BladeWatch

Free, open-source dashcam and sentry mode app built specifically for BYD vehicles with DiLink v3. All recordings and data stay on your device — no cloud, no accounts, no subscriptions. Optional remote viewing is direct and peer-to-peer, through the companion app.

BladeWatch targets BYD DiLink v3 head units (arm64-v8a, Android 10+) and installs onto the car's head unit over ADB.

Contents: What's new · Install on the car · Install with an AI agent · Features · Remote access · Install the companion app · Building from source · Privacy

On the car it runs as two APKs that must both be installed:

APK	Package	Role
In-car UI	`net.bladewatch.incarapp`	Everything you see and tap. The only launcher icon.
Service host	`net.bladewatch.app`	Daemons, recording, surveillance, BYD integration. No UI, no launcher icon.

They share one Android UID, which is what lets the UI talk to the daemons over loopback IPC. That only works when both are signed with the same key, so install them as a pair and never mix builds from different sources.

A third app, the companion (net.bladewatch.companionapp), goes on your phone or computer, never on the car. It is optional, and it is how you reach the car remotely: see Install the companion app.

What's new in v1.4.1.4

A 6-digit PIN, held by the car, to keep Settings away from anyone with physical access — a valet, a passenger, a child in the back seat.

Settings PIN lock, in the car and in every companion. Turn it on from Settings > Security in the car (or Settings in the companion): set a PIN, and from then on opening Settings — Surveillance and Notifications too, in the companion — asks for it first. A wrong PIN says how many tries are left; five wrong PINs in a row lock entry out for a minute, doubling on each further miss. It is the car's PIN, not any one app's: every paired companion checks the same one.
Biometric unlock on the companion. A phone or Mac with a fingerprint reader or face recognition can use it instead of typing the PIN each time — opt in from Settings after proving you know the PIN once. A failed or cancelled biometric check falls back to the PIN, with a button to try the sensor again.
A forgotten PIN isn't a lockout. Any companion already unlocked by its own biometrics can change or clear the car's PIN without re-entering the old one. With no companion at hand, the PIN can also be cleared over ADB at the car — see docs/ipc-auth-and-secrets.md.
One version everywhere: 1.4.1.4.

v1.4.1.3

Reach the car from mobile data while it is online through its own SIM, through a relay you run.

Your own relay, for the one case peer-to-peer cannot connect. A car on its built-in SIM and a phone on mobile data both sit behind carrier NAT, and nothing could connect them. Now you can run a small relay on any Linux server with a public IPv4 address, such as a cheap cloud VPS: download bladewatch-relay-v1.4.1.3.tar.gz from this release and set it up from relay/README.md, then turn on Settings > Relay access > Use my relay in the car and in each companion, with the same Relay key. Everything that connects directly today stays direct; the relay is only used when nothing else works.
The relay is yours alone. Its key is 12 digits, like 4821-0937-5562, and the relay refuses anyone without it, other BladeWatch owners included. It forwards encrypted data and cannot see your video or your car's data. BladeWatch ships no relay and no key: without one, nothing changes.
The relay key can be entered from the "can't reach the car" page in the companion, because that is exactly when it is needed and the car's own settings are out of reach.
The Linux companion shows the full version in About (it showed three parts).
One version everywhere: 1.4.1.3.

Known, not fixed:

Without a relay, a phone on mobile data still cannot reach a car on its built-in SIM. Put the phone on Wi-Fi, or set up a relay. See Remote Access.
On the head unit, the VEHICLE card pushes the dashboard's tile row down far enough that it takes a short scroll to reach.

Upgrading from v1.4.1.2: the app IDs are unchanged, so both car APKs and the companion update in place, and paired devices stay paired. Relay access is off until you turn it on. On Android, take the companion APK for your device (arm64-v8a for a phone). BYD resets its Auto-Start restriction on every install, so allow both BladeWatch entries again afterwards.

v1.4.1.2

The companion comes to the TV, and devices without a camera pair without a QR.

The companion runs on Android TV (Google TV, Sony BRAVIA and the like, 32-bit ones included) and is driven with the remote: a bright ring shows what is selected, up and down walk the side menu or the page and scroll it, and Events, Recordings, Trips, Surveillance and Location all work from the couch. On a TV, a clip's delete button is hidden (Select still deletes) so the remote lands on the clips, and the map is for looking at, not panning.
Pair a TV or a computer over Wi-Fi, by number. With Pair a device open in the car and Direct connection on this Wi-Fi on, choose Pair over Wi-Fi on the device: both screens show the same six-digit number, and you tap Pair in the car if they match. Phones still scan the QR; the macOS app no longer offers the scan.
A PAIRED DEVICES card on the in-car dashboard lists every paired phone, TV and computer, with when it was paired and a Remove button.
Smaller downloads. The companion now comes as one file per kind of processor: three Android APKs (phones, 32-bit TVs, emulators) and two macOS zips (Apple silicon, Intel), each about half the size of the old all-in-one file. See Install the companion app.
Direct connection finds the car more reliably when it has moved to a new address on your Wi-Fi: the search now goes out a few addresses at a time instead of all at once, which some devices (a TV among them) silently dropped.
The car's startup screen counts while the services start. Its timers stayed at "0s" until the first service answered.
The companion's Surveillance page drops its camera snapshots: Live shows the cameras.
One version everywhere: 1.4.1.2.

