steam-cli

name	steam-cli
description	Use this skill when you need Steam discovery primitives for tags, genres, categories, store search, app details, and optional user-owned library signals.

steam-cli

What this skill does

Provides a local-first Steam CLI for LLM/tool workflows. It exposes stable primitives (no recommendation engine) so an LLM can:

• discover Steam tags / genres / categories
• compose Steam Store searches
• fetch structured app details
• optionally enrich with user library + playtime (Steam Web API)

Requirements

• Binary available on PATH: steam-cli
• Local DB directory: ~/.steam-cli-rs/
• Optional for user endpoints: STEAM_API_KEY

Output formats

• Default: human-readable
• Machine: --json or --format json

Stable JSON envelope

All JSON responses use this shape:

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {},
  "pagination": {
    "limit": 25,
    "offset": 0,
    "returned": 25,
    "has_more": true,
    "total": null
  },
  "meta": {
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "source": "local_db",
    "cached": false
  },
  "error": null
}

meta.source values:

• local_db
• steam_store
• steam_webapi
• internal

Core commands (LLM-facing primitives)

1) Tags

steam-cli tags list --limit 50 --offset 0 --json
steam-cli tags find "pixel graphics" --limit 10 --json
steam-cli tags find "couch coop" --limit 10 --json

Use tags find to map natural language to tag IDs.

2) Genres

steam-cli genres list --limit 50 --json
steam-cli genres find "roguelite" --limit 10 --json

3) Categories (Store features)

Use for features like Local Co-op, Online Co-op, Single-player.

steam-cli categories list --limit 50 --json
steam-cli categories find "local co-op" --limit 10 --json

4) Search (Steam Store)

steam-cli search --tags 3964,4182 --limit 25 --offset 0 --json
steam-cli search --tags 3964 --with-facets --limit 25 --json
steam-cli search --tags 3964 --term "co-op" --limit 25 --json

Notes:

• Search uses Steam Store endpoints and parses HTML results.
• Prefer --with-facets to discover adjacent tag IDs iteratively.
• For feature constraints (for example Local Co-op), validate with steam-cli app <appid> and filter with categories.

5) App details (structured)

steam-cli app 413150 --json
steam-cli app 413150 --ttl-sec 86400 --json

Use to validate:

• categories/features
• genres
• languages/platforms
• metadata needed for ranking/shortlisting

6) User library (optional)

export STEAM_API_KEY="..."
steam-cli user owned --vanity gaben --limit 200 --offset 0 --json
steam-cli user owned --steamid 76561197960287930 --limit 200 --json

Recommended LLM workflow patterns

Pattern A - Find the right tag IDs

1. tags find "<query>"
2. search --tags ...
3. app <appid> for top candidates to validate categories/features
4. Return shortlisted results

Pattern B - Personalize with playtime

1. user owned --steamid ...
2. Infer preferences from owned/playtime
3. Choose tags
4. search --tags ...

Tooling and limits

• Per-command limit is clamped to max 100.
• Use pagination (limit + offset) instead of huge single calls.
• search can return partial/unstable store-side ordering over time.

Rate limiting / pacing

• Steam Store endpoints may throttle.
• When chaining many calls, add small randomized delays (300-1200ms).
• Filter early (search --tags ... --limit ...) before calling app for many appids.

Safety / privacy notes

• user owned requires public game details on Steam privacy settings.
• Never log or print STEAM_API_KEY.

Known limitations

• Search parsing depends on current Steam HTML structure.
• Categories/genres dictionaries are local and may drift until seed DB is refreshed.
• This skill intentionally does not produce recommendations.

Troubleshooting

• If JSON mode fails, retry with smaller limits or without --with-facets.
• If Store search seems noisy, fetch app details and re-filter via categories/genres.