protondb-cli

A simple unofficial CLI for ProtonDB project. Let's face it, if you know about ProtonDB you must love video games and Linux and what better than an CLI for a Linux fan to check your games compatibility on Steam.

Installation

npm i protondb-cli -g

Usage

protondb-cli "Counter strike"

When the search returns matches, an inline picker is shown so you can pick a game; the selection and result stay in your normal terminal scrollback (no full-screen UI). After picking, a short summary is printed by default with the game name, tier, confidence, OS list, and user score.

Flags

Flag	Description
-d / --detail	Show the full sectioned card (Identity, Compatibility, Metadata, Requirements) instead of the summary.
--json	Emit machine-readable JSON. No color, no spinner, no picker.
-v / --verbose	Verbose logging through to the fetchers.
-h / --hits	Limit the number of search results.
-c / --concurrency	Limit concurrency for the search.
--disable_cache	Bypass the local cache.
--clear_cache	Wipe the local cache.

protondb-cli "Half-Life" --detail

Piping and scripting

When stdout is not a TTY (e.g. piped into another command), the CLI auto-picks the top match and emits a single JSON object — no picker, no color, no spinner. This composes cleanly with shell pipelines:

protondb-cli "fifa" | jq -r .name
protondb-cli "Half-Life" --json | jq '.[0].tier'

NO_COLOR=1 is respected for ANSI-free output.

Tiers

Describe the support on Linux with ProtonDB

Tier	Description
Platinum	Runs perfectly out of the box
Gold	Runs perfectly after tweaks
Silver	Runs with minor issues, but generally playable
Bronze	Runs, but often crashes or has issues preventing from playing comfortably
Borked	Either won't start or is crucially unplayable
N/A	Wihtout Tier. Comunity haven't report this game yet

Confidence

Describe the support of the community under the tier

Using Docker

docker pull jegj/protondb-cli
docker run -it --rm jegj/protondb-cli fifa

Adding command "protondb" to your terminal

By adding the following code to your terminal (for example ~/.zshrc), you can use it pretty easy.

protondb() {
    if [ -z "$1" ]; then
        echo "Usage: protondb <game_name>"
        return 1
    fi
    docker pull jegj/protondb-cli
    docker run -it --rm jegj/protondb-cli "$1"
}

You can also use the following command, to add it automatically into the rc file of your current shell (zsh or bash only).

rc="$HOME/.bashrc"; [ -n "$ZSH_VERSION" ] && rc="$HOME/.zshrc"; grep -q '^protondb()' "$rc" 2>/dev/null && echo "protondb function already exists in $rc – nothing to do." || { printf '\nprotondb() {\n    if [ -z "$1" ]; then\n        echo "Usage: protondb <game_name>"\n        return 1\n    fi\n    docker pull jegj/protondb-cli\n    docker run -it --rm jegj/protondb-cli "$1"\n}\n' >> "$rc" && echo "protondb function has been installed in $rc"; }