Idus SC Deck

Star Citizen keys for OpenDeck (Stream Deck on Linux) and the Elgato Stream Deck app on Windows, in the Idus look: dark keys, status shown by colour and shape, and an orange tab on every key that names its family.

Tip

StarStrings on one key — built in, on Linux and Windows. The TOOL · StarStrings key shows which game version your StarStrings were made for and when you installed them, and turns amber as soon as a newer release is out. One press downloads the newest release, keeps your old global.ini, installs the new one and adds the user.cfg line — no browser, no unzipping, no copying into the game folder. Not installed yet? The key says tap to install.

On Linux, Idus SC Toolbox — a free, separate app for Star Citizen (KDE Plasma 6) and a companion to the LUG Helper — adds the other TOOL keys: stop a hung game, restart or patch the launcher, back up and restore keybinds, clear shaders and put the windows back on the main screen — and PLAY · Launch checks for a newer RSI Launcher before it starts. Get Idus SC Toolbox →

Family	Key	What it shows	Press
TIME	Server Clock	The time in a server region — US W, US E, EU, Asia, Australia, your own or any city you pick — or UTC with the date, which patches and events are announced in. Amber = local evening, blue = night (by the clock, not live load)	—
CZ	Exec Hangar	The Contested Zone executive hangar on one key: open/closed, countdown, the clock time of the next change and the five door lights	Re-syncs
STAT	Status & Stats	One key, four views: status — RSI Platform, PU and Arena Commander, all three or one service with an open incident's title; version — installed game version with a green dot when it matches the newest release notes and amber when a newer one is out, orange lamp = patched since you last looked; funding — crowdfunding total and yesterday's amount; VRAM — GPU memory in use and the biggest other program, amber above 85 % (NVIDIA)	Status: opens status.robertsspaceindustries.com · Version: marks it as seen and opens the release notes · others: refresh
LOG	Game.log	From your own Game.log, one view per key: server (region + shard + time there), region, shard, Armistice zone (green frame = weapons locked, amber = outside) or 30K (unexpected disconnects this session; your own quits and AFK don't count)	Refreshes
PLAY	Launch	The Idus rocket with an orange ▶ LAUNCH plate; green RUNNING with the session time while the game runs	Starts the game
TOOL	Toolbox Action (Linux) · SC Tools (Windows)	Linux: one Idus SC Toolbox action — kill, restart launcher, patch/verify, backup, restore, shaders, fix windows — plus StarStrings, built in (no Toolbox needed). Windows: the same tools built in — kill, restart launcher, backup, restore, shaders, StarStrings	Runs it — kill, restart, patch and restore take three presses: Really? → Sure? → run

Requirements

Linux

• OpenDeck 2.x — native package or Flatpak.
• Node.js 22 or newer (sudo pacman -S nodejs on Arch/CachyOS). OpenDeck starts the plugin with your system node.
• For PLAY, the STAT version view, LOG and TOOL: Star Citizen installed with LUG Helper. The game folder is read from LUG's config, or set it in the key's settings.
• For the STAT VRAM view: an NVIDIA card (nvidia-smi).
• Optional: Idus SC Toolbox for the TOOL keys (StarStrings works without it) and the launcher update check on PLAY.

Windows

• Elgato Stream Deck app 7.1 or newer (it brings its own Node.js) on Windows 10 or 11.
• Star Citizen installed with the RSI Launcher. The game folder is found on its own (Program Files or other drives), or set it in the key's settings.
• Nothing else: no fonts to install, and the TOOL keys have the tools built in.

Install on Linux (OpenDeck)

One line (downloads the latest release):

curl -fsSL https://github.com/Idus/idus-sc-deck/releases/latest/download/install-idus-sc-deck.sh | bash

Or from a clone: bash install-idus-sc-deck.sh. Or let Idus GitHub Updater (v1.5 or newer) install it and keep it up to date — it is in its list of Idus apps. Then quit OpenDeck from its tray icon and start it again. The keys are under Idus SC Deck in the action list, in family order: TIME, CZ, STAT, LOG, PLAY, TOOL.

The installer copies the plugin to ~/.config/opendeck/plugins/se.wolfpack.idusscdeck.sdPlugin (or the Flatpak equivalent) and fetches the Idus fonts (Saira, IBM Plex Sans, JetBrains Mono) to ~/.local/share/fonts/idus if they are missing.

Install on Windows (Elgato Stream Deck)

Download se.wolfpack.idusscdeck.streamDeckPlugin from the latest release and double-click it — the Stream Deck app installs it. The keys are under Idus SC Deck. (Coming to the Elgato Marketplace.)

