games and stores

games

Manage discovered game installs. Run modctl games refresh to scan your stores and populate the list before using other game commands.

Most modctl commands operate on the active game by default. Set it once with games set-active and you won't need to specify it again unless you switch games.

games refresh

Scan all enabled stores and update the list of discovered game installs. Detects new installs, updates paths for games that have moved, and marks games that are no longer found as not present. Your profiles and mod configuration are never deleted when a game goes missing.

modctl games refresh

Some internal Steam titles are filtered automatically and never added to the database, as they are not moddable games: Proton Experimental, Steam Linux Runtime, and Steamworks Common Redistributables.

During refresh, modctl also creates or updates install targets for each game. The game_dir target is always created. For games that run under Proton, a proton_prefix target is also created automatically, pointing at the Wine C: drive root inside the Proton prefix. User-defined targets are never overwritten by refresh.

Safe to run at any time and as often as you like.

games list

List all discovered game installs. By default shows only games from the active store.

modctl games list

games info

Show detailed information about a specific game install. You can identify the game by its numeric install ID, a store selector, or its title:

modctl games info "Cyberpunk 2077"
modctl games info steam:1091500

If multiple installs exist for the same game, you must specify the instance explicitly:

modctl games info steam:1091500#default

games set-active

Set the active game install used by modctl commands. Accepts a numeric install ID, a store selector, or a game title:

modctl games set-active "Cyberpunk 2077"
modctl games set-active steam:1091500

If the title matches more than one install, modctl will list the candidates and ask you to be more specific using a selector.

If multiple installs exist for the same game you must specify the instance explicitly.

games notes set

Set freeform notes on the active game install. Notes are displayed in modctl games info and are useful for reminders about manual setup steps that modctl cannot automate, such as installing runtime libraries into a Proton prefix using protontricks.

modctl games notes set "run protontricks 12345 vcrun2022 before applying mods"

Pass - to read the note text from stdin:

echo "remember to install vcrun2022" | modctl games notes set -

games notes clear

Clear the notes for the active game install.

modctl games notes clear

Targets

Each game install has one or more named targets: locations where mods can be deployed. Targets are the bridge between a profile item and the filesystem; when you add a mod to a profile you specify which target it deploys to.

Two targets are managed automatically by modctl:

• game_dir: the game's installation directory. Present for every game.
• proton_prefix: the Wine C: drive root inside the Proton prefix (compatdata/<appid>/pfx/drive_c). Created automatically during refresh for games that run under Proton. Not present for native Linux games.

For games that expect mods in a specific subdirectory (for example, a Unity mod manager folder deep inside the Proton prefix), define a named custom target once and all mods that belong there can reference it by name without remap rules.

games targets list

List all install targets for the current game, showing the name, root path, and whether each target was auto-discovered or user-defined.

modctl games targets list

games targets add

Add a user-defined install target. The path must be absolute, or relative to an existing target using --relative-to.

modctl games targets add saves ~/.local/share/MyGame/saves

Use --relative-to to build on top of an existing target without needing to know the full path. The path is resolved to an absolute path at creation time. If the base target moves later, this target will not update automatically.

modctl games targets add unitymodmanager \
  "users/steamuser/AppData/LocalLow/Owlcat Games/Rogue Trader/UnityModManager" \
  --relative-to proton_prefix

games targets remove

Remove a user-defined install target. Refuses if any files are currently installed to that target (unapply the profile first). Auto-discovered targets (game_dir, proton_prefix) cannot be removed.

modctl games targets remove saves

Backups

modctl automatically backs up game-owned files before overwriting them during apply. These backups are restored automatically on unapply. The backup commands let you inspect and manage individual backup entries without running a full unapply.

Backups are scoped to the game install rather than a specific profile, since they describe the pre-mod state of the filesystem regardless of which profile caused the overwrite.

games backups list

List all backed-up files for the current game. Shows the target, path, size, when the backup was taken, and which operation created it.

modctl games backups list

Pass --target to filter to a specific install target:

modctl games backups list --target proton_prefix

games backups view

Print the content of a backed-up file to the terminal. The path is relative to the target root.

modctl games backups view "settings/game.ini"

Binary files are detected automatically and refused. Pass --force to print them anyway.

games backups delete

Delete a backup entry. The blob is not immediately removed from disk; run modctl gc to reclaim space.

modctl games backups delete "settings/game.ini"

Note that deleting a backup means modctl cannot restore the original file at this path on unapply; the file will be deleted instead of restored.

games backups restore

Restore a backed-up file to disk immediately without running a full unapply. Useful for reverting a single file to its pre-mod state while leaving everything else in place.

modctl games backups restore "settings/game.ini"

If the active profile is currently applied, modctl warns that running apply again will overwrite this path. If you want the restored file to be preserved across future applies, add a write-once or skip-backup rule for this path.

If the on-disk file has drifted from what modctl last installed, --force is required to proceed.

games backups diff

Show a unified diff between the backed-up content and the current on-disk file. Useful for understanding what has changed since the backup was taken, for example to decide whether to restore the backup or add a deploy rule.

modctl games backups diff "settings/game.ini"

If the on-disk file is missing, the backup content is shown as a full deletion with a warning. Binary files are detected automatically and refused unless --force is passed.

stores

Manage configured stores. A store is a source of game installations such as Steam. Only enabled stores are scanned during games refresh.

Steam is the only supported store in the current version. It is configured and enabled automatically when you run modctl init, so most users will never need to interact with the stores commands directly.

stores list

Display all configured stores and whether they are enabled.

modctl stores list

stores set-active

Set the active store used by commands that accept a --store flag. When an active store is set those commands can omit the flag entirely.

modctl stores set-active steam