DefaultScheme

Force a preferred app for URL Schemes and Universal Links on jailbroken iOS, with a management app, test entry points, and open logs.

Project Layout

• App/ The management app. Used to browse rules, edit target apps, test open behavior, and inspect open logs.
• Tweak/ System-side hooks and routing logic. It currently injects into lsd and SpringBoard.
• Shared/ Shared config models and rule parsing used by the app, tweak, and helper tool.
• Helper/ The defaultschemectl command-line tool for reading and writing rules, probing routing behavior, and generating the config mirror.
• DefaultSchemeTweak.plist The tweak filter. It currently injects only into:
  • SpringBoard
  • lsd

How It Works

• URL Scheme and Universal Link target rewriting primarily happens in the LaunchServices path, covering key entry points such as LSAppLink, _LSDOpenClient, and LSApplicationWorkspace.
• SpringBoard keeps fallback hooks for requests that have already entered the foreground dispatch stage.
• When a Universal Link rule matches, the original URL is preserved and only the final target app is replaced.
• Open logs are recorded on the system side; the management app only displays them.

Config Storage

Primary config file:

/private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/codes.var.tweak.defaultscheme.plist

Config mirror filename:

DefaultSchemeConfig.plist

The mirror is synced to a tweak-visible location so lsd and SpringBoard can still read configuration when direct preference access is unavailable.

The current config contains three parts:

{
  schemes = {
    weixin = "com.tencent.xin";
  };
  hosts = {
    "www.youtube.com" = "com.google.ios.youtube";
  };
  links = (
    {
      host = "www.douyin.com";
      pathMatcher = "/open/sdk/ul*";
      bundleID = "com.ss.iphone.ugc.AwemeInhouse";
      hostWildcard = 0;
      sourceHint = "configured";
      identityVersion = 1;
      patternKind = "path";
    }
  );
}

Notes:

• schemes Routes by URL scheme.
• hosts Routes by Universal Link host as a host-only fallback.
• links Routes by more precise link rules and takes precedence over hosts.
• bundleID = "__NO_APP__" Means block the open request instead of handing it to any app.

Management App

After installation, the DefaultScheme app provides:

• Schemes Browse and edit default targets for URL Schemes.
• Links Browse and edit Universal Link rules, including both host-only and path/query-level rules.
• Test Directly test URL opening behavior.
• Log View recent open logs including source, target, URL, type, and timestamp.

After saving rules, the app syncs the config mirror and restarts lsd so the main routing path picks up changes quickly.

Command Line

/usr/bin/defaultschemectl is still provided.

Currently available commands:

defaultschemectl list
defaultschemectl sync-route-config-mirror
defaultschemectl set-scheme weixin com.tencent.xin
defaultschemectl set-host www.youtube.com com.google.ios.youtube
defaultschemectl set-link www.douyin.com /open/sdk/ul* com.ss.iphone.ugc.AwemeInhouse
defaultschemectl set-link-rich rule-id www.douyin.com /open/sdk/ul* - com.ss.iphone.ugc.AwemeInhouse
defaultschemectl del-scheme weixin
defaultschemectl del-host www.youtube.com
defaultschemectl del-link www.douyin.com /open/sdk/ul*
defaultschemectl del-link-rich rule-id www.douyin.com /open/sdk/ul* -
defaultschemectl probe-url weixin://scanqrcode
defaultschemectl open-url weixin://scanqrcode
defaultschemectl perform-open-url com.tencent.xin weixin://scanqrcode
defaultschemectl trace-url weixin://scanqrcode
defaultschemectl inspect-applink https://www.douyin.com/open/sdk/ul
defaultschemectl inspect-swc https://www.douyin.com/open/sdk/ul
defaultschemectl inspect-method LSApplicationWorkspace URLOverrideForURL:
defaultschemectl list-methods LSApplicationWorkspace
defaultschemectl list-classes LS

The path-matcher argument of set-link is still backward compatible:

• No * Exact match
• A single trailing * Prefix match
• * in the middle or in multiple places Wildcard match

For full-featured link rules, prefer set-link-rich, which maps to structured fields such as ruleID, pathMatcher, queryMatcher, and hostWildcard.

Build

The current Makefile defaults to:

• THEOS_PACKAGE_SCHEME ?= roothide
• .DEFAULT_GOAL := package-roothide

So running:

make

is equivalent to:

make package-roothide

Other targets:

make package-rootless
make package-rootful
make install-roothide

roothide Notes

• roothide 包默认只构建 arm64e
• 打包时会附带 roothide patch 与 pkgmirror 布局
• 当前开发流程默认以 roothide 为主

rootless Notes

• make package-rootless 会默认连续产出两个 rootless 包：iphoneos-arm64 和 iphoneos-arm64e
• iphoneos-arm64 包只编译 arm64，iphoneos-arm64e 包只编译 arm64e
• 如果需要 roothide 专用布局，使用 make package-roothide

Related Files

• Makefile Default roothide packaging and install targets.
• DefaultSchemeTweak.plist The tweak filter.
• Shared/DSRoutingConfig.m Config read/write, rule normalization, SWC snapshots, and open log persistence.
• Tweak/DSRouteSupport.m Route snapshots and URL-to-bundleID decisions.
• Tweak/DSObjectExtraction.m Extracts URLs and schemes from LaunchServices and SpringBoard private objects.
• Tweak/DSOpenLogging.m System-side open log recording and relay.