sillytavern-card-backup

name	sillytavern-card-backup
description	Back up pictures referenced by URL in SillyTavern / chara_card_v2 character card PNGs. Use when the user has a .png character card and wants to inspect it, list, or download the pictures its first messages link to. Use ONLY for SillyTavern character cards, not arbitrary images.

SillyTavern Character Card Image Backup

When to use

• The user has a .png that is a SillyTavern / chara_card_v2 character card.
• The user wants to inspect the card, list the picture URLs it references, or download/back up the pictures its first messages link to.

Not for ordinary PNG images, and not for backing up the card PNG itself.

Field scope

"First messages" = data.first_mes plus every entry in data.alternate_greetings — nothing else.

field	what it is	use for backup?
first_mes	the default first message	yes
alternate_greetings	array of additional first messages	yes
creator_notes	author notes (often HTML, may contain images)	no — ignore
description	character description text	no
avatar	card avatar URL	no

Not scanned (out of scope): embedded lorebooks (data.extensions.world, data.character_book) and external lorebook files. Any picture URL that lives only inside a lorebook entry will be missed — do not claim the backup is complete if the card carries a lorebook.

Host constraints

• Deno only — the host has no Python/Node. Run the bundled scripts with deno run.

Bundled scripts

Required Deno permissions are listed below.

scripts/chara_dump.ts — inspect a card

Prints a bounded summary to stdout (spec, name, per-field lengths only — no card prose), so large or NSFW card bodies never enter the agent's context. Run this first to see the card name, greeting count, and lorebook presence without dumping prose into context. Pass --out <file> to write the full decoded JSON to disk; hand the path around, never read the file back into context.

deno run --allow-read --allow-write=. scripts/chara_dump.ts <card.png> [--out <file.json>]

scripts/backup_card_images.ts — find and download pictures

Scans first_mes + alternate_greetings for picture URLs and downloads each to the output dir. Files are named <source>__<original-filename> where source is first_mes or greeting_<n>, so you always know which greeting a file came from.

deno run --allow-read --allow-write --allow-net \
  scripts/backup_card_images.ts \
  <card.png> [out_dir] [--dry-run]

• out_dir defaults to ./backups.
• --dry-run lists the URLs it would download without fetching anything.

Filename collisions: The script writes files flat into out_dir. When processing multiple cards, use a distinct directory per card (e.g. backups/CardName/) to avoid cross-card filename collisions.

The script exits 0 only if every URL was fetched; dead links (host returns non-200, e.g. 404) are reported and cause a non-zero exit so partial failures are visible. Dead links cannot be recovered — surface them to the user and suggest swapping them in the card.

Workflow

1. Inspect with chara_dump.ts to confirm it's chara_card_v2, see the card name, greeting count, and whether an unscanned lorebook is present.
2. Preview with backup_card_images.ts --dry-run so you can show the user the count and sources before touching the network.
3. Download with backup_card_images.ts <card> <out_dir>.
4. Report: how many succeeded vs. failed (dead links), where the files landed, and list any dead URLs verbatim.