Color Hoster 🌈 ⌨️

OpenRGB compatible high-performance SDK server for VIA per-key RGB.

✨ Features:

• 🎮 OpenRGB Protocol v3 Support - Full compatibility with OpenRGB clients
• 🔋 Optimized Updates - Only sends changed LED data in minimal chunks
• 🎨 Flexible Brightness Control - Choose between hue/saturation-only or full RGB+brightness
• ⌨️ Multi-Keyboard Support - Manage multiple connected devices simultaneously
• 🦀 Rust-Powered - Async I/O and thread-safe concurrency
• 🌐 Cross-Platform - Windows/macOS/Linux support (x86 & ARM)
• 💾 Profile Management - Save/load lighting configurations

CLI Options

Usage: ColorHoster [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -d, --directory <DIRECTORY>  Set a directory to look for VIA `.json` definitions for keyboards [default: ./]
  -j, --json <JSON>            Add a direct path to a VIA `.json` file (can be multiple)
  -b, --brightness             Allow direct mode to change brightness values
      --profiles <PROFILES>    Set a directory for storing and loading profiles [default: ./profiles]
  -p, --port <PORT>            Set the port to listen on [default: 6742]
  -h, --help                   Print help
  -V, --version                Print version

Example: ./ColorHoster -b -j ./p1_he_ansi_v1.0.json

Getting Started

Prebuilt Binaries

Download the latest release for your OS.

Configuration

1. Get your keyboard's VIA JSON file with led positions defined in the keymap section (example: p1_he_ansi_v1.0.json)
2. Flash QMK firmware with VIA RGB support (example implementation)

Running

./ColorHoster --brightness --json ./path/to/your_keyboard.json

Client Integration

ColorHoster should be compatible with any OpenRGB v3 protocol client, enabling RGB control through various applications. Some example clients include:

• OpenRGB (can be use as a client as well)
• Project Aurora (may require renaming the binary to OpenRGB.exe to be detected)
• Artemis RGB

To Connect

1. Launch ColorHoster with your keyboard configuration
2. In your RGB control software:
   • Add a new OpenRGB SDK device
   • Set address to 127.0.0.1
   • Set port to 6742 (default)
3. The client should automatically detect:
   • Keyboard LED layout
   • Available lighting modes
   • Real-time control capabilities

Technical Details

VIA's RGB protocol doesn't seem to be documented anywhere, so it was reverse-engineered from the keyboard API in the VIA app. The protocol in ColorHoster is also extended to support per-key brightness adjustments (originally it allowed to modify only hue and saturation).