Known, not fixed:

A phone on mobile data cannot reach a car on its built-in SIM. Both sit behind carrier NAT, which peer-to-peer connections cannot cross, and BladeWatch runs no relay. Put the phone on Wi-Fi in that case. See Remote Access.
On the head unit, the VEHICLE card pushes the dashboard's tile row down far enough that it takes a short scroll to reach.

Upgrading from v1.4.1.1: the app IDs are unchanged, so both car APKs and the companion update in place, and paired devices stay paired. On Android, take the companion APK for your device (arm64-v8a for a phone). BYD resets its Auto-Start restriction on every install, so allow both BladeWatch entries again afterwards.

v1.4.1.1

A polish release for the dashboards, trips and the companion app. Pairing, recording and remote access are unchanged.

Battery and fuel left as an amount, not just a percentage: 77% / 14.1 kWh and 30% / 14 L, in the car and in the companion. The battery amount uses your car's pack size (from the model picked in the car's Vehicle dialog); the fuel amount appears once you enter your tank size in Settings > Trips. It is an estimate: battery health and BYD's reserve are not counted.
A VEHICLE card on the in-car dashboard. Battery, EV range, fuel and fuel range moved out of THIS WEEK into their own card below it, so the week's card holds only the week.
The companion dashboard, reorganised. Vehicle comes first (battery, range, fuel, fuel range, then charging, health and 12 V), This week below it. The duplicate SOC and total-range rows are gone, and so is the Battery capacity dialog: the pack size comes from the selected model.
The companion's Trips page now shows what the car shows: 7, 14 and 30-day periods, the period summary with kWh/100km and the fuel, electric and total cost, each trip's cost, the driver score out of 500, the cost card, BYD's own fuel-range estimate, and driving DNA as bars. A trip's detail adds the energy used, and speeds and distances follow your km/mi setting.
Money looks the same in both apps (₱49.96, not 49.96 PHP).
Trip settings are easier to find in the companion: Settings > Trips & costs > Trip Analytics (it was labelled "Electricity Rate"). The currency comes first, and the rates show their unit in it (₱/kWh, ₱/L).
Tidier companion screens: figures in a card share one size and line up, labels wrap between words instead of shrinking or breaking mid-word, and every bottom-bar label is the same size.
A speed test in the companion's Diagnostics: the delay and download speed between your phone and the car, and whether it went over the car's Wi-Fi or Pear.
One version everywhere. The companion now carries the car's version number, 1.4.1.1.

Known, not fixed:

A phone on mobile data cannot reach a car on its built-in SIM. Both sit behind carrier NAT, which peer-to-peer connections cannot cross, and BladeWatch runs no relay. Put the phone on Wi-Fi in that case. See Remote Access.
On the head unit, the new VEHICLE card pushes the dashboard's tile row down far enough that it takes a short scroll to reach.

Upgrading from v1.4.1.0: the app IDs are unchanged, so both car APKs and the companion update in place, and a paired phone stays paired. BYD resets its Auto-Start restriction on every install, so allow both BladeWatch entries again afterwards.

v1.4.1.0

A redesign release: a new "cyberpunk HUD" look across the in-car UI and the companion app, in dark and light. What the apps do and how you pair, record and control the car are unchanged.

A new look for the in-car UI, every screen. Near-black panels with cyan and magenta accents and a soft glow in dark mode; white panels and the same accents in light mode. Thin bordered cards, uppercase tracked labels, and the Space Mono typeface. Cyan marks information, magenta marks live or needs-attention states, and every status dot reflects real state. Settings > Appearance still picks Auto, Light or Dark.
The companion matches. The same look on your phone and computer: a side panel on wide windows, a bottom bar and a More sheet on phones, and every page (Dashboard, Live, Recordings, Events, Vehicle, Location, Trips, Diagnostics, Surveillance, Settings, pairing) restyled.
Costs show the currency symbol you picked ($, €, ₱), in both apps.
Bundled font, offline. Space Mono ships inside both apps, so nothing is fetched. It covers Latin, Latin-Extended and Vietnamese; Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Hindi and Russian use the platform font for their own glyphs. Its licence (SIL OFL 1.1) is under Settings > About > License in the car and in Licenses in the companion.
Fixes found while testing on real devices: even page gutters on Vehicle and Trips, chips that no longer scroll sideways on Recordings, the map attribution no longer overflows, and stacked form fields no longer touch.

