ProGuard Setup for Dex Protection

Caution

This guide applies to sealing versions 3.0.0.0 – 3.1.0.0. The requirement may change in 3.2.0.0 and later — check the release notes for your sealing version before applying these rules.

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.

Original	After obfuscation
com.example.api.UserService.fetchUser()	com.example.api.a.b()
com.example.model.Profile.userName	com.example.model.c.a

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'

Note

These rules are not applied by R8 by default and are not included in proguard-android-optimize.txt. You are safe unless you or a third-party library explicitly added them. Check your external library consumer-rules if you are unsure.

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 details

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

AGP Version	R8 Mode	Notes
< 3.4	ProGuard	Works normally
3.4 – 6.x	R8 compat mode	Existing rules work mostly as-is
7.0 – 7.x	R8 full mode (opt-in)	Enable via android.enableR8.fullMode=true
8.0+	R8 full mode (default)	More aggressive: class merging, inlining
9.x+	R8 full mode + extra optimizations	See official release notes

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.