary and the folders ashcord paths prints.

#License

MIT. Not affiliated with Discord or Vencord.