Known, not fixed: the uppercase labels are not locale-aware in Turkish (a label such as "diğer" shows as DIĞER, not DİĞER).

Upgrading from v1.4.0.0: the app IDs are unchanged, so both car APKs and the companion update in place. BYD resets its Auto-Start restriction on every install, so allow both BladeWatch entries again afterwards.

Coming from v1.3.x: what v1.4.0.0 changed

Remote access is now the companion app, over Pear. The Tor onion service is gone. A new companion app for your phone or computer (Android, macOS, Windows and Linux builds are on the release page; iOS builds from source) finds the car over Pear, a peer-to-peer network: no account, no server, nothing to forward on your router. Pair it once with the QR code on the car's Dashboard. On the car's own Wi-Fi it connects directly.
What the companion does: live view of all four cameras (ten still frames a second), the recordings library with in-app playback and full-quality download, surveillance and proximity events, trips and driving stats, vehicle control (climate, windows, and more) behind the car's own safety interlock, diagnostics, and settings, in 17 languages. Clips are converted to a size the phone can play on demand, while downloads stay full quality.
Alerts arrive when the phone next connects. Push notifications are gone: the car keeps the alerts it raised and the companion collects them each time it connects, so nothing goes through a third party.
The web app is gone. The browser interface, its login and Web Push were removed; the car no longer serves web pages, and every client (the in-car UI and the companion) uses the same authenticated API.
Sturdier remote video. Downloads and playback ride out dropped connections and resume, instead of failing.

Upgrading from v1.3.x: onion URLs and QR codes saved from v1.3.x stop working and nothing migrates them, so pair the companion instead. The app IDs changed (net.bladewatch.incarapp for the in-car UI, net.bladewatch.companionapp for the companion), so neither updates in place: install the new in-car UI, then uninstall the old net.bladewatch.flutter. BYD resets its Auto-Start restriction on every install, so allow both BladeWatch entries again afterwards. Full notes are on each release page.

Quick Start (Use Pre-built APK)

Download both car APKs from GitHub Releases and install them on your BYD head unit. The same release also carries the companion app builds for your phone or computer (see Install the companion app); those never go on the car.

Release builds are published unsigned, so the signing key never touches CI. Sign both with the same key before installing:

for f in bladewatch-service-host-*-unsigned.apk bladewatch-ui-*-unsigned.apk; do
  apksigner sign --ks release.jks --ks-key-alias key0 \
    --out "${f%-unsigned.apk}.apk" "$f"
done
# both digests must match, or the UI cannot reach the daemons:
apksigner verify --print-certs bladewatch-*-arm64-v8a.apk | grep 'SHA-256 digest'

adb install bladewatch-service-host-*-arm64-v8a.apk
adb install bladewatch-ui-*-arm64-v8a.apk

1. Prerequisites

Ensure Wireless ADB is enabled on your device before launching the app.

2. Initial Configuration

Authorize ADB: On first launch, accept the ADB authentication prompt on your device screen.
Background Persistence: Open BYD Auto-Start and uncheck BOTH entries — "BladeWatch" (the UI) and "BladeWatch Service" (the daemons). That list restricts auto-start, so unchecking an entry is what allows it to start. Two entries appear because BladeWatch is two APKs. This is critical: on this head unit BYD suppresses the usual boot broadcast, so auto-start is what allows the app to run at boot at all. Clearing only the UI leaves the daemons dead. BYD re-applies the restriction on every install, so redo this after each update.

⚠️ CRITICAL: Hard Reboot Required After the first installation and initial run, you must hard reboot the device: Press and hold the Volume Down button for 5 seconds. Wait for the system to fully restart. This step is necessary to finalize the installation.

Install with an AI Agent

Rather do none of the above by hand? Paste the block below into an agentic coding assistant (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, …) running on a computer that is on the same Wi-Fi network as the car. It fetches and signs both APKs, installs them over ADB, and if the car is not reachable it tells you how to switch ADB on in the head unit.

Install BladeWatch (https://github.com/andrewloable/BladeWatch) on my BYD DiLink v3 head unit
over ADB. Run the commands yourself, one step at a time, and stop to ask me only where a step
says so.

Facts:
- BladeWatch is TWO APKs and both must be installed: the service host (package
  net.bladewatch.app, file bladewatch-service-host-*.apk) and the in-car UI (package
  net.bladewatch.incarapp, file bladewatch-ui-*.apk). They share one Android UID, so both MUST
  be signed with the same key.
- The head unit is reached with ADB over Wi-Fi: adb connect <car-ip>:5555. It is arm64-v8a,
  Android 10 (API 29), reports manufacturer "BYD AUTO", and is not rooted (it does not need
  to be). Always pass -s <car-ip>:5555 to every adb command.

