Source

Discord is going native. Your mods are coming with it.

Patina is an open-source mod platform for Discord's new Rust client. Themes and plugins come back, and this time plugins are walled off from your account.

Scroll and watch it turn

That's a lump of copper. By the bottom of this page it'll be green.

Discord was a website in a wrapper.

BetterDiscord, then Vencord, edited it while it ran. Thousands of plugins and themes grew on top of it.

Then Discord announced a rewrite in Rust.

Desktop, mobile and the web version too. Faster, lighter, compiled. No website left to edit.

Every old mod stops working.

Vencord's author said it plainly: if this ships, current mods stop existing. The new app gives the old tricks nothing to grab.

Something has to grow back.

Patina is a mod platform written for the native client from the first line. Keep scrolling.

Discord
Patina
Plugins

Three layers. Your account stays at the bottom.

  1. Plugins

    Small WebAssembly modules. Each one says what it needs and can't do anything else.

  2. Patina

    Loads into the new client, applies your theme, and hands plugins only what you allowed. The only layer that touches Discord.

  3. Discord

    The new native client, with your account and token. Plugins never get this far down.

What comes back first

These work with your messages and notifications instead of the app's internals, so a Discord update won't break them.

  1. 01 Themes Restyle the whole client from one small file you can share.
  2. 02 Message Logger Keep a local copy of messages that get edited or deleted.
  3. 03 Keyword Mute Silence notifications by word, user or channel.
  4. 04 Auto Actions Small rules that run when something happens, like joining a voice channel.

Also on the list, in no particular order: hidden channels, better timestamps, a read-all button, pronouns, silent typing, image zoom, translation, bookmarks, custom notification sounds. Not promises. Just where this is headed.

Plugins never get your token.

Old mods don't steal anything themselves. But their plugins run inside Discord with the same access Discord has, and that includes your token. Vencord reviews the plugins it ships. A random third-party plugin can do whatever it wants.

Patina shows exactly what a plugin wants before you install it. Your token isn't on that list, because it isn't something a plugin is allowed to ask for.

Install Message Logger?community plugin ยท v0.1.0
  • Read messages in channels you can see
  • Save data on this device
  • Send messages
  • Use the internet
  • Your tokennot available to plugins
CancelInstall
Sketch. The real prompt depends on what the client looks like.

Old mods vs. Patina

QuestionOld client modsPatina
What a plugin can accessEverything Discord can, token includedOnly what it declares
Your account tokenReachable by any code running in the clientNot exposed to plugins
Permission promptNoneShows every permission before install
A Discord update breaks itOftenFirst plugins don't touch internals
Works on the new Rust clientNoBuilt for it

Roadmap

Nothing ships until Discord ships. When the test build lands, this is the order.

  1. Now

    Groundwork

    Hooking test GPUI apps, mapping Discord's network protocol, designing permissions.

  2. Next

    Themes and first plugins

    Ships after Discord's test build exists. No patching of the app itself.

  3. Then

    Plugin sandbox

    Community plugins compiled to WebAssembly, installed with a permission prompt.

  4. Later

    UI plugins

    New buttons, menus and panels inside the client.

Right now it's one person and a plan.

That changes with help. If you write Rust, reverse engineer binaries for fun, like breaking sandboxes, or make themes people actually install, join the Discord server and tell me what you'd want to work on.

Looking for Rust/reverse engineering/WebAssembly/security/themes

Questions

Can I download it?

Not yet. Discord hasn't released a test build of the new client, so there's nothing to mod. Real work starts the day it does.

Is this Vencord for the new client?

No. Patina is its own project and isn't affiliated with Vencord. Vencord is a big inspiration, and any Vencord code we reuse follows its GPL-3.0 license.

Will my old plugins and themes work?

No. The new client has no JavaScript or CSS to hook into, so everything gets rebuilt from zero.

Can I get banned?

Client mods are against Discord's Terms of Service. Bans for mods are rare, but they happen. Use an alt if that worries you.

Will it cost money?

No. Patina is free and open source, with no paid features.

Mobile?

Desktop first. Mobile is much harder to modify, so it's an open question.

Fully oxidized.

That's the whole idea. Something new grows on top of the metal. See you when Discord ships.

Follow @patinacord Join the Discord