protondl 🧬

protondl is a modern, headless Python library for downloading and managing compatibility tools (like GE-Proton, Proton-Tkg, DXVK, and vkd3d-proton) for Steam, Lutris, and other Linux game launchers.

Inspired by the logic of ProtonUp-Qt, protondl decouples the core management logic from the GUI, providing a modular and developer-friendly API for automation, CLI tools, or custom integrations.

🏗️ This library is Work in Progress!

The goal of this project is to port all functionality from ProtonUp-Qt into a headless library that is indepenent from the Qt GUI to allow for future use in different projects. This is more of a side project that I will work on here and there. Please use ProtonUp-Qt instead for managing your compatibility tools!

✨ Features

• Launcher Discovery: Automatically detects Native, Flatpak, and Snap installations of Steam and other launchers.
• Modular Architecture: Easily extendable for new compatibility tools or launchers.
• Async-First: Built with httpx and asyncio for non-blocking downloads.
• Headless by Design: No Qt/GUI dependencies in the core library.
• Modern Tooling: Powered by uv, ruff, and mypy for a rock-solid developer experience.

Supported Launchers

Tool Type	Steam	Lutris	Heroic Games Launcher	Bottles
⚛️ Proton	✅	✅	✅	✅
🍷 Wine	❌	✅	✅	✅
🇽 VKD3D	❌	✅	✅	❌
9️⃣ DXVK	❌	✅	✅	❌

Supported Tools

• GE-Proton (Proton)
• Wine-Tkg (Wine)
• Proton-Tkg (Proton)
• DXVK (DXVK)
• DXVK Async (DXVK)
• DXVK (nightly) (DXVK)
• vkd3d-proton (VKD3D)

🚀 Quick Start

Installation (for users)

uv tool install "protondl[cli] @ git+https://github.com/DavidoTek/protondl@main"
uvx run protondl

Basic Usage (CLI)

1. List your launchers to find your target ID:

   protondl list-launchers

2. List compatibilty tools available for the launcher:

   protondl list-tools 1

3. Find available versions for a tool:

   protondl list-versions GE-Proton

4. Install it:

   protondl install 1 GE-Proton GE-Proton10-10

5. List installed games, the compatibility tools used by them and the areweanticheatyet.com status:

   protondl list-games 1 --awacy

Basic Usage (Library API)

import asyncio
from protondl.launchers import detect_all_launchers
from protondl.installers.ge_proton import GEProtonInstaller

async def main():
    # Detect Steam -> add more checks here since there can be multiple launchers
    launchers = detect_all_launchers()
    steam = launchers[0] 

    # Initialize Installer
    ge = GEProtonInstaller()
    
    # Install latest GE-Proton
    await ge.install(version="latest", launcher=steam)

asyncio.run(main())

🛠 Development Setup

protondl uses the uv package manager for high-performance dependency management.

1. Clone and Install

   git clone https://github.com/DavidoTek/protondl.git
   cd protondl
   
   uv sync
   
   uv run protondl --help

2. Code Quality & Standards

   We use Ruff for linting/formatting and Mypy for strict type checking.

   • Format code: uv run ruff format .
   • Lint code: uv run ruff check --fix .
   • Type check: uv run mypy src tests
   • Unit tests: uv run pytest tests

3. Pre-commit Hooks

   Ensure your code is compliant before every commit:

   uv run pre-commit install

🏗 Project Structure

src/protondl/
├── cli/            # Rich-powered terminal interface
├── core/           # Abstract Base Classes and Enums (The Contract)
├── installers/     # Tool-specific logic (GE-Proton, Luxtorpeda)
├── launchers/      # Launcher discovery (Steam, Lutris, etc.)
├── services/       # Online service (AWACY, ProtonDB)
└── util/           # Utility functions (downloads, etc.)

📸 Credits & Story

The project was originally inspired by AUNaseef's protonup for which I created an initial GUI. Since the library didn't have the necessary features and upstreaming was slow, I started with the development of ProtonUp-Qt. Thanks to the many ProtonUp-Qt contributers, the project was able to grow and become as feature rich as it is today. While ProtonUp-Qt is well working, the original idea of having a headless library and a separate GUI was lost. This is where protondl comes in. The idea is to port the features of ProtonUp-Qt into a headless library, featuring modern CLI and API interfaces.