ProGuard Setup for Dex Protection at 3.x

When Dex Protection is enabled, DoveRunner identifies your business code by locating packages declared in the APK/AAB manifest. If ProGuard or R8 has repackaged those classes elsewhere, DoveRunner may not be able to find them — and they won't be obfuscated.

The fix is a single rule that tells ProGuard/R8 to preserve your package structure while still obfuscating class and member names.

Required Rule

Add the following to your proguard-rules.pro, replacing com.example with your app's base package name:

-keeppackagenames 'com.example.**'

This preserves the package path as-is while class, method, and field names are still obfuscated normally.

Rules to Avoid

The following rules relocate or flatten package paths and will break the package structure that DoveRunner relies on. Avoid using them alongside -keeppackagenames:

-repackageclasses 'x'
-flattenpackagehierarchy 'x'

Library Compatibility

-keeppackagenames only preserves package paths — class and member names are still obfuscated. Some libraries require additional ProGuard rules to function correctly at runtime (for example, libraries that rely on reflection or serialization).

If a library you use provides its own required ProGuard rules, apply them as-is. -keeppackagenames does not interfere with standard -keep rules for specific classes or members, so there is no conflict as long as you avoid the package-relocating rules listed above (-repackageclasses, -flattenpackagehierarchy).

Verifying the Setup

After a release build, open the mapping file and confirm that package paths are preserved while class names are obfuscated:

app/build/outputs/mapping/release/mapping.txt

Expected output:

com.example.api.UserService - com.example.api.a:
    void fetchUser() - b
com.example.model.Profile - com.example.model.c:
    java.lang.String userName - a

The package path (com.example.api, com.example.model) must be intact, and class/member names must be replaced with short symbols.

AGP Version Compatibility

-keeppackagenames works correctly across all AGP versions. The main difference is how aggressively R8 optimizes in each mode.

In R8 full mode, some classes inside a preserved package may disappear due to merging or inlining. This is expected behavior and does not affect DoveRunner's ability to identify and obfuscate the package — as long as surviving classes retain their package paths.