AWAvenue Ads Rule: a network-layer ad filter for AdGuard Home, Clash and hosts

What AWAvenue Ads Rule blocks, and what it refuses to be

The project describes itself as an upstream source of ad rules and one of the better ad filter lists in the open source community, positioned as a balance between ad blocking, privacy protection and traffic savings. The mechanism is network-layer interception: rules cut off communication between ad SDKs inside apps and their servers, so the ad never loads. The README states this explicitly and then rules out a whole category of tools. Accessibility clicker apps that simulate taps on close buttons are not supported, because they operate inside the app rather than on the network path. If you arrived expecting an Xposed-style module, this list is the wrong layer.

The intended audience is people who already have a filtering point on their network: a router running AdGuard Home, a Mosdns or Dnsmasq instance on OpenWrt, a Clash Meta or Quantumult X proxy client, or a hosts-based blocker on Android such as AdAway. The README's own argument for this approach is cost and coverage. Configuring each app individually is more work and reaches less, while a single subscription at the router covers every device behind it.

The README lists observable effects rather than numbers: shake-to-jump ads disappear, in-feed and end-of-article ad streams fail to load, autoplay ad videos stop, TV box and smart TV boot ads vanish, and some device storage is freed because ad assets are never downloaded. It also claims that as of September 2026 the rules cover more than ninety percent of the ad SDK content present on 提瓦特大陆. That figure comes from the project's own README and is not independently verified here.

How the filter list is built and where the four variants come from

The repository is a filter list, not a program. The top level holds a single AWAvenue-Ads-Rule.txt, a Filters/ directory, a LICENSE, an assets/ folder and GitHub workflow configuration. The generated formats for each supported tool live under Filters/, and the README gives the naming pattern as AWAvenue-Ads-Rule-<tool>-<variant>.<extension>. That pattern is the actual architecture: one source of rules, many rendered outputs.

Since 1.7.6-release the rules are classified into three natures, ads, privacy and unwelcome, and the four subscriptions are built from combinations of them. The full protection subscription carries all three. The ads-only subscription carries ads alone, for people who prioritize compatibility and minimal interference. The third keeps ads plus unwelcome and drops privacy, for users who want to retain statistics and telemetry. The fourth keeps ads plus privacy and drops unwelcome, for users who want to retain updates, push notifications and related connections.

The unwelcome category is the interesting design decision. The README defines it as forced updates, P2P and PCDN traffic, push notifications and cloud-controlled delivery. Blocking these does not change ad filtering effectiveness, but it can break the corresponding feature in an app, which is exactly why the project separated them out instead of burying them in the main list. That is a real trade-off made visible rather than hidden. A user who blocks an app's update channel and then wonders why a client misbehaves has only themselves to blame, and the project has documented the split so the choice is theirs.

The README states that the list is included in AdGuard's official list, selectable from the built-in list picker, and also appears in AdGuard DNS Filters. It is also bundled into the AdClose Xposed module and into a geosite repository by elysias123 covering V2Ray, Xray, mihomo, hysteria, Trojan-Go and leaf.

Installing the subscription in AdGuard Home and picking a variant

The README's how-to-use section points to an official guide at awavenue.top/Knowledge.html rather than reproducing steps, so the commands below come from the subscription table and the recommended-tools list, not from a walkthrough.

The primary subscription URL is the GitHub Raw link for the full protection variant. In AdGuard Home, add it under Filters, then DNS blocklists, as a custom list:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TG-Twilight/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule/main/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule.txt

AdGuard Home fetches the list and reports the rule count in the filter list panel. If raw.githubusercontent.com is slow from your network, the README offers three mirrors for the same file. The jsDelivr gcore route is:

https://gcore.jsdelivr.net/gh/TG-Twilight/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule@main/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule.txt

The ghproxy route and the 天命 CFCDN route are listed alongside it in the README's subscription table. Because AWAvenue Ads Rule is in AdGuard's official list, you can also subscribe from the built-in list picker instead of pasting a URL.

If you only want ads and not privacy or unwelcome rules, subscribe to the ads-only file instead. The README gives its path as Filters/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule-Adguard-Only.Ads.txt, reached through the same raw host:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TG-Twilight/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule/main/Filters/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule-Adguard-Only.Ads.txt

For other tools the README does not expect you to memorize filenames. It recommends the subscription generator at awavenue.top/Sub.html, which produces the correct URL for your tool and variant. After subscribing, the README says you should notice the effects listed earlier; if ads still appear or something legitimate breaks, it asks you to report it. The README also asks that you read the FAQ page before filing an issue, since many questions are already answered there.

The limitation that decides whether this fits: it is a network filter

Everything this project does happens on the DNS or proxy path. Ads served from the same domain as legitimate content, or ads whose creative is fetched from a host the app also needs, cannot be separated by hostname alone. The README acknowledges this indirectly by inviting reports of both missed ads and false positives, which is the normal failure mode of any hostname-based list.

