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Gradle DSL Reference

Complete reference for the Shield Gradle plugin configuration DSL.

Shield Block

The shield block is the top-level configuration for the plugin:

Groovy
shield {
    enabled = true
    projectToken = "your-token"
    protectionSecret = "optional-secret"
    verbose = true

    protections {
        // Protection flags
    }

    excludedPackages = ['android', 'androidx']

    variant('release') {
        // Variant-specific overrides
    }

    all {
        // Applied to all variants
    }
}

Top-Level Properties

PropertyTypeDefaultDescription
enabledBooleantrueEnables or disables Shield entirely. Set to false to skip protection without removing the configuration
projectTokenString—Required. Your ByteHide project token. Used for license validation and cloud integration
protectionSecretString?Auto-generatedOptional secret for mapping file association. If not set, a UUID is generated per build
verboseBooleanfalsePrints detailed protection output during the build
excludedPackagesList<String>[]Packages to skip during protection. See Excluded Packages

Protections Block

The protections block controls which protections are applied:

Groovy
shield {
    protections {
        stringEncryption = true
        constantMutation = true
        debugRemoval = true
        nameObfuscation = true
        controlFlowObfuscation = true
        antiDebug = true
        referenceProxy = true
        resourceProtection = true
        antiTamper = true
    }
}

Protection Properties

PropertyTypeDefaultDescription
stringEncryptionBooleanfalseEncrypts string literals in bytecode. Decrypted at runtime via StringDecryptor
constantMutationBooleanfalseTransforms numeric constants into equivalent arithmetic expressions
debugRemovalBooleanfalseStrips LineNumberTable and LocalVariableTable from bytecode
nameObfuscationBooleanfalseRenames classes, methods, and fields. Disable when R8 minifyEnabled is true
controlFlowObfuscationBooleanfalseInserts opaque predicates and restructures method control flow
antiDebugBooleanfalseInjects runtime checks that detect debuggers, Frida, and instrumentation tools
referenceProxyBooleanfalseReplaces direct method calls with proxy indirection
resourceProtectionBooleanfalseProtects application resources from extraction and analysis
antiTamperBooleanfalseVerifies application integrity at runtime and detects package modifications

All protections default to false. Enable only the protections you need. See Protections for detailed documentation on each.

Variant Configuration

Shield supports per-variant configuration. This lets you apply different protection settings to debug and release builds:

Groovy
shield {
    projectToken = System.getenv('SHIELD_PROJECT_TOKEN')

    variant('debug') {
        verbose = true
        protections {
            stringEncryption = false
            debugRemoval = false
        }
    }

    variant('release') {
        protections {
            stringEncryption = true
            constantMutation = true
            debugRemoval = true
            nameObfuscation = true
            controlFlowObfuscation = true
            antiDebug = true
            referenceProxy = true
            resourceProtection = true
            antiTamper = true
        }
    }
}

See Variant Configuration for detailed usage.

all { } Block

The all block applies configuration to every variant:

Groovy
shield {
    all {
        excludePackages('android', 'androidx', 'kotlin', 'kotlinx')
    }
}

Kotlin DSL

All examples above use Groovy DSL. Here is the equivalent in Kotlin DSL:

Kotlin
// app/build.gradle.kts
shield {
    projectToken = System.getenv("SHIELD_PROJECT_TOKEN")
    verbose = true

    protections {
        stringEncryption = true
        constantMutation = true
        debugRemoval = true
    }

    excludedPackages = mutableListOf(
        "android",
        "androidx",
        "kotlin",
        "kotlinx"
    )

    variant("release") {
        protections {
            nameObfuscation = true
            controlFlowObfuscation = true
            antiDebug = true
        }
    }
}

Complete Example

A production-ready configuration with R8 enabled:

Groovy
// app/build.gradle
plugins {
    id 'com.android.application'
    id 'org.jetbrains.kotlin.android'
    id 'com.bytehide.shield' version '1.0.0'
}

android {
    compileSdk 34
    defaultConfig {
        minSdk 21
        targetSdk 34
    }
    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled true
            shrinkResources true
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android-optimize.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'
        }
    }
    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_11
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_11
    }
}

shield {
    projectToken = System.getenv('SHIELD_PROJECT_TOKEN')

    protections {
        stringEncryption = true
        constantMutation = true
        debugRemoval = true
        nameObfuscation = false  // R8 handles renaming
        controlFlowObfuscation = true
        antiDebug = true
        referenceProxy = true
        resourceProtection = true
        antiTamper = true
    }

    excludedPackages = [
        'android',
        'androidx',
        'kotlin',
        'kotlinx',
        'com.google',
        'com.squareup'
    ]

    verbose = false
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.bytehide:shield-java-runtime:1.0.0'
}

ProGuard Rules Compatibility

Shield respects standard ProGuard keep rules from your proguard-rules.pro file. This means any existing keep rules in your project are automatically honored by Shield, in addition to the Gradle DSL configuration.

Supported directives include -keep, -keepclassmembers, -keepclasseswithmembers, -keepnames, -keepclassmembernames, and -dontobfuscate. See R8 & ProGuard Compatibility for the full list.

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