Genie 5

A cross-platform, modern successor to Genie 4 — the long-running Windows client for DragonRealms, Simutronics' text-based MMO.

⚠️ Alpha — Genie 5 is in active development, several alphas in. It targets feature parity with the most-used 80% of Genie 4 while running natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Expect rough edges. File issues; PRs welcome.

Screenshots

A live DragonRealms session — game stream, Room panel, inventory, and stream tabs:

Mapper	Connect dialog

Why Genie 5

The Genie 4 codebase is WinForms + Windows-only and hasn't kept pace with modern .NET, cross-platform tooling, or the broader scripting ecosystem. Genie 5 is a clean rewrite that:

• Runs everywhere — Windows, macOS, and Linux native, courtesy of Avalonia UI and .NET 8
• Stays compatible — runs your existing Genie 4 .cmd scripts, profile files, and .map zone data
• Plays well with the ecosystem — supports direct SGE auth, Lich 5 proxy, and dev-replay from recorded sessions
• Is built for inspection — clean Genie.Core library with no UI dependencies; embed it in other clients, plugins, or test harnesses

Status

Layer	State
SGE authentication (StormFront + Wizard modes; optional TLS login)	✅ Working
DragonRealms XML parser (<component>, <d>, <a href>, <container>, <roundTime>, etc.)	✅ Working
Live game session — connect (Direct SGE / Lich proxy picker), play, type commands	✅ Working
Genie 4 .cmd script engine (labels, MATCH, GOSUB, $variables, WAITFOR, etc.)	✅ Working
Rules engines (#alias, #trigger, #highlight, #substitute, #gag, #macro, #class, #var) + per-engine master toggles (File menu / #config)	✅ Working with .cfg persistence
Per-character profile storage with AES-GCM password encryption	✅ Working
Dockable UI panels (vitals, icon bar, room, mobs/players, inventory, mapper, experience, active spells, injuries, stream tabs) — named save/load layouts + MDI windowed mode	✅ Working
Named script windows (#window, #link, #log, #clear, directed #echo >window) — Genie 4 menu scripts (mm_train et al.) run as-is	✅ Working
Mapper — click-to-goto, #goto/#go2, room/zone tags + #goto @tag, $roomid/$zoneid/$zonename script vars, zone fingerprinting, Less Obvious Paths	✅ Working (auto-walk is a roadmap item)
Session Recorder for raw-XML capture	✅ Working
Lich 5 proxy mode (ConnectionMode.LichProxy)	✅ Working
Dev-replay mode (replay recorded sessions through the engine)	✅ Working (via Console)
LAMP 2.0 cross-platform updater	❌ Canceled — superseded by the in-app updater below
In-app updater (Velopack) — Core / Maps / Plugins / Scripts update tabs, per-kind auto-update policies (Update Settings), apply-on-close client updates, Help-menu badge, startup background check	✅ Working (macOS/Linux Core packaging on the roadmap)
Plugin host — IGeniePlugin/IPluginHost contract, per-plugin assembly-load-context (load/unload/reload), Plugins menu + #plugin command, first external plugin (Plugin_EXPTrackerV5)	✅ Working (marketplace + plugin signing/trust on the roadmap)
JavaScript (.js) array scripts via Jint — genie.* API (put/waitFor/matchWait/pause/timers/vars), coexists with .cmd, memory + runaway-loop guards	✅ Working
#connect / #reconnect / #lichconnect — typed/scripted login (Genie 4 parity; saved-profile, explicit, and reconnect forms; password-masked)	✅ Working
Analyst Capture — redacted, recipe-driven session capture for parser/analysis (other-player speech stripped by default)	✅ Working
Report parser gap — when the game sends an element Genie doesn't recognize, a one-click prompt opens a pre-filled, pre-redacted GitHub issue in your browser (nothing sent until you submit)	✅ Working
Performance overlay — live per-stage pipeline timing + running-.js list, behind the Performance menu	✅ Working
Game prompt in the window — prompt string + promptbreak (own-line) / promptforce (reconstructed status letters)	✅ Working
Portrait panel — DR room/scene artwork (#config showimages), fetched from the play.net art CDN	✅ Working
Preset colouring — room descriptions / whispers / speech render in their palette colours (Configuration → Presets), plus MonsterBold creature highlighting	✅ Working
Sound — SFX on triggers/highlights + #play command (cross-platform: winmm / afplay / paplay)	✅ Working
#config settings system (settings.cfg, ~20 Genie 4 settings + Scripts tab); reserved/live $variables exposed and listed by #var	✅ Working
Visual trigger / flow designer	🚧 Roadmap
AI-assisted automation (advisor-only mode)	🚧 Roadmap

