rikkaapps/shizuku

Shizuku solves a specific Android developer problem: some system actions (like enabling or disabling app components, or querying detailed device state) require either root access or elevated ADB privileges, ADB being Android's built-in debugging bridge that lets a computer send commands to a phone. Normally, apps that need these capabilities resort to running shell commands, which is slow and unreliable. Shizuku takes a smarter approach. It works by having the user start a small background server process with elevated privileges (either via ADB from a computer, or via root). Once that server is running, any app that integrates Shizuku's API can talk to it through Android's standard inter-process communication system called Binder. The Shizuku server then relays system API calls on behalf of the app, using its elevated permissions to do things the normal app cannot do directly. To the app's code, it looks almost identical to calling Android system APIs normally. This is useful for developers building Android apps that need deeper system access, for example, apps that manage other installed apps, automate system settings, or bypass limitations that Android places on regular applications. It requires either a computer connected via ADB (no permanent root needed) or a rooted Android device, and the library itself is written in Kotlin.