# Legcord: a standalone Electron Discord client with built-in mods and theming

> Legcord packages Discord's web app inside Electron and adds Vencord, Equicord or Shelter without an injector. It is aimed at Linux users Discord does not ship for, and anyone who wants themes and tracker blocking in one binary.

**Legcord/Legcord** — Legcord is a custom client designed to enhance your Discord experience while keeping everything lightweight.

- Repository: https://github.com/Legcord/Legcord
- Website: https://legcord.app
- Stars: 3,461 · Forks: 155
- Language: TypeScript
- License: OSL-3.0
- Published: 2026-09-23 · Updated: 2026-09-23 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/legcord-legcord

## What Legcord solves, and for whom

Discord does not ship a native client for AArch64 Linux, which is where Legcord started: the project was originally built for those devices before widening to every platform Electron supports. That origin explains the packaging spread. There are .deb assets for amd64 and arm64, a Flatpak on Flathub, a Snap, an AUR package, Homebrew Cask, MacPorts, Scoop, winget and Pi-Apps. If you are running a Raspberry Pi 5 or an ARM laptop, the .deb route is the one the README documents in most detail.

The second audience is people who already mod Discord and are tired of the injection step. Vencord, Equicord and Shelter are built in, so there is no installer or injector to run against an existing Discord installation. The README frames this as the differentiator: mods and themes load without installers, and the client is standalone, not a patch on top of the official app. Tracker blocking is on by default, independent of whether you enable any mod at all.

## How the Electron wrapper and mod loaders fit together

The mechanism is a web wrapper. The README states plainly that Legcord uses the official web app and packages it inside Electron, then adds patches and optimisations on top. That has a direct consequence for what you can debug: when a Discord feature misbehaves, the failure is usually in the wrapper or in a mod, not in a native client, because there is no native client.

The repository layout supports that reading. Source lives under src/, the build is driven by rolldown.config.ts, and the package.json build script chains three steps: pnpm build:plugins, then rolldown, then a copyVenmic script. The plugins step runs lune ci against src/shelter and emits to ts-out/plugins, which is how Shelter ends up bundled rather than injected at runtime. Electron's main entry is ts-out/main.js.

Rich presence is handled through arRPC, which the README credits for game activity support. The README claims other clients lack rich presence out of the box; that is a project claim, not something independently verified here. The docker-compose.yml is not a deployment path. It builds Debian bookworm, Arch, Ubuntu and Debian trixie images that expose VNC on ports 5900, 5901 and 5902 for GUI testing, and the file's own comment says the services are meant to run one at a time.

## Installing Legcord on Windows, Linux and macOS

On Windows the README points at the .exe installer on legcord.app, the Microsoft Store listing, and winget. The winget identifier is exact enough to copy verbatim.

```pwsh
winget install --id=smartfrigde.Legcord  -e
```

Scoop users add the extras bucket first, then install by name. This is the same package name, not a separate build.

```powershell
scoop bucket add extras
scoop install legcord
```

On Debian, Ubuntu and Raspbian the README recommends the .deb from the releases page, because apt resolves dependencies for you. Pick the asset matching your architecture: amd64 or arm64.

```sh
wget -O legcord.deb "https://github.com/Legcord/Legcord/releases/download/<tag>/<asset>.deb"
sudo apt install legcord.deb
```

If apt reports missing dependencies, the documented fallback is dpkg followed by a fix-up. pacstall is offered as an alternative on the same platforms. On macOS, brew install --cask legcord is the documented route, with MacPorts as the other option. Arch users have legcord-git on the AUR, which the README describes as built locally against the dev branch.