1. Tools. Make sure adb (Android platform-tools), apksigner (Android build-tools) and keytool
   (a JDK) are on PATH; install whatever is missing with this OS's package manager (macOS:
   brew install --cask android-platform-tools android-commandlinetools, then sdkmanager
   "build-tools;35.0.0"; Debian/Ubuntu: apt install adb apksigner default-jdk-headless).

2. APKs. If two already-signed BladeWatch APKs are in the current directory, use them.
   Otherwise download the two car APKs of the latest release,
   bladewatch-service-host-*-unsigned.apk and bladewatch-ui-*-unsigned.apk, from
   https://github.com/andrewloable/BladeWatch/releases/latest (gh release download
   --repo andrewloable/BladeWatch --pattern 'bladewatch-service-host-*.apk' --pattern
   'bladewatch-ui-*.apk', or the GitHub releases API). Do NOT install the
   bladewatch-companion-* files on the car: they are the phone/desktop app. Then sign
   BOTH car APKs with the same key:
   - Ask me whether I have a keystore. If yes, ask for its path, alias and password. If not,
     create one: keytool -genkeypair -keystore bladewatch.jks -alias bladewatch -keyalg RSA
     -keysize 2048 -validity 10000 -dname "CN=BladeWatch" -storepass <password you choose>,
     then tell me to back that file up: every future update must be signed with this same
     key, or both packages have to be uninstalled first.
   - For each file: apksigner sign --ks <keystore> --ks-key-alias <alias>
     --ks-pass pass:<password> --out <name>.apk <name>-unsigned.apk
   - Then apksigner verify --print-certs on both signed APKs and confirm the SHA-256
     certificate digests are identical. Stop if they differ.

3. Connect. Run adb devices. If the car is already listed, use it. Otherwise ask me for the
   car's IP address and run adb connect <car-ip>:5555. If that fails (including "no route to
   host"), run adb kill-server && adb start-server and try once more: the local adb server
   gets stuck like this while the car is up. If it still fails, show me these instructions
   and wait for me:

   How to switch ADB on in the car:
   a) Put the car and this computer on the same Wi-Fi network, e.g. connect both to a phone
      hotspot.
   b) On the head unit open Settings, find Developer options (usually by tapping the version
      number under About several times) and switch on USB debugging.
   c) That alone is NOT enough on BYD: also switch on the head unit's own Wireless ADB /
      network debugging setting. A BYD system update can silently turn it back off.
   d) Read the car's IP address in the head unit's Wi-Fi settings and tell me.
   e) When the computer connects, the car's screen asks "Allow USB debugging?": tick
      "Always allow" and tap OK.

   Once connected, confirm it really is the car before installing anything:
   getprop ro.product.manufacturer must contain BYD, getprop ro.product.cpu.abi must be
   arm64-v8a and getprop ro.build.version.sdk must be 29 or higher. If not, stop and ask me.

4. Install. adb install -r the service host APK first, then the UI APK. If an install is
   rejected with INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE, INSTALL_FAILED_SHARED_USER_INCOMPATIBLE
   or INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED, an older BladeWatch signed with a different key is on the
   car: tell me, and only with my OK run adb uninstall net.bladewatch.incarapp and
   adb uninstall net.bladewatch.app, ask me to hard-reboot the head unit (hold Volume Down
   for 5 seconds) so its old background daemons die, reconnect, and install again. Never
   uninstall anything without asking, and never touch /data/local/tmp/pear (it holds the
   car's permanent remote-access identity; deleting it unpairs every phone).

5. Verify. adb shell 'dumpsys package net.bladewatch.app | grep userId' and the same for
   net.bladewatch.incarapp must print the same userId; if they differ the APKs were signed with
   different keys, go back to step 2. Then launch the UI:
   adb shell am start -n net.bladewatch.incarapp/net.bladewatch.bladewatch_ui.MainActivity

6. Tell me what to do on the car's screen, in this order:
   - Accept the "Allow USB debugging?" prompt that appears on first launch. The app uses its
     own ADB key to start its background daemons; nothing works until this is accepted.
   - In the head unit's BYD Auto-Start settings, UNCHECK BOTH "BladeWatch" and
     "BladeWatch Service". That list restricts auto-start, so unchecking is what allows them
     to start; otherwise nothing runs when the car is switched on. BYD resets this on every
     install, so it must be redone after each update.
   - Hard-reboot the head unit: hold Volume Down for 5 seconds and wait for it to restart.

