protondb

Check Steam Deck / Linux game compatibility via ProtonDB. Use when user asks about Steam Deck compatibility, Proton ratings, or Linux gaming support for specific games. Provides summary ratings and detailed user reports.

Gaming Global gaming steam-deck linux proton compatibility steam
Install:

Requires curl, node (for hash computation), and python3. No API key needed.

Documentation

ProtonDB

Check game compatibility on Steam Deck / Linux via ProtonDB APIs.

Rating Tiers (best → worst)

platinum > gold > silver > bronze > borked

API 1: Official Summary

GET https://www.protondb.com/api/v1/reports/summaries/{appid}.json

Status codes:

Response fields:

Verdict logic:

effective_tier = tier if tier != "pending" else provisionalTier

A 404 here ≠ the game page is missing. The ProtonDB web page /app/{appid} always exists for any valid Steam app and shows metadata + Deck Verified status even with 0 reports. Don’t conflate the two — verify by browsing the page when in doubt.

⚠️ Pitfall: summary 404 ≠ page is empty

The summary API returns 404 (Netlify “Page not found” HTML) when a game has zero user reports. This does NOT mean the ProtonDB page itself is empty or useless. https://www.protondb.com/app/{appid} still renders and carries data even with 0 reports:

When summary API 404s, DO NOT tell the user “the page is 404 / has no info”. Instead:

  1. Open the /app/{appid} page (browser tool) to read Deck Verified status from the rendered HTML
  2. Report: “0 community reports, but Valve’s Deck Verified status is <status>”
  3. Surface the PCGamingWiki and Proton GitHub issue search links — those are often where niche-game tweaks actually live

Always give the user the https://www.protondb.com/app/{appid} URL even when reports are empty.

⚠️ Pitfall: check every appid in a game family independently

Games often have multiple Steam appids — base game, DLC, Deluxe/GOTY edition, demo. Each appid has independent ProtonDB summary results and independent Valve Deck Verified status. Never generalize one appid’s result to its siblings. Example seen in the wild: Monobeno (758090) → 0 reports, Deck Unsupported; Monobeno -HAPPY END- Deluxe (831660) → 2 reports, Deck Verified, provisionalTier platinum. The Deluxe edition is the playable one; the base appid would have steered the user wrong. Always enumerate the family via Steam store search and check each appid before answering.

API 2: Community Reports (Detailed)

ProtonDB serves report data as pre-built static JSON with hashed URLs. To access them:

Step 1: Get the token from counts.json

curl -s "https://www.protondb.com/data/counts.json"
# Returns: { "reports": 411787, "timestamp": 1774011569, ... }

Step 2: Compute the hash

The URL hash is computed from appId, reports count, timestamp, and page number:

# Usage: compute_hash <appId> <reports> <timestamp> <page>
node -e "
const R=(e,t,n)=>''+t+'p'+(e*(t%n));
const I=e=>Math.abs((''+e+'m').split('').reduce((a,c)=>(a<<5)-a+c.charCodeAt(0)|0,0));
const D=(e,t,n,r,o)=>I('p'.concat(R(e,t,n),'*vRT').concat(R(r,e,n)).concat(o));
console.log(D(${APPID},'${REPORTS}','${TIMESTAMP}',${PAGE}));
"

Step 3: Fetch reports

GET https://www.protondb.com/data/reports/{device}/app/{hash}.json

Device options: all-devices, steam-deck, pc, chrome-os

Returns paginated results (40 per page):

{
  "page": 1,
  "perPage": 40,
  "reports": [...],
  "total": 1994
}

Each report contains:

Complete Example (Shell)

#!/bin/bash
APPID=1245620  # Elden Ring

# Get token
COUNTS=$(curl -s "https://www.protondb.com/data/counts.json")
REPORTS=$(echo "$COUNTS" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['reports'])")
TIMESTAMP=$(echo "$COUNTS" | python3 -c "import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['timestamp'])")

# Compute hash for page 1
HASH=$(node -e "
const R=(e,t,n)=>''+t+'p'+(e*(t%n));
const I=e=>Math.abs((''+e+'m').split('').reduce((a,c)=>(a<<5)-a+c.charCodeAt(0)|0,0));
const D=(e,t,n,r,o)=>I('p'.concat(R(e,t,n),'*vRT').concat(R(r,e,n)).concat(o));
console.log(D($APPID,'$REPORTS','$TIMESTAMP',1));
")

# Fetch
curl -s "https://www.protondb.com/data/reports/all-devices/app/$HASH.json"

Pagination

To get page N, change the page parameter in the hash computation:

HASH_PAGE2=$(node -e "...D($APPID,'$REPORTS','$TIMESTAMP',2)...")
curl -s "https://www.protondb.com/data/reports/all-devices/app/$HASH_PAGE2.json"

Total pages = ceil(total / perPage).

Usage Guidelines

  1. Always fetch the summary first for a quick overview.
  2. Fetch detailed reports when user needs specifics (what issues exist, workarounds, Steam Deck specific notes).
  3. For Steam Deck queries, use device=steam-deck to filter SD-specific reports.
  4. Report both the overall tier AND the trending tier — they tell different stories.
  5. When summarizing reports, highlight: common issues, working Proton versions, and any required tweaks.
  6. The counts.json token changes periodically (when new reports are processed). Cache it for a few minutes at most.

Finding App IDs

Use the Steam store search:

curl -s "https://store.steampowered.com/api/storesearch/?term=game+name&l=english&cc=us" | python3 -c "
import json, sys
data = json.load(sys.stdin)
for item in data.get('items', []):
    print(f\"{item['id']} — {item['name']}\")
"

Fallback: Bulk Data Dump

If the hash-based API changes or breaks, ProtonDB publishes monthly data dumps under ODbL license: https://github.com/bdefore/protondb-data — reports/ directory contains monthly .tar.gz files (latest ~59MB). Download, extract, and grep by appId. Not suitable for per-game queries but useful for bulk analysis.

ProtonDB Page Link

Link to the game’s ProtonDB page: https://www.protondb.com/app/{appid}

View source on GitHub →