On Windows the TOOL · SC Tools key does the work itself:

• Kill SC / Restart launcher — stops Star Citizen and the RSI Launcher (and starts the launcher again).
• Back up / Restore — keybinds and settings (user folder without shader caches, and USER.cfg) to Documents\SC-backups, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Idus SC Deck\SC-backups if Documents can't be written. Restore only with the game closed, after a safety copy.
• Clear shaders — the caches in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Star Citizen.
• StarStrings — downloads the newest release, keeps the old global.ini, adds g_language = english to user.cfg. Not installed yet? The key says tap to install, and the first install opens the StarStrings guide and the game folder.

The Windows build is made from the same code: node dev/build-elgato.cjs (see dev/README.md).

The keys in more detail

TIME · Server Clock — one key per region side by side. EU servers are in Belgium (Google Cloud europe-west1, seen in real logs), so EU shows Central European time. The digits are coloured by the region's own clock: 17–22 evening, usually the busiest time (amber), 23–06 night (blue-grey), daytime white — this is the clock, not live server data; RSI does not publish load per region. The UTC key stays white and shows the date. Pick a city… lets you choose any other place from a list (part of the world → city), no time-zone codes to type.

STAT · version view compares what is installed with the newest version RSI has posted release notes for in its public Patch Notes forum: LIVE by version number, PTU by build number. Green dot = up to date, amber = a newer version is out. Only the RSI Launcher knows for certain (it asks RSI with your login), so this is the public estimate — a LIVE hotfix that keeps the version number is not seen.

CZ · Exec Hangar follows the in-game panel: closed = five red lights, one turns green every 24 minutes; open = five green, one goes dark every 12 minutes; the last five minutes are CLOSING. Pick cztimer.com or exec.xyxyll.com as the primary timer — the other is the fallback, then the last good copy on disk, then built-in values. It syncs every 15 minutes.

LOG · Game.log reads Star Citizen's own Game.log on your PC (read-only, nothing leaves the machine). Pick the view per key and put several side by side:

• <Join PU> … shard[pub_euw1b_12881860_420] → region EU, shard #420;
• Context Establisher Done … gamerules="SC_Default" / "SC_Frontend" → in the game world or in the menu;
• "Entering / Leaving Armistice Zone" → Zone;
• <Channel Disconnected> cause=… in the game world → 30K, except 30016 (your quit), 30028 (AFK) and 30010 (routine menu teardown).

The game replaces Game.log at every start; the keys follow the new file automatically and count from zero.

TOOL · StarStrings (built in, no Toolbox needed) shows the game version the installed StarStrings were made for and the install date (e.g. "4.10 · 8 Nov") — StarStrings has no release number inside its file. A press installs the newest release, keeps the old global.ini as global.ini.BAK-<date> and adds g_language = english to user.cfg if it is missing; the first install also opens the StarStrings guide and the game folder. Green dot = no newer release on GitHub; amber = a newer release exists or the strings are for an older patch. The newest release is checked at most every 6 hours.

PLAY · Launch starts the game the best way it can find: a custom command if you set one; otherwise idus-sc-toolbox --launch if Idus SC Toolbox is installed (it checks for a newer RSI Launcher first); otherwise LUG Helper's sc-launch.sh. You can put your own image above the button — only use images you have the right to use.

What it connects to

Nothing else, no telemetry. The plugin reads:

• status.robertsspaceindustries.com/index.json — every 2 minutes while a STAT key shows status;
• RSI's public crowdfunding stats — every 15 minutes while a STAT key shows funding;
• the thread titles in RSI's Patch Notes forum on Spectrum — every 30 minutes while a STAT key shows the version;
• cztimer.com / exec.xyxyll.com — every 15 minutes while an Exec Hangar key is visible.

It identifies itself as Idus-SC-Deck (+https://github.com/Idus/idus-sc-deck). Local state (last timer sync, last seen version) is kept in ~/.local/state/idus-sc-deck/.

Uninstall

bash install-idus-sc-deck.sh --uninstall

Credits

• The Contested Zone cycle math and light table are adapted from CZ Timer for OpenDeck by Nyle Garcia (MIT) — see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md. Go try his plugin too.
• Timer data from cztimer.com and exec.xyxyll.com.
• Game.log line formats cross-checked with QuantumWake and sc-log-tracker.
• Built for OpenDeck by nekename.
• Code written with AI assistance (Claude).

Support

If this saves you a few clicks: ☕ Tip me on Ko-fi

New to Star Citizen? Use my referral code when you enlist — you get 5,000 free aUEC to start: STAR-2GDF-FDKH → https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-2GDF-FDKH

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Third-party notices in se.wolfpack.idusscdeck.sdPlugin/THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

Unofficial Star Citizen fan project, not affiliated with the Cloud Imperium group of companies. Star Citizen® and Roberts Space Industries® are trademarks of Cloud Imperium Rights LLC.