Report each step's result as you go. Do not make mistakes: read every command's output before
moving on, never guess an IP address or a package name, and if anything is ambiguous, stop
and ask me instead of guessing.

Features

Recording

Panoramic Dashcam — Records the BYD 360° panoramic camera through a GPU mosaic pipeline (H.264/H.265), segmented into configurable clips with a recording library and calendar view for browsing and managing footage.
Proximity Recording (Market First) — Uses BYD's 8 parking radar sensors to trigger recording only when objects approach the parked car. Configurable trigger levels, pre-event buffer, and 500ms debouncing.
Advanced Sentry Mode — 24/7 surveillance with GPU motion detection, per-quadrant tracking, and an optional on-device AI object-recognition gate (TFLite YOLO11n). Supports safe-location zones, schedules, and pre/post-event windows.

Vehicle & Driving

Vehicle Control — Operate climate (AC, temperature, fan, max-cooling), windows (open/close and partial positioning), the sunroof, lights, ADAS options and the charge cap directly from the app. Runs entirely through the local BYD SDK — no cloud account required. Every command is checked by the car's own safety interlock, and remote commands need a short-lived token on top of the login.
3D Vehicle Hero — An interactive 3D model of your car (Seal, Seal U, Dolphin, Atto 3, Han, Tang, and more) with a live state dashboard: doors, windows, battery SOC and range, per-tyre pressure, and climate.
Live Location — Map view of the car's current position with a heading-rotated marker and a one-tap link out to Google Maps.
Trips & Analytics — Trip history with route maps, telemetry, and driving insights.

Monitoring & Remote Access

Real-time Performance Monitor — CPU, GPU, memory usage, and battery voltage dashboard.
Diagnostics — Network, storage, camera, and battery health checks.
Live Streaming — Low-latency H.264 streaming over WebSocket in the car, with multiple view modes (all cameras, front, rear, left, right); the companion shows the same view as ten stills a second.
Companion app — Phone and desktop app (companion/) that reaches the car directly on its Wi-Fi or from anywhere over Pear, with the car's alerts collected from its store-and-forward inbox (no push service).
Your own relay (optional, v1.4.1.3) — A small server you run, from the release's bladewatch-relay-<tag>.tar.gz, that bridges a car on its SIM and a phone on mobile data. Only devices with your 12-digit relay key can use it; see Your own relay.
ADB Shell Runner — Built-in terminal for running commands, checking processes, and viewing logs.
17 Languages — Fully localized UI.

Remote Access (Pear)

(v1.3.x reached the car through a Tor onion address. v1.4.0.0 removed it: saved onion URLs and QR codes no longer work, and nothing migrates them. Pair the companion app instead.)

Remote access goes through the BladeWatch companion app on your phone or computer (Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux). It finds the car over Pear, a peer-to-peer network: no account, no server in the middle, and nothing to forward on your router.

Setup: install the companion (below), then on the car's Dashboard tap Pair a device:

Phone: scan the code with the companion. The code works once and expires after five minutes.
TV or computer (no camera): turn on Direct connection on this Wi-Fi in the same dialog, put the device on the car's Wi-Fi, and choose Pair over Wi-Fi in the companion. Both screens show the same six-digit number; tap Pair in the car only if they match.

Pairing turns remote access on. The dashboard's Paired devices card, and the pairing dialog, list paired devices and remove any you no longer trust.

On the same Wi-Fi: turn on Direct connection on this Wi-Fi in the pairing dialog and a paired phone on the car's network connects straight to it, encrypted, without going through the internet. It is off unless you turn it on.

Limits: the car and the phone must be able to reach each other through their networks. Some mobile carriers put phones behind a NAT that peer-to-peer connections cannot cross; from such a network the companion may not reach the car until you switch to another connection. If the car is online through its built-in SIM, the phone cannot reach it directly over mobile data: both are then behind carrier NATs. Put the phone on Wi-Fi, or run your own relay (below). Over a mobile connection, live video is smoothest at Medium quality or lower.

Your own relay (optional, v1.4.1.3)

A relay is a small server you run yourself that bridges the car on its SIM and a phone on mobile data, the one case peer-to-peer cannot connect. It needs a Linux server with a public IPv4 address, such as a small cloud VPS. It forwards encrypted data only and cannot see your video or your car's data. Everything that connects directly today stays direct.

It is yours alone. You create a relay key of 12 digits, like 4821-0937-5562, and enter the same key on the relay, in the car and in each companion: Settings > Relay access > turn on Use my relay > Relay key. The relay refuses anyone without the key, other BladeWatch owners included. BladeWatch ships no relay and no key; without one, nothing changes.

Setup: download bladewatch-relay-<tag>.tar.gz from the release -- for this version, bladewatch-relay-v1.4.1.3.tar.gz -- and follow relay/README.md (also inside the archive): install, create the key, open UDP ports 49737-49742, check it, then turn it on in both apps.

