Herald

Open Vanilla's own companion: a Hunter in a green hood who runs the Discord, tests every release, and can play your character for you.

The pieces

• Discord bot (bot/herald.py): the gate question and roles, Arrivals, the live server status, the moderation desk for in-game reports, live-stream alerts.
• World chat bridge (bot/herald_bridge.py): Discord and the in-game World channel, both ways (docs/DISCORD_BRIDGE.md).
• Herald Autopilot (autopilot/, Herald Autopilot.bat): pick a goal and press START, set rules in plain sentences ("Rest when health is below 35%"), compare two sets of gear in a 1.12 damage simulator, and watch the live log, map and bags.
• In game: click Herald by the minimap (or /herald) and press Let Herald play. Your character plays on the realm's own bot AI; Take back control any time.
• Planner and simulator (tools/autopilot): routes and kite tactics from the game data, minutes-per-level predictions.

Honest by design

Herald plays only where the realm allows it, on his own bot account, never in PvP or the economy, and nothing in Autopilot hides from a realm's staff: no anti-ban features, no fake human delays. Learning is opt-in and sends anonymous numbers only, never names, chat, positions or accounts. What runs today and what's still coming: docs/HERALD.md.

Run it

python autopilot/herald_autopilot.py --demo     # Herald Autopilot with the offline demo realm (Python 3.10+, Pillow)
bot\Start_Herald.bat                            # the Discord bot on your PC (installs discord.py and pymysql once)

Settings for the bot: bot/root/.env.example. For 24/7 the bot runs on the realm server; its install is hetzner/herald_up.sh in openvanilla-server.

Part of Open Vanilla

Open Vanilla is a free, open-source, community-built Vanilla project (openvanilla.app, Discord). Its products:

• Vanilla Forge: The Open Vanilla creator app: maps, models, creatures, quests, items and addons, tested in a copy of your game and published as a signed pack.
• Vanilla Agents: Your AI coding helpers as heroes in a cosy inn: you roam, they work, a checker verifies every quest.
• Herald (this one): The Open Vanilla Discord bot, the in-game World chat bridge, and Herald Autopilot: he plays a character for you, simulates gear and learns from play.
• Open Vanilla Server: Everything that runs a realm: the realm images and CMaNGOS patches, the web/asset service, Server Studio, Play Solo packs, the relay, and the turnkey Hetzner deployment.
• Open Vanilla Launcher: OpenVanilla.exe: play online, solo or in the browser, the Workshop, signed updates and live news; plus the release packaging.
• Vanilla Remastered UI: The in-game addon suite (WenillaCore, Quests, Transmog, Achievements, Guilds and the rest), Classic+ data, and the Workshop addon catalog.
• openvanilla.app: The Open Vanilla website (GitHub Pages) and the player manual.
• Open Vanilla Devkit: Test a change in seconds on your PC, try it against the live realm, and let a staging realm prove it first; plus the project's checks and tests.
• Open Vanilla Agent Kit: Let an AI coding agent change your copy of Open Vanilla for you: addons, interface, your own realm's rates and NPCs.
• Open Vanilla Art & Tools: Art sources, UI kits and the generator scripts behind the launcher, site and addon artwork; plus the project's maintenance tools.

License

MIT: see LICENSE.

About this repository

This repository is published from Open Vanilla (commit a11f0cef5e: Release 1.47.0). Changes are made there and arrive here with each release, so please open issues and pull requests on Open Vanilla.

World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Open Vanilla is an independent fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment. No Blizzard game files are included: you need your own.