Important Update: FoliCon is Moving to a BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) Model

[DineshSolanki]

📢 Important Update: FoliCon is Moving to a BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) Model

Starting with the upcoming releases, FoliCon is transitioning to a BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) architecture for both DeviantArt and IGDB (Twitch) metadata services.

🔍 Why this change?

As an open-source, client-side desktop application, hardcoding global API secrets into the repository or obfuscating them inside the app binaries is fundamentally insecure. Furthermore, shared global keys often lead to collective rate-limiting walls, meaning a heavy user session could temporarily break the app experience for everyone else.

By moving to a BYOK model, FoliCon guarantees:

• 100% Transparency & Security: No hidden keys in the source code, keeping the project truly open and compliant with developer terms of service.
• Dedicated Performance: You get your own private connection pool and rate-limit quotas directly from the platforms.
• Zero Cost: All supported platforms offer completely free developer tiers for personal, non-commercial use.

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🛠️ How to get your free keys (Takes less than 2 minutes)

When you launch the updated version of FoliCon, you will see a new API Settings panel where you can paste your personal credentials. Here is how to get them:

🎮 1. IGDB (Internet Game Database via Twitch)

1. Go to the Twitch Developer Console.
2. Log in with your standard Twitch account and click Register Your Application.
3. Name your app FoliCon-Personal, set the Category to Application, and set the OAuth Redirect URL to http://localhost.
4. Click Create, then copy your Client ID and generate a Client Secret. Paste both into FoliCon.

🎨 2. DeviantArt

1. Go to the DeviantArt Developers Portal.
2. Log in and navigate to the App Center to create a new application profile.
3. Once registered, grab your personal Client ID and Client Secret and add them to the FoliCon settings screen.

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🛡️ Secure Local Storage

Your keys are your business. FoliCon does not send your credentials to any third-party analytics or external servers. All personal API keys are encrypted natively using OS-level secure storage (Windows Credential Manager / macOS Keychain) right on your local machine.

Note: Legacy versions of FoliCon using embedded keys will be deprecated soon as those old tokens are being securely revoked. Please update to the latest build to maintain seamless access to your artwork, metadata, and trailers!

💡 Questions or feedback? Feel free to open an issue or start a discussion thread right here on the repository!