If you had told me years ago that a side project I started as a fork to scratch an itch would become a foundation for a massive, chaotic, brilliant community of modders and tinkerers... I probably would've laughed and gone back to debugging my janky plugins. Yet here we are. And today, I want to share that I'll be stepping back from leading the BetterDiscord project.

This isn't a goodbye letter or a dramatic exit. This is just me handing the keys to someone else because I've been driving for a very, very long time.

A Look Back

BetterDiscord itself started before me, but I joined the community not long after. As I was developing my plugins, I wanted BetterDiscord to do just a little bit more—and apparently thousands of you agreed. My fork—BandagedBD—quickly became the de facto version of BetterDiscord. The original developer, Jiiks, yielded the namesake to me and I officially became "The BetterDiscord Guy". It grew over the years from my hacks and tweaks on top of a clunky system to a sprawling ecosystem of plugins, themes, developers, power users, and everyone in between. It's been a wild, but rewarding, journey that occasionally led to my forehead meeting the desk.

Watching the community grow, innovate, and even break things in ways I never expected has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career so far. This project became so much bigger than me, and that's why it works, and why it will continue to work without me at the helm.

Why I'm Stepping Back

Short answer: It's time.

Long answer: Leading a project of this scale is a lot—a lot of coordination, a lot of responsibility, and a lot of late-night “why is this even happening?” moments. Over time, I've realized I need to rebalance where my energy and time goes. I've got other things I want to explore, other projects tugging at my sleeves, and frankly, I'd like Discord to stop being the only app that occupies 40% of my brain at all times.

This isn't a total burnout smashing the emergency button; it's a thoughtful decision I've been considering for a while. And this feels like the right moment to shift from leading BetterDiscord to simply supporting it from the sidelines.

What the Transition Looks Like

First and foremost: BetterDiscord is in excellent hands.

Doggybootsy will be taking over as the new lead developer, bringing deep knowledge of Discord internals, and a level of enthusiasm for the project that will probably be refreshing for everyone involved. Through their contributions to BetterDiscord they've shown they understand the overall project's needs, direction, and community. Honestly, I couldn't imagine a better person to guide BetterDiscord forward.

Additionally, zrodevkaan will be officially joining the core team, helping expand the team's development capacity and strengthening the foundation for future improvements. Their work and commitment have already made a noticeable impact, especially for users, and making it official just made sense.

With everything now spread across this newly expanded team, BetterDiscord is in a better position than ever—especially without me as a bottleneck!

What's Next for BetterDiscord

There's a lot on the table for BetterDiscord, especially after the massive code overhaul we brought in v1.13. You can expect big changes to the plugin ecosystem, documentation upgrades, installer upgrades, a new command line tool, and much, much more. Hopefully that eternal question, "Why did Discord break everything again?" will become a thing of the past.

For a more concrete list of what's to come, you'll have to ask the new team as it's in their hands now. But I will say, one of the most requested features—theme settings—is definitely on the shortlist, adding the framework for it was one of my last contributions to the BetterDiscord client.

And like I said earlier, I will still be around supporting quietly from the sidelines (and hopefully avoiding support requests). In fact, I've already been helping in areas other than the main client. I overhauled the docs, I did a massive rewrite of our installer from Electron to Wails, and even started rewriting the CLI. That trend of me working on pieces supplementary to BetterDiscord will likely continue even as I transition further away and down the rabbit hole of another project I stumble into.

What's Next for Me

First, I'm taking a breather. Leading a project like this is absolutely incredible, but it's also a lot. So I'm taking some time to decompress and rediscover what hobbies I had before Discord became my hobby.

I'll also be transitioning my developer energy into other software projects—like my self-hosted software projects. And I'll finally get to explore some new ideas I haven't had time to chase. Oh, and of course I'll fix up my existing projects like ghostty-config that got left behind.

So don't be surprised if something weird, useful, or aggressively overengineered pops up from me in the near future. After all, I'm not vanishing. I'm just shifting gears.

Thank You

To the contributors who poured countless hours into code, debugging, documentation, and answering the same support questions over and over: you're all heroes.

To the plugin and theme developers that pushed what BetterDiscord could do: you're the reason people stick around.

And to every user who installed BD, customized their client, or accidentally broke Discord in the name of customization: thank you.

BetterDiscord is what it is because of all of you.

Final Thoughts

For the last time, I'll reiterate: This is a transition, not a disappearance. I'll still be around the BetterDiscord community, just not steering the ship. I'm immensely proud of what we've built together, and even more excited to see what the community does with doggybootsy, zrodevkaan, and the rest of the team leading the way.

BetterDiscord is in great hands. I'm very confident in its future—and very, very relieved to no longer be solely responsible whenever Discord drops yet another surprise update.

Thank you for the years of support, chaos, creativity, and patience. I don't think I'll ever be able to express how truly unbelievable this experience has been.