HellionChat/README.md

Hellion Chat

A GDPR-compliant, Linux-aware fork of Chat 2 for FINAL FANTASY XIV / Dalamud.

Same chat replacement you know from upstream, with extra controls for what actually gets stored:

• Channel whitelist for database persistence (GDPR Art. 25 — privacy by default). Out-of-the-box only your own conversations are kept: Tells, Party, Free Company, Linkshells, Cross-World Linkshells, Alliance, ExtraChat. Public chat from strangers (Say/Shout/Yell), Novice Network, NPC dialogue, system spam and battle messages stay outside the database unless you opt them in.
• Per-channel retention with a 24-hour idempotent background sweep. Tells default to 365 days, own-conversation channels to 90, the global default to 30. Off until you switch it on — the plugin never deletes history without your explicit consent.
• Retroactive cleanup with a Ctrl+Shift confirm. Apply the current whitelist to an existing 800-MB+ database, watch it shrink to MBs, all on a background thread.
• Export to Markdown, JSON or CSV (GDPR Art. 15 right of access). Filter by channel, date range or sender substring; written via Dalamud's file dialog without blocking the UI.
• First-run wizard with three profiles (Privacy-First / Casual / Full History) that maps to concrete configuration sets. Reopenable from the Privacy tab any time.
• Independent plugin state. Config and database live under pluginConfigs/HellionChat/, completely separate from upstream Chat 2 — you can run both side by side, or migrate from Chat 2 once and keep going.
• Migration recovery. Heals databases left in a half-applied Migrate3 state (columns added, user_version never bumped) without needing the backup file upstream creates.
• Localized UI (EN + DE). All Hellion-specific surfaces follow Dalamud's language override and switch live. Translations live in Resources/HellionStrings.<lang>.resx.

Status

Bootstrap (v0.1.x). Used in production on a single user's setup. Not (yet) submitted to the official Dalamud plugin repository — distributed as a custom-repo / dev-plugin while the architecture stabilises.

Install (testers)

Hellion Chat is shipped via a Dalamud custom repository during the bootstrap phase.

If you have never used Chat 2

1. Open Dalamud settings (/xlsettings) → Experimental.
2. Add a new entry under Custom Plugin Repositories:

   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JonKazama-Hellion/HellionChat/main/repo.json
   

3. Click Save, then back in /xlplugins hit All Plugins and refresh.
4. Hellion Chat now appears in the list — install it.

If you are migrating from Chat 2 (and want to keep your history)

The two plugins share pluginConfigs/ChatTwo/ (database) and pluginConfigs/ChatTwo.json (settings). Hellion Chat moves both into pluginConfigs/HellionChat/ on first start, but only if the upstream plugin isn't holding the database file open. Order matters:

1. Disable Chat 2 in /xlplugins (don't uninstall, just disable).
2. Close FFXIV completely so SQLite releases its file lock — a plain plugin reload is not enough.
3. Re-launch the game.
4. Add the custom repo URL as in the previous section.
5. Install Hellion Chat. On its first start it migrates the Chat 2 config file and the entire database directory into the HellionChat layout without losing data.
6. Verify in Settings → Privacy → Apply filter to existing database → Refresh preview that the message count is what you expect (millions of rows if you used Chat 2 for a while).

If the message count comes back as zero, the migration was blocked (usually because Chat 2 was still active or the previous game session hadn't fully closed). See the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

Hellion Chat shows zero messages but I had Chat 2 history: The migration either didn't run or hit a locked file. Close the game, then move the data manually:

Linux / XIVLauncher Core:

mv ~/.xlcore/pluginConfigs/ChatTwo/chat-sqlite.db \
   ~/.xlcore/pluginConfigs/HellionChat/chat-sqlite.db
[ -d ~/.xlcore/pluginConfigs/ChatTwo/EmoteCacheV1 ] && \
  mv ~/.xlcore/pluginConfigs/ChatTwo/EmoteCacheV1 \
     ~/.xlcore/pluginConfigs/HellionChat/

Windows / standard XIVLauncher:

Move-Item "$env:AppData\XIVLauncher\pluginConfigs\ChatTwo\chat-sqlite.db" `
          "$env:AppData\XIVLauncher\pluginConfigs\HellionChat\chat-sqlite.db" -Force

Then start the game and Hellion Chat — your full history is back.

Updates

Updates land in the same plugin list once the maintainer pushes a new v0.1.x tag and re-publishes the GitHub release. No re-installation needed.

Why a fork

The upstream maintainer has left filtering-related issues open since 2024 (#84, #173, #174). The original design treats the database as an unlimited searchable archive of everything the chat window sees, which is fine in the US-/JP-shaped privacy mindset but hard to reconcile with EU GDPR data minimization rules when the archive contains messages from third parties.

Forking under EUPL-1.2 is explicitly permitted, the upstream stays authoritative for the chat-replacement engine, and we cherry-pick relevant upstream bugfixes from Infiziert90/ChatTwo periodically.

Build

# Linux with XIVLauncher Core
cp .env.example .env
# adjust DALAMUD_HOME if your hooks live somewhere else
set -a; source .env; set +a
dotnet build ChatTwo/ChatTwo.csproj

The output assembly is ChatTwo/bin/Debug/HellionChat.dll. Add the parent directory as a Dev Plugin Location in Dalamud's experimental settings.

Branding assets

ChatTwo/images/icon.png is the upstream Chat 2 icon and stays in place until a hand-drawn Hellion logo replaces it. No AI-generated artwork — ever.

License

EUPL-1.2 (same as upstream Chat 2). See LICENCE.

Acknowledgments

• Infi & Anna (ascclemens) — original Chat 2 engine, filtering, IPC, all the heavy lifting before this fork existed.
• Dalamud team — the plugin framework underneath everything.
• JonKazama-Hellion — fork maintenance, privacy/retention/export features, German localization.

AI assistance disclosure

See AI_DISCLOSURE.md.