vdfcli

A simple CLI tool for converting Valve VDF (text or binary) to JSON and back.

Supports:

• Text VDF
• Binary VDF (e.g. Steam shortcuts.vdf)
• File input
• Stdin (pipe input)
• JSON → VDF (text or binary)
• VDF → JSON

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Installation

1. Install dependency

pip install -r requirements.txt

Make executable

chmod +x vdfcli
sudo mv vdfcli /usr/local/bin/

Usage

1. From file: vdfcli to-json shortcuts.vdf

2. From stdin (pipe) cat shortcuts.vdf | vdfcli to-json

3. Compact output vdfcli to-json -c shortcuts.vdf

4. Convert JSON → Text VDF vdfcli to-vdf file.json

5. From stdin: cat file.json | vdfcli to-vdf

6. Convert JSON → Binary VDF vdfcli to-vdf -b file.json > shortcuts.vdf

7. Modify with jq vdfcli to-json shortcuts.vdf | jq '.shortcuts'

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Security / Research Use

This tool is intended for:

• Inspecting Valve VDF files
• Automating configuration management
• Security research and client behavior analysis
• Educational purposes

This tool does NOT:

• Bypass Steam licensing
• Grant ownership of games
• Circumvent DRM
• Modify Steam servers

Users are responsible for how they use this software.

When modifying Steam configuration files:

• Always fully exit Steam before editing files.
• Always back up original files.
• Incorrect modifications may corrupt local configuration.

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License

MIT