Building from source needs NodeJS v26 or newer and pnpm. The four documented steps are clone, install, build, package. Expect the build to be heavier than a typical Electron app because the plugin step runs first.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/Legcord/Legcord.git
cd Legcord
pnpm install
pnpm run build
pnpm run package
```

For a first real use, launch the app, open Discord's own settings, and look for the Legcord Settings button with the white Discord icon. The README also documents right-clicking the tray icon and choosing Open Settings. That panel is where you choose between Vencord, Equicord, Shelter and a more vanilla configuration, and where themes are imported. Windows users who want a portable install should download the archive or zip build and create a folder named legcord-data next to the executable before starting Legcord.

## The ToS position and other limits worth knowing before you switch

The README answers the ban question directly, and the answer is not reassuring in the way a marketing page would be. It states that using Legcord breaks the Discord Terms of Service, then adds that no one has been banned for using it or any of the included client mods. Those two statements sit together. You are relying on enforcement not happening, not on permission being granted. If your account matters to you, that is the risk to price in, and no amount of tracker blocking changes it.

Mobile support is explicitly labelled experimental, and the README is honest that it is far from ideal and only targets phones running Linux such as the PinePhone. Android is not a supported target in this material, so anyone searching for an Android build will not find one described here.

There is also the wrapper ceiling. Because Legcord packages the official web app, it inherits the web client's behaviour and its failure modes. The README's own framing is that it is fundamentally a web wrapper with optimisations and patches. If you need a client that keeps working when Discord changes its web bundle, you are depending on the maintainers shipping a fix, not on a stable native protocol. Rollback is not documented in the README, so there is no stated procedure for returning to a previous version after a bad release.

## Legcord versus running Vencord in the official client

The closest alternative is not another standalone client; it is installing Vencord or Equicord into the official Discord app. The difference is where the code runs. With an injector, you patch a Discord installation you already have, and Discord's own updater keeps the base client current. With Legcord, the base client is Electron and the whole bundle ships from Legcord's releases, so a Discord web change and a Legcord release are two separate events you have to reconcile.

That trade cuts both ways. The injector route keeps you on Discord's supported desktop app and avoids a second updater, but it breaks whenever Discord's bundle changes in a way the injector does not expect. Legcord removes that class of breakage and adds tracker blocking and theming at the app level, at the cost of a full reinstall per update and the ToS position above. If you are on a platform Discord supports natively and you only want a couple of plugins, the injector is less machinery. If you are on AArch64 Linux, the injector is not really an option, which is the case Legcord was built for.

## Licence and maintenance cost

Legcord is licensed under OSL-3.0, and the repository carries a license.txt at the top level. OSL-3.0 is a copyleft licence with a source-disclosure condition on distribution, and it is not the same as the MIT or Apache-2.0 terms most Electron clients use. If you plan to redistribute a modified build, read the licence text and the CONTRIBUTING.md before assuming you can ship it under your own terms. This is a description of the licence, not legal advice.

The last push to the repository was on 2026-09-05, and the most recent release listed is v1.3.0 from 2026-07-26. Before that, v1.2.4 and v1.2.3 both landed on 2026-04-15. The gap between the 1.2.x releases and 1.3.0 is roughly three months, which is the cadence to plan around if you depend on upstream Discord changes being absorbed quickly. Upgrading means replacing the package, not patching in place, so budget for a reinstall on each release. The dev branch is the default branch, and the AUR legcord-git package builds against it, which means that package tracks unreleased code.

## Conclusion

Adopt Legcord if you are on AArch64 Linux, a Raspberry Pi, or a desktop where you want themes, mods and tracker blocking in one package without an injector. Do not adopt it if you need a fully vanilla client, if you cannot accept the Discord ToS position the README itself states, or if you expect mobile support to be anything other than experimental. Before installing, verify that a package exists for your platform on the releases page or Flathub, and read the Legcord Settings entry that appears inside Discord's own settings so you know which mod loader is active.

## FAQ

### Can Legcord get you banned?

The README states that you are breaking the Discord Terms of Service by using Legcord, but adds that no one has been banned from using it or any of the client mods included. Treat that as an enforcement observation rather than permission.

### Is Legcord better than Discord?

It depends on what you need. Legcord is a standalone Electron client that bundles Vencord, Equicord and Shelter, blocks Discord's trackers by default, and supports rich presence through arRPC, but it is still built on Discord's web app and the README says using it breaks the Discord ToS.

### What is Legcord?

Legcord is a custom Discord client written in TypeScript that packages the official web app inside Electron. It was originally created for AArch64 Linux devices that Discord does not support, and now targets every platform Electron supports.

### How do I install Legcord?

On Windows use winget install --id=smartfrigde.Legcord -e, or the .exe installer from legcord.app. On Debian, Ubuntu and Raspbian download the amd64 or arm64 .deb from the releases page and run sudo apt install legcord.deb. macOS users can run brew install --cask legcord.

### Is Legcord lightweight?

The project describes itself as keeping everything lightweight and notes that it uses a newer build of Electron than the stock Discord app, which the README says gives a more stable and secure experience along with slightly better performance. No measurements are published in the README.

### Is Legcord safe to use?

The README states that Legcord automatically blocks all of Discord's trackers, even without any client mods enabled, and that it uses a newer Electron build than the stock Discord app. The README does not describe an independent security audit.

## Sources

- [Legcord/Legcord on GitHub](https://github.com/Legcord/Legcord)
- [License: OSL-3.0](https://github.com/Legcord/Legcord/blob/dev/LICENSE)
- [Project website](https://legcord.app)
- [README](https://github.com/Legcord/Legcord/blob/dev/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/Legcord/Legcord/releases)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/legcord-legcord