See backlog for the full feature roadmap.

Installation

Download a pre-built build (recommended)

Grab the latest release and pick your platform:

Platform	Installer	Portable
Windows	01-Windows-Genie5-Setup.exe	01-Windows-Genie5-Portable.zip
macOS (Apple Silicon)	02-macOS-Apple-Silicon-Genie5.dmg (or .pkg)	02-macOS-Apple-Silicon-Genie5-Portable.zip
macOS (Intel)	03-macOS-Intel-Genie5.dmg (or .pkg)	03-macOS-Intel-Genie5-Portable.zip
Linux (x64)	04-Linux-Genie5.AppImage	—

The Setup.exe / .pkg / AppImage builds register for in-app updates; the Portable .zip builds don't. Windows release binaries are EV code-signed (see Code signing policy); macOS and Linux builds are unsigned for now, so those platforms show a first-launch warning — the Installation guide has the per-platform "unknown publisher" / Gatekeeper steps.

Build from source

Requires the .NET 8 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/GenieClient/Genie5.git
cd Genie5
dotnet build -c Release
dotnet run --project src/Genie.App

On first launch Genie 5 will:

1. Migrate any existing Genie 4 scripts from %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Genie 4\Scripts\ into its own Scripts/ folder (Windows only — no-op elsewhere)
2. Migrate any existing Genie 4 maps from %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Genie 4\Maps\ (Windows only)
3. Create {AppData}/Genie5/Config/ for .cfg rule files and per-character profile data

Quick start

1. Launch Genie 5 and use File → Connect…
2. Enter your DragonRealms account name + password, then click Fetch to retrieve your character list
3. Pick a character and click Connect
4. Type commands in the input bar at the bottom; click <d> links in game text to send the underlying command
5. Save the connection as a profile so you don't have to retype next time — passwords are encrypted on disk (AES-256-GCM)

Running your first script

Genie 4 .cmd scripts go in {AppData}/Genie5/Scripts/. From the game window:

.myscript           # runs Scripts/myscript.cmd
.myscript arg1 arg2 # passes %1 = arg1, %2 = arg2
#scripts            # lists running scripts
#stop myscript      # aborts a running script

The script engine is a faithful port of Genie 4's Wizard-derived dialect — labels, GOSUB/RETURN, MATCH/MATCHRE, $variables, %variables, PAUSE, WAIT, WAITFOR, PUT, def(), the whole vocabulary. If a script worked in Genie 4 and doesn't work here, file an issue — we treat script-compat regressions as bugs.

Lich 5 interoperability

Genie 5 plays nicely with Lich 5. Two integration paths:

• Lich proxy mode — Lich runs as your auth front-end and forwards a clean DR stream to Genie on 127.0.0.1:8000. Pick Lich Proxy in the Connect dialog. Your Lich Ruby scripts continue to work; Genie sees them as ordinary game output.
• Direct SGE + Lich passive — Genie handles auth itself (no Lich required), and you can run any Lich-managed automation in parallel using Lich's own command channel.

