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Maintenance

What breaks over time, how to tell, and how to fix it.

The one fragile part

Everything in this plugin is stable except the channel header patch. Discord ships a new client build constantly, and any of them can move or reshape the code the patch targets.

When that happens:

  • The plugin still loads
  • The context menu (right-click a channel → View Media) still works
  • The chat bar button still works
  • The header button silently disappears

Nothing crashes. That graceful degradation is the reason those other entry points exist.

Diagnosing

1. Is it actually the patch?

DevTools (Cmd+Opt+I) → Console, filter for Vencord:

Message Meaning
Patch by MediaTab (name:"Search",renderLoader:) errored The find matched but the regex didn't
Patch by MediaTab … found no module The find string is gone
nothing about MediaTab It's not the patch — check the plugin is enabled, and that you reloaded with Cmd+R

2. Confirm against Discord's current bundle

node tests/fetch-discord-bundle.mjs
node tests/run.mjs

The five patch tests tell you exactly which assumption broke:

Failing test What changed
find string is unique The string vanished, or now appears in several modules
match regex hits exactly once The surrounding code was restructured
captures channelId and guildId The props destructuring changed
patched module is valid JavaScript The replacement no longer fits the syntax
replaces the Fragment and keeps order The children array was reshaped

Fixing it

Find the module again

cd tests/.cache
node -e '
const s = require("fs").readFileSync("web.js", "utf8");
// the header bar is the module that composes a toolbar and a search box
for (const needle of ["mobileToolbar:", "hideSearch:", "renderHeaderToolbar"]) {
    const i = s.indexOf(needle);
    console.log("\n=== " + needle + " @ " + i + " ===");
    if (i > 0) console.log(s.slice(i - 800, i + 800));
}
'

mobileToolbar: and hideSearch: are both good anchors — they were unique in the whole bundle at the time of writing, and they're semantic names rather than minified ones.

Pick a new find

Check uniqueness before committing to it:

node -e '
const s = require("fs").readFileSync("tests/.cache/web.js", "utf8");
for (const c of [`name:"Search",renderLoader:`, "mobileToolbar:", "hideSearch:"])
    console.log(c, "→", s.split(c).length - 1, "hits");
'

You want exactly 1.

Rewrite the regex

Edit plugin/mediaTab/headerPatch.ts — that file exists so this is the only place to change. Then:

node tests/run.mjs

Iterate until all five patch tests pass. You're checking the regex against the real code, so when the tests go green the patch genuinely works.

Rebuild

./scripts/build.sh
# then Cmd+R in Discord

If the header code disappears entirely

If Discord restructures so far that there's no [toolbar, searchBar] array to inject into, options in order of preference:

  1. Find the new toolbar composition point. There will still be somewhere the header icons are assembled. Search for the module that renders the pin or member-list icon.
  2. Fall back to the titlebar. VencordToolbox patches find: '?"BACK_FORWARD_NAVIGATION":' with match: /(trailing:.{0,50}?)\i\.Fragment,(?=\{children:\[)/. That was verified working against the same bundle this plugin was built on, and puts the button in the top-right of the window rather than the channel header.
  3. Drop the header button. Set headerButton to off by default and lean on the context menu and chat bar button, both of which use official APIs.

Other things that can change

The search API

Stable for years, but if searching starts failing:

node -e '
const s = require("fs").readFileSync("tests/.cache/web.js", "utf8");
const i = s.indexOf("messages/search");
console.log(s.slice(i - 600, i + 400));
'

That prints Discord's own endpoint table. Compare against DISCORD-SEARCH-API.md.

To re-check the parameter names Discord's client uses, search the bundle for attachment_extension — the surrounding module maps every search filter to its queryKey.

To re-check what Discord's own media tab sends, search for include_nsfw; the tab → filter mapping ({1:{has:["image","video"]}, …}) is nearby.

Vencord's own APIs

Vencord occasionally renames or deprecates exports. pnpm testTsc catches all of it, since Vencord ships types for everything this plugin imports.

Known migration in progress: the ModalRoot / ModalHeader / ModalContent components in @utils/modal are deprecated in favour of the single Modal component from @webpack/common. This plugin already uses the new one.

Vencord updates

./scripts/setup.sh     # pulls Vencord, reinstalls deps, syncs, rebuilds

If the build then fails, it's an API change in Vencord — pnpm testTsc will point at the line.

Routine checkup

Worth running after any Discord or Vencord update:

node tests/fetch-discord-bundle.mjs    # refresh the bundle
node tests/run.mjs                     # 40 tests
cd Vencord && pnpm testTsc && pnpm lint
cd .. && ./scripts/build.sh

Four commands, under a minute, and it catches everything that's realistically going to break.