Nightzuku

Nightzuku is a customized modern fork of Shizuku, maintained by kerneldroid. It provides a robust, high-performance interface for applications to use system APIs directly with elevated permissions (root/ADB).

This project tracks the latest Android platform developments, including Android 16/17 target stability, introduces a revamped Modern Material 3 Expressive UI using Jetpack Compose, and includes a full ADB-backed ZIP modules runner.

Important

Migration Action Required: Due to the package identity upgrade (moe.shizuku.privileged.api -> kerneldroid.nightzuku), you MUST UNINSTALL any older official Shizuku Manager app from your device before installing Nightzuku. Otherwise, they will conflict. Upstream project reference: https://github.com/RikkaApps/Shizuku

Fork additions

• Jetpack Compose manager UI with Material 3 Expressive components, motion, switches, and rounded icon treatment.
• Android 16/17 target work with current preview SDK/build tooling in this fork.
• ADB Modules screen for installing and managing ZIP modules.
• Module features: module.prop, banner, enable/disable switch, action.sh, policy-gated service.sh, local WebUI, delete, path checks, size limits, output limits, and last-run logs.
• Module policy settings: Safe mode, Full access, and background action control.
• Debug test module under test-modules/adb-test-module.zip.

Documentation

• ADB Modules guide
• ADB Modules API reference
• Nightzuku Connectors API
• Android 17 Compatibility
• Wear OS Compatibility
• Wear OS Pairing Guide
• Android TV Support
• NightDog Watchdog

Background

When developing apps that require root, the standard approach is running commands in a su shell. This is slow, unreliable due to text processing, and limited to available commands. Even with ADB, apps often require root for privileged operations.

Nightzuku provides a high-performance alternative by allowing apps to use system APIs directly with elevated permissions.

How does Nightzuku work?

Android uses binder for interprocess communication (IPC) between apps and the system server. The system server checks the UID/PID of the client to enforce permissions.

Nightzuku guides users to start a Nightzuku server process with root or ADB. When an authorized app starts, it receives a binder to the Nightzuku server.

Nightzuku acts as a proxy, receiving requests from the app and forwarding them to the system server. This allows apps to use system APIs with the server's elevated permissions (root or ADB), making it almost identical to using system APIs directly.

Screenshots

📸 Click to open Screenshot Gallery

Phone UI

Main Screen	Authorized Apps
ADB Modules	Module WebUI
Settings

Wear OS UI (Native Material 3)

Main Screen	Authorized Apps
ADB Modules	Settings
Theme Dialog

Android TV UI (Native Material 3)

Main Screen
ADB Modules	Settings

Developer guide

API & sample

Official API and samples are available at: https://github.com/RikkaApps/Shizuku-API

Technical Details

1. ADB Permissions: ADB permissions vary by system version. Check available permissions in the Shell AndroidManifest. Use ShizukuService#getUid or ShizukuService#checkPermission to verify server capabilities.

2. Hidden API Restrictions: From Android 9, hidden API usage is restricted. Use tools like AndroidHiddenApiBypass if necessary.

3. Android 8.0 & ADB: On API 26, ADB lacks permissions to use registerUidObserver. If your app process is not started by an Activity, you may need to start a transparent activity to trigger binder transmission.

4. Direct transactRemote Usage: Signatures for hidden APIs change between Android versions. While ShizukuBinderWrapper handles most cases, direct transaction calls must be carefully verified against the target platform's AIDL definitions.

Developing Nightzuku

Build

• Clone with git clone --recurse-submodules
• Build with Gradle: ./gradlew :manager:assembleDebug

The :manager:assembleDebug task generates a debuggable server. Ensure "Always install with package manager" is checked in Android Studio to use the latest server code during debugging.

License

All code is licensed under Apache 2.0.

• Icon Usage: You may not use manager/src/main/res/mipmap*/ic_launcher*.png for anything other than displaying Nightzuku.
• Identity: You may not use Shizuku as an app name or use moe.shizuku.privileged.api as an application ID in derived works. The current package identity is kerneldroid.nightzuku.

Credits

Razgame for app list fix