Install the Companion App

The companion runs on your phone, TV or computer and never on the car. Every release carries it for four platforms, one file per kind of processor so each download carries only what your device runs; iOS is built from source.

Platform	Release file	Needs
Android phone or tablet	`bladewatch-companion-<version>-android-arm64-v8a-unsigned.apk`	Android 10 or later, 64-bit
Android TV (most are 32-bit)	`bladewatch-companion-<version>-android-armeabi-v7a-unsigned.apk`	Android 10 or later
Android emulator, x86 Chromebook	`bladewatch-companion-<version>-android-x86_64-unsigned.apk`	Android 10 or later
Mac with Apple silicon	`bladewatch-companion-<version>-macos-arm64-unsigned.zip`	macOS 12 or later
Mac with an Intel processor	`bladewatch-companion-<version>-macos-x86_64-unsigned.zip`	macOS 12 or later
Windows	`bladewatch-companion-<version>-windows-unsigned.zip`	64-bit Windows
Linux	`bladewatch-companion-<version>-linux-unsigned.tar.gz`	64-bit Linux with GTK 3
iOS	not published: build from source, or sideload it with SideStore (see iOS)	iOS 15 or later, a Mac with Xcode

Like the car APKs, none of these are signed, because the release build holds no keys.

Android

Sign the APK once with a key of your own, then install it:

apksigner sign --ks my-companion.jks --ks-key-alias key0 \
  --out bladewatch-companion.apk bladewatch-companion-*-android-arm64-v8a-unsigned.apk
adb install bladewatch-companion.apk      # or copy it to the phone and open it

On an Android TV, take the armeabi-v7a APK (adb shell getprop ro.product.cpu.abi says which one a device runs) and install it with adb connect <tv-ip>:5555 and adb install, after turning on the TV's developer options and network debugging. The companion appears among the TV's apps and is driven with the remote.

It does not have to be the car's key, but keep using the same key for every update: Android refuses an update signed with a different key, and the only way out is to uninstall the companion and pair it again. Installing from a file needs "Install unknown apps" allowed for whichever app opens it (Files, a browser).

macOS

Unzip it and move BladeWatch.app to Applications. Because it is unsigned, Finder refuses a double-click the first time ("cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified"): right-click it and choose Open, then Open again. Or clear the quarantine flag once:

xattr -cr /Applications/BladeWatch.app

Windows

Unzip the whole folder somewhere permanent and run bladewatch_companion.exe from it: the program needs the DLLs and the data folder next to it, so do not move the .exe on its own. SmartScreen warns about an unrecognized publisher; click More info, then Run anyway.

Linux

mkdir -p ~/bladewatch && tar -xzf bladewatch-companion-*-linux-unsigned.tar.gz -C ~/bladewatch
chmod +x ~/bladewatch/bladewatch_companion     # if the executable bit was lost
~/bladewatch/bladewatch_companion

Keep the lib and data folders next to the binary.

iOS

There is no iOS release file: an installable iOS app has to be signed with an Apple account, and the release build holds no keys. Build it yourself on a Mac with Xcode:

With an Apple ID in Xcode: open companion/ios/Runner.xcworkspace, choose your team under Signing & Capabilities, and run it on your connected iPhone (Developer Mode on). A free Apple ID signs apps that stop opening after 7 days until you run them again; a paid Apple Developer account lasts a year.
With a sideloading tool such as SideStore: build an unsigned app, wrap it as an .ipa, zip that .ipa, and send the zip to the iPhone. SideStore signs the app with your Apple ID and keeps it refreshed. On a Mac with Xcode:
```
cd companion
flutter build ios --release --no-codesign
V=$(plutil -extract CFBundleShortVersionString raw ios/Runner/Info.plist)   # 1.4.1.4
rm -rf build/ipa && mkdir -p build/ipa/Payload
cp -R build/ios/iphoneos/Runner.app build/ipa/Payload/
(cd build/ipa && zip -qry "BladeWatch-$V.ipa" Payload && zip -q "BladeWatch-$V-sidestore.zip" "BladeWatch-$V.ipa" && rm -rf Payload "BladeWatch-$V.ipa")
# build/ipa/BladeWatch-<version>-sidestore.zip is the file to send to the iPhone
```
Send the zip, not the bare .ipa: it reaches the iPhone as an ordinary file that SideStore can then open. On the iPhone, with Developer Mode on (Settings > Privacy & Security):
1. AirDrop BladeWatch-<version>-sidestore.zip from the Mac to the iPhone and save it to Files.
2. In Files, tap the zip to unzip it. That leaves BladeWatch-<version>.ipa.
3. Open SideStore > My Apps > + and pick that .ipa (or share it to SideStore from Files). SideStore signs it with your Apple ID and installs it.
To update, build and send the new zip the same way: SideStore replaces the app and keeps its data, so it stays paired. The 7-day limit of a free Apple ID applies here too; SideStore refreshes the app for you.

