OldcordV3

An open-source reimplementation of the old (2015-2018) Discord backend, including an on-demand client patcher.
Contributions are highly encouraged! We'd love your help to clean and refactor the codebase!

⚠️ Important Notices

Database Migrations:

• The database schema can change between updates. When this happens, we will provide SQL migration scripts to upgrade existing databases, some of these scripts may run automatically on start.

Configuration File:

• Always ensure your config.json file matches the structure and entries in config.example.json when you pull new updates. Instances created before November 14, 2024, must update their configuration file to the new format to function.

Node.js update:

• If you have your own Oldcord instance before October 5, 2025, please update your Node.js version to either the latest LTS version or the latest version. This is because of the new Selector update requiring the latest Node.js version to build.

Help Wanted!
There are some features we need help with, if you're up for the task, feel free to submit a PR!

• Audit Logs
• Giphy Integration
• The other social media platforms (not just Twitch) for account connections
• Refactor/Improve code
• Full fledged Discord mod to replace the current patching system (Oldplunger)
• Admin panel
• Reworking the existing webhooks implementation & webhook overrides.

Project Status & Features

Client Year Support:

• 🟢 2015 - 2016: Full support.
• 🟠 2017 - 2018: In development, mostly supported. (To-dos like giphy support, etc)
• ❎ 2019+: No plans for support. Too much commercial crap in these versions, we're focused on preserving the classic Discord experience, completely free from telemetry and bloat.

Voice & Video:

• Voice: 🟠 Work in progress, but functional via WebRTC P2P, standard WebRTC (Browser), and UDP (Desktop Client).
  • Known Issues: Minor bugs like speaker indicators not showing, firefox not working, or needing to rejoin a call to hear/speak to others are being actively worked on.
  • Note: WebRTC requires the "Modernize WebRTC" patch to be enabled in order to work properly. Running Oldcord behind a firewall like Cloudflare would not work well with UDP (affecting both standard WebRTC and Desktop Client) and will disconnect upon joining unless MediaProxyAgent has been set up and configured in config.json.
• Video: 🔴 Not yet supported. Our current focus is on ensuring voice chat works 100% of the time with little to no issues.
• Moderation Features: 🔴Server mute and deafen are planned and actively being worked on.

Alternative Clients:

• Quick note: Creating/editing servers, editing profile options and other things might cause issues due to our focus on v2-v6 and supporting multiple different API versions.
• Compatibility:
  • Fermi: 🟠 Loads, but things are not working still. Work in progress
  • Endcord: 🟠 Loads, but things are not working still. Work in progress

Mobile Clients:

• Compatibility:
  • Android Discord Kotlin (2015-2022): 🔵 Not decided, if we do, last Kotlin with Aliucord is recommended.
  • Android Discord React Native (2022+): ❎ No plans for support.
  • iOS Discord React Native (2015+): ❎ No plans for support due to needing a Jailbroken device.

Desktop Client:

• Note: We only support the latest Discord desktop clients (Stable, PTB, Canary, Development) or ones that repackaged from it. Older versions are not recommended.
• Compatibility: 🟠 Work in progress

Setup Guide

Prerequisites:

• A running PostgreSQL server.
• Node.js and npm.

Installation:

1. Setup the Database: Create a new database via PgAdmin or commandline for PostgreSQL, make sure this database (user & password login as well) matches what's in your future config.json file.
2. Install Dependencies: In the project directory, run the command npm install.
3. Configure: Copy config.example.json to a new file named config.json. Edit the values to match your setup (See the configuration section below for further details).
4. Start the Server: Run the command npm run start.

Configuration (config.json):

• custom_invite_url: Sets the domain for your instance's invite links (e.g., setting it to example.com will make it so every invite has the prefix example.com - similar to discord.gg)
• Google reCAPTCHA: To enable, provide a site_key, secret_key and change enabled to true. Do the opposite (enabled to false) to disable.
  • IMPORTANT: The default keys are for demo purposes, all answers will be marked as valid, you MUST change these for a production environment.
• integration_config: Manages in-app connections (e.g, Twitch). You'll need to create developer applications on these platforms (like Twitch) to get a client_id and client_secret.

    "integration_config" : [{
      "platform" : "twitch",
      "client_id" : "client_id",
      "client_secret" : "client_secret",
      "redirect_uri" : "https://staging.oldcordapp.com/api/connections/twitch/callback"
  }]
  

• trusted_users: An array of user IDs that bypass short-term rate limits. Useful for bots.
• instance_flags: An array of strings to enable special features or restrictions:
  • NO_REGISTRATION: Blocks new user sign-ups.
  • NO_GUILD_CREATION: Prevents users from creating new guilds.
  • NO_INVITE_USE: Stops users from joining guilds via invites.
  • autojoin:GUILDID - Automatically makes new users join a specific guild upon registration (e.g., "autojoin:1413791197947867136")
• gcs_config: (Optional) Configure automatic asset uploading to Google Cloud Storage. Requires setting up the Google Cloud SDK.

   "gcs_config": {
      "autoUploadBucket": "your-gcs-bucket-name",
      "gcStorageFolder": "assets"
  }

After setting this up, authorize the SDK by running gcloud auth login and gcloud auth application-default login. You may also need to configure CORS on your bucket.

• includePortInUrl: If set to false will force the server to use ports 443/80 instead of the instance port. Good for reverse proxies.
• includePortInWsUrl: If set to false will force the server gateway to use ports 443/80 instead of the instance port. Good for reverse proxies.
• tenor_api_key: Needed if you want /tenor support. You can get an API key here.
• auto_embed_urls: Set to true if you want urls included in message content to automatically embed.
• gateway_erlpack: Set to true if you want the gateway to support client communications which specifically want etf, such as the desktop client. It's disabled by default, although this will come as a cost of desktop clients not being able to connect.

FAQ

What is WebRTC P2P?

• WebRTC P2P is a peer-to-peer voice protocol found in 2017-2018 Discord clients. As far as we're aware, it was never officially used, it works by relaying connection data directly between users in a call.
• Because this protocol is peer-to-peer, it will expose your IP address to other users in the call. It is highly recommended to use a VPN with this feature.

Acknowledgements

Without these awesome people & resources, Oldcord wouldn't be possible.

• ziad87: Hummus2 source code for token generation, permissions and sessions.
• discord.js: Snowflake implementation.
• unkn0w: Disposable email domain list.
• Nebula Entertainment & Broadcasting LLC: Nebula Sans font - Drop in replacement for Whitney (Font which Discord used before 2022), used in the bootloader, build selector and admin panel for the pre-2022 Discord feel.
• Spacebar: WebRTC media server implementation and erlpack.
• Google: Material Design Icons.
• SVGRepo: Businessman Wearing Tie With Exclamation Mark - Modified for Reports SVG
• Discord: Other SVGs, images, fonts, etc - for the base clients (before patches) & some parts of Selector/Admin panel. Discord Developer Portal also has documented API responses for this recreation, along with general reverse engineering.
• Vencord: Reference to build Oldplunger and it's logger class.
• Cordwood: Filter/Search functions for Oldplunger.