DragonRealms policy compliance

Genie 5 aims to be a good DragonRealms frontend. DR's Scripting Policy asks that you stay responsive to the game while you play — it does not require the client window to stay focused, and Genie doesn't try to police how you play. Staying within policy is the player's call. That said, a few design choices keep Genie firmly on the responsive side, and the client itself avoids unattended automation:

• No auto-reconnect. If you disconnect, you reconnect by hand.
• No agentive AI mode. AI features (when they ship) are advisor-only — they surface suggestions in a panel you read, never drive game commands directly.
• No headless mode. Genie is a UI client, not a background service.
• No shipping other players' speech to external services. The AI context buffer filters out whisper / talk / thoughts / familiar / tells before any external API call.

There's also an optional idle backstop for click-to-walk / #goto travel that can pause a walk after the window has been unfocused for a while. It's off by default and fully configurable — purely for users who want it.

See docs/POLICY.md for the details.

Architecture

TCP bytes
  └─► GameConnection          (SgeAuthClient or LichProxy)
        └─► RawXmlStream      (hot IObservable<string>, always on)
              ├─► DrXmlParser.Feed()
              │     └─► GameEvents  (typed records: TextEvent, NavEvent, …)
              │               └─► GameStateEngine → GameState (live snapshot)
              └─► AiRawStream (toggleable, never blocks parser)
                    └─► AiContextBuffer → AI vendor API → AnalysisReady event

• Genie.Core — pure class library, zero UI dependencies. Connection, parser, game state, script engine, AI pipeline, rules engines.
• Genie.App — the Avalonia GUI host; binds to Core observables, owns no game-logic state.

Reference

Resource	Why it's relevant
Genie 4 source	Original Windows client; canonical reference for .cmd parity
Lich 5	Ruby proxy that runs on top of Genie, not a competitor
DR-Genie-Scripts	Largest community script collection; our compatibility test set
Elanthipedia	DR's community wiki
Mudlet	Cross-platform MUD client; possible expansion target for SGE/DR support

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Bug reports, feature requests, and PRs all welcome. Security issues go through the process in SECURITY.md.

Community

• Discord — discord.gg/MtmzE2w — the long-running Genie community server, shared with Genie 4. Drop in for alpha-tester chat, scripting help, mapper questions, or general DR conversation.
• Issues — GitHub Issues for bug reports + feature requests
• Discussions — GitHub Discussions for Q&A, ideas, and show-and-tell

Code signing policy

Windows release binaries are code-signed through SignPath.io, using an Extended Validation (EV) code signing certificate issued by GlobalSign to Shadow Realms LLC, the project's support partner (certificates can only be issued to a registered legal entity, which the community project itself is not). The private key is generated and held in SignPath's hardware security module and never leaves it.

Each release is built from this repository's source by GitHub Actions and submitted to SignPath automatically; the maintainer reviews and manually approves every signing request before the signature is applied. Releases published before EV signing went live are unsigned, as are macOS and Linux builds for now — those show a first-launch "unknown publisher" / Gatekeeper warning (Installation guide has the per-platform steps). SmartScreen reputation accrues per file over time, so early signed builds may still show a reduced warning while download counts build up.

Roles

• Authors / Committers: @monil2233 (project maintainer; commits to this repository).
• Reviewers: @monil2233 (reviews each signing request in the SignPath UI before approval).
• Approvers: @monil2233 (final approval that triggers the signing operation).

For a solo-maintainer alpha-stage project, all three roles consolidate on the maintainer. As the contributor base grows and a co-maintainer takes ownership, this section will be updated to reflect a separation between Reviewer and Approver per SignPath's two-person-rule guidance.

Privacy policy

This program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it. Genie 5 connects only to Simutronics' official DragonRealms authentication and game servers (play.net / simutronics.net) and, when the user configures it, to a local Lich 5 proxy. Account credentials are stored locally, encrypted with AES-256-GCM, and are transmitted only to the official authentication servers. No data is collected by the Genie 5 maintainers.

Credits

See CREDITS.md for art and non-code attributions. The app icon, status-indicator glyphs, and compass-direction icons are by @dylb0t, donated under GPL-3.0.

License

GPL-3.0. Same license as Lich 5, aligning Genie 5 with the broader DR-tooling ecosystem.