Pair it with the car

On the car's Dashboard, tap Pair a device. A QR code appears; it works once and expires after five minutes, after which New code makes another. Pairing turns remote access on.
On a phone (Android, iOS), scan the code with the companion's camera. On a TV or a computer (Android TV, macOS, Windows, Linux), there is no scan: turn on Direct connection on this Wi-Fi in the same dialog, put the device on the car's Wi-Fi, and choose Pair over Wi-Fi in the companion. Both screens show the same six-digit number; tap Pair in the car only if they match. (Pasting the QR's text, read with any QR reader, still works everywhere.)
The companion finds the car over Pear, from anywhere except the network combinations under Limits; the first time can take up to a minute. To connect directly when you are on the car's Wi-Fi, turn on Direct connection on this Wi-Fi in the same dialog on the car.

A pairing lasts until you remove it; restarts, updates and reboots keep it. The car's dashboard (Paired devices) and Pair a device list every paired device with a Remove button, which cuts that device off at once. Unpair this device in the companion's Settings makes the phone forget the car, but the car keeps listing it until you remove it there too.

Should work on all BYD vehicles with DiLink v3 and the panoramic camera system.

Building from Source

BladeWatch is a hybrid project built from these codebases:

flutter_ui/ — the in-car UI (Flutter/Dart), built as net.bladewatch.incarapp.
app/ — the service host (Android/Kotlin/Java + C++), built as net.bladewatch.app. Owns the daemons, the camera/GPU pipeline and the BYD integration.
companion/ — the phone and desktop app (Flutter), built as net.bladewatch.companionapp. Never installed on the car.
packages/ — the Dart packages both Flutter apps share (bladewatch_rpc, the API client and generated messages; bladewatch_theme, the HUD theme, widgets and Space Mono font).

The in-car UI was native Android until it was rewritten in Flutter. The Angular web app that once served browsers was removed in v1.4.0.0; the companion replaces it.

Requirements

Android SDK (compileSdk 36) and NDK 26.1.10909125
JDK 17 (the modules themselves target Java 11 bytecode)
Flutter 3.44+ — for the in-car UI and the companion (releases are built with 3.44.4)
For the companion's desktop and iOS builds, that platform's own toolchain: Xcode for macOS and iOS, Visual Studio with the "Desktop development with C++" workload for Windows, and clang cmake ninja-build pkg-config libgtk-3-dev for Linux. Each is built on its own OS.
buf — optional, only needed to regenerate the protobuf / ConnectRPC stubs
No Node.js or npm for the apps: the build has no web part any more. Node.js 20+ is needed only to test or run the optional relay (relay/).

Build

The two APKs build independently, from different toolchains:

# Service host (net.bladewatch.app) — builds the native libraries and bundles them
# into an arm64-v8a APK.
./gradlew assembleDebug
# Output: app/build/outputs/apk/debug/bladewatch-<branch>-arm64-v8a-debug.apk
#         (the git branch is embedded so builds stay distinguishable)

# In-car UI (net.bladewatch.incarapp)
cd flutter_ui && flutter build apk --target-platform android-arm64 --debug
# Output: flutter_ui/build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-debug.apk

# Companion (net.bladewatch.companionapp) — phones, TVs and desktops, never the car
cd companion && flutter build apk --debug --target-platform android-arm64   # one ABI; omit for all three
cd companion && flutter build macos --debug    # or: ios, windows, linux on their own OS

Tests and coverage gates:

./gradlew test koverVerify                                   # service host
cd flutter_ui && flutter analyze && flutter test             # in-car UI
cd companion && flutter analyze && flutter test              # companion
cd packages/bladewatch_rpc && flutter analyze && flutter test
cd relay && npm ci && npm test                               # optional relay (Node.js)
cd flutter_ui/android && ./gradlew koverVerify checkFlutterCoverage checkRpcCoverage checkCompanionCoverage

Both car packages must report the same UID or the UI cannot reach the daemons:

adb shell 'dumpsys package net.bladewatch.app | grep userId'
adb shell 'dumpsys package net.bladewatch.incarapp | grep userId'

Release builds without a keystore come out unsigned by design (see Quick Start). Tagged releases are built by GitHub Actions — see .github/workflows/release.yml.

The Gradle build orchestrates everything:

Native dependencies (OpenH264, opencv-mobile, TensorFlow Lite) are auto-downloaded and checksum-verified — no manual download step.
generateConnectProtos regenerates the Java, Kotlin and Dart stubs from proto/bladewatch/v1/*.proto (only needed when the API schemas change).

