OpenAsar

An experimental open-source alternative of Discord desktop's app.asar.

Features

• 🚀 Speed: ~2x faster startup times (up to ~4x with experimental config)
• 🪶 Lightweight: <2% of Discord's original size (9mb -> ~150kb)
• 🔌 Hotpluggable: Replace one file and it's installed, that's it
• 🛡️ No Tracking: Removes Discord's built-in tracking for crashes and errors
• 🪡 Patching: A future platform for custom patches to further enhance

To Be Implemented

Below is a list in order of priority, removed when completed:

• A bunch of specific minor fixes / features
  • Add Discord-specific Electron flags?
• Auto start
• First run
• Self-write some small parts of internals
• Self-write updater code (currently mostly copied)
• Compatibility / replication of original Discord splash?

Custom Patches / Changes

Custom patches are another main goal of OpenAsar, patching enhancements where otherwise impossible to do so with traditional mods. Our current ideas for patches to do:

• Rewrite portions of Discord's code to not rely on external dependencies, increasing speed and decreasing size
• Skipping checking for updates on startup
• Linux host app updating

Install Guide

OpenAsar is heavily disrecommened due to it being in early development.

1. Download latest nightly release
2. Backup your original app.asar (rename to app.asar.backup / etc)
3. Install OpenAsar app.asar into the original path

If using Linux it is highly recommended to disable write protection (needing root to overwrite files) for your Discord install if you have it enabled. It is not much of a security defecit as Windows has no write protection as well. This enables updating the asar and potentially host updating further on.

Config

You can configure OpenAsar via settings.json (found in your Discord app data / user data), under a openasar object. Keep in mind most options are defaults for good reason, they may temporarily brick your client until you revert your changes. The avaliable options are:

• quickstart (bool, default false) - whether to use Quickstart (experimental)
• skipStartupUpdateChecks (bool, default false) - skips startup update checking (Linux-only)
• autoupdate (bool, default true) - whether to autoupdate OpenAsar after Discord startup
• multiInstance (bool, default false) - whether to enable multi-instance

An example of a settings.json with OpenAsar config:

{
  "BACKGROUND_COLOR": "#202225",
  "IS_MAXIMIZED": false,
  "IS_MINIMIZED": false,
  "WINDOW_BOUNDS": {
    "x": 801,
    "y": 22,
    "width": 797,
    "height": 876
  },
  "MINIMIZE_TO_TRAY": false,
  "OPEN_ON_STARTUP": false,
  "openasar": {
    "quickstart": true
  }
}