The second limitation is scope. The README recommends AdGuard Home on a router as an ideal filtering position, and explicitly excludes AdGuard for Chrome from the Adblock-format support list. If your only device is a phone without root and without a local DNS or VPN-based blocker, this list has nowhere to run. AdAway works on Android, but it is hosts-based and needs its own setup. A desktop browser extension user is not the target audience here.

The third is the unwelcome category. Blocking forced updates and push channels is a deliberate side effect, and the README warns it may affect the corresponding functionality. Anyone who wants app updates to arrive normally should take the ads-plus-privacy variant, not the full one.

Finally, the project describes itself as a personal project maintained at the author's discretion, with issues and pull requests welcome. The last push to the repository was on 2026-09-21, and the most recent release, 1.7.8-release, is dated 2026-09-21. The gap between 1.6.9-release in November 2025 and 1.7.6-release in July 2026 shows the release cadence is not fixed. Treat the list as something that changes when the author changes it, not on a schedule you can plan around.

How AWAvenue Ads Rule differs from a general-purpose blocklist

The obvious comparison is a large community blocklist in the tens of thousands of rules, such as the ones most AdGuard Home users start with. The README's framing is that AWAvenue Ads Rule is deliberately smaller, optimized for common ad SDKs and scenarios, and light enough for routers and low-spec devices. That is a different bet: fewer rules means fewer false positives and less memory pressure on an OpenWrt box, at the cost of coverage against trackers and ad networks the author has not catalogued. A general list aims for breadth and accepts the noise; this one aims for precision on ad SDK endpoints and accepts the gaps.

The second comparison is against in-app blocking modules. An Xposed module such as AdClose hooks ad code inside the process and can remove creatives that never touch a distinct hostname. The README notes that AdClose actually bundles AWAvenue rules, which is the honest relationship between the two approaches: the module handles what the network cannot see, and the list handles what the module cannot reach, like a TV box whose firmware you cannot modify. The README states plainly that accessibility clicker tools are incompatible, so the two categories are not substitutes.

The third is the format question. A hosts-format list works on AdAway and RouterOS but cannot express Adblock syntax. A Clash-format rule set works in a proxy client but not in AdGuard Home. The Filters/ directory and the subscription generator exist precisely because one list cannot serve all of them, and the README's four-variant table is the AdGuard rendering of a split that repeats across every supported format.

Licence, upgrade cost and maintenance expectations

The repository is licensed GPL-3.0. For a filter list, that matters less than it would for a library you link against, but it is not nothing. If you redistribute the list inside a product, or ship a modified copy, the GPL-3.0 terms travel with it. The README does not discuss licence implications for downstream bundling, and nothing here is legal advice. Read LICENSE in the repository root before you embed the list in something you ship.

Upgrade cost is close to zero for the consumer. AdGuard Home, AdGuard DNS and AdAway all refresh subscribed lists on their own schedule, and the README presents the model as subscribe once, benefit on every device. The cost sits with the maintainer, who has to keep up with ad SDK changes, and with you when a rule breaks something. The README directs bug reports and false-positive reports to issues and to the Telegram group, and asks that you read the FAQ page first because many questions are already answered there.

The maintenance signal is mixed in the honest sense. The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-21, one day before this writing, with a release the same day. But the project calls itself a personal project maintained at the author's discretion, and the release history shows a seven-month gap between 1.6.9-release and 1.7.6-release. If your threat model requires a list with a guaranteed refresh cadence, this is not that list, and the README does not pretend otherwise.

Who should subscribe, and what to check first

The fit is narrow and clear. You run AdGuard Home on a router or a small always-on box, or Mosdns or Dnsmasq on OpenWrt, or a Clash Meta or Quantumult X client, and you want ad SDK traffic cut off before it reaches the device. You value a small list over an exhaustive one because your hardware is modest. You are willing to choose between the four variants rather than take whatever the default gives you.

The misfit is equally clear. You want per-app blocking on a device where you cannot change DNS. You expect an accessibility clicker to work alongside this. You need a list whose size and update rhythm are contractually predictable. Or you object to a filter that will also cut app updates and push channels, in which case the full protection subscription is the wrong one and the ads-plus-privacy variant is the right one.

Before you subscribe, open the Filters/ directory and read the actual filenames rather than trusting a remembered URL, because the README states the pattern is AWAvenue-Ads-Rule-<tool>-<variant>.<extension> and the variants are not interchangeable. Then decide whether the unwelcome category belongs in your setup. The FAQ page at awavenue.top/Knowledge.html is where the project says to look first, and the README is explicit that issues filed without checking it will likely be answered with a link to it.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt AWAvenue Ads Rule if you already run AdGuard Home, Mosdns, Dnsmasq or a Clash-family proxy and want a small list that targets ad SDK endpoints rather than every tracker on the internet. Skip it if you need per-app blocking on an unrooted phone, if you expect an accessibility clicker to be compatible, or if a filter that changes shape between releases is unacceptable for your setup. Before subscribing, open the Filters/ directory and confirm which of the four variants you actually want, then check whether the unwelcome category would cut update or push traffic you rely on.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: GPL-3.0
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. TG-Twilight/AWAvenue-Ads-Rule on GitHub