The in-car UI talks to the daemon over ConnectRPC on 127.0.0.1:8080, with privileged operations going through loopback IPC on 127.0.0.1:19876; the companion uses the same ConnectRPC API, over TLS on the car's Wi-Fi (port 8443, opt-in) or through the Pear stream. For device install, daemon cleanup, and the full development workflow, see CLAUDE.md and the docs/ directory.

Build and install the companion

Release builds come out unsigned unless KEYSTORE_FILE, KEYSTORE_PASSWORD, KEY_PASSWORD and KEY_ALIAS are set; sign them with your own key (apksigner, from the Android SDK build-tools) and keep using that key: Android refuses an update signed with a different one, and uninstalling to get past that unpairs the device.

Android phone (64-bit):

cd companion
flutter build apk --release --target-platform android-arm64
apksigner sign --ks my-companion.jks --ks-key-alias key0 \
  --out build/bladewatch-companion.apk build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk
adb install -r build/bladewatch-companion.apk   # USB, or wireless debugging: adb pair, then adb connect

Android TV (most are 32-bit):

On the TV, turn on developer options (Settings > System > About, select Android TV OS build seven times), then in Developer options turn on USB debugging (and Network debugging or Wireless debugging, if the TV lists one).

From the computer, on the same network:

adb connect <tv-ip>:5555                        # accept the prompt on the TV
adb -s <tv-ip>:5555 shell getprop ro.product.cpu.abi   # armeabi-v7a on most TVs
cd companion
flutter build apk --release --target-platform android-arm   # android-arm64 if it said arm64-v8a
apksigner sign --ks my-companion.jks --ks-key-alias key0 \
  --out build/bladewatch-companion-tv.apk build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-release.apk
adb -s <tv-ip>:5555 install -r build/bladewatch-companion-tv.apk

Open BladeWatch from the TV's apps and choose Pair over Wi-Fi (Pair it with the car).

A TV has little storage: the release APK is about 85 MB, a debug build about 400 MB that often does not fit, and an update needs room for both copies. INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE means freeing space on the TV (Settings > System > Storage, or clearing other apps' caches), not uninstalling BladeWatch, which would unpair it.

iOS: see iOS above -- Xcode with your Apple ID, or an unsigned .ipa for SideStore.

macOS: Flutter builds a universal app; the script makes the half-size copy for one kind of Mac (arm64 for Apple silicon, x86_64 for Intel). From the repository root:

(cd companion && flutter build macos --release)
tools/thin_macos_app.sh companion/build/macos/Build/Products/Release/BladeWatch.app arm64 companion/build/thin
# companion/build/thin/BladeWatch.app, ad-hoc signed: see "macOS" above for opening an unsigned app

Documentation

In-depth documentation lives in docs/ — architecture, daemons and processes, IPC/auth/secrets, networking and remote access, the HTTP and ConnectRPC API reference, BYD integrations, the surveillance pipeline, and storage. The optional relay's setup guide is relay/README.md.

Privacy

100% local storage — all recordings saved on device
No account required
No cloud upload — remote viewing is peer-to-peer between your own devices and the car
No push service — the car keeps its alerts and your companion collects them when it connects
Open source — audit the code yourself

Acknowledgments

3D BYD Vehicle Models — The Vehicle Control page renders interactive 3D cars with Three.js, using base models from ddiaz-design's BYD collection on Sketchfab.

License

Open source under MIT License. Your data stays on your device.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.beads		.beads
.claude		.claude
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
.rtk		.rtk
.serena		.serena
app		app
companion		companion
docs		docs
flutter_ui		flutter_ui
gradle		gradle
packages		packages
proto		proto
relay		relay
tools		tools
.beads.gate.lock		.beads.gate.lock
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Readme.md		Readme.md
generate_safe_enc.py		generate_safe_enc.py
gradle.properties		gradle.properties
gradlew		gradlew
gradlew.bat		gradlew.bat
melos.yaml		melos.yaml
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
pubspec.lock		pubspec.lock
pubspec.yaml		pubspec.yaml
settings.gradle.kts		settings.gradle.kts

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BladeWatch

What's new in v1.4.1.4

v1.4.1.3

v1.4.1.2

v1.4.1.1

v1.4.1.0

Coming from v1.3.x: what v1.4.0.0 changed

Quick Start (Use Pre-built APK)

1. Prerequisites

2. Initial Configuration

Install with an AI Agent

Features

Recording

Vehicle & Driving

Monitoring & Remote Access

Remote Access (Pear)

Your own relay (optional, v1.4.1.3)

Install the Companion App

Android

macOS

Windows

Linux

iOS

Pair it with the car

Building from Source

Requirements

Build

Build and install the companion

Documentation

Privacy

Acknowledgments

License

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