boiler

boiler is a small CLI that makes Steam uploads feel less like paperwork.

It wraps steamcmd, generates the VDF files for you, handles Steam Guard login flows, and gives you a cleaner workflow for pushing builds without bouncing around the Steamworks UI.

Why

Uploading with raw steamcmd usually means:

• hand-writing or editing VDF files
• remembering the right command sequence
• dealing with Steam Guard friction
• re-checking paths, depot mappings, and output folders every time

boiler smooths that out with a project config, interactive setup, safer defaults, and better preflight tooling.

Features

• Interactive init wizard for .boiler.json
• login flow that handles email codes, app codes, and Steam Mobile approval prompts
• push command that generates VDFs and runs the upload for you
• Multi-depot support with multiple Steam FileMapping entries per depot
• Automatic changed-depot detection to skip unchanged depot uploads
• Retry with exponential backoff for transient SteamCMD failures
• status command for config, auth, artifacts, and last upload details
• doctor command for preflight validation and CI checks
• JSON output for status and doctor
• Automatic SteamCMD discovery, with optional auto-download
• Global --verbose / --debug logging modes for troubleshooting
• SteamCMD download progress and extraction fallbacks for minimal CI images

Install

npm install -g @frinky/boiler

Or run it directly:

npx @frinky/boiler

Quick Start

# 1. Log in to Steam
boiler login

# 2. Create .boiler.json
boiler init

# 3. Upload your build
boiler push

If your project only has one depot, you can also override the content folder directly:

boiler push ./build

Commands

boiler login

Authenticate with Steam and let SteamCMD cache the session. boiler never stores your password. It only stores your Steam username in global config.

boiler login

For CI or automation:

BOILER_USERNAME=buildbot \
BOILER_PASSWORD=super-secret \
boiler login --non-interactive

Supported login automation inputs:

• --username <name>
• --password-env <var>
• --guard-code-env <var>
• --non-interactive
• BOILER_USERNAME
• BOILER_PASSWORD
• BOILER_GUARD_CODE
• BOILER_NON_INTERACTIVE=1

If Steam requires approval in the Steam Mobile app, boiler will nudge you after a few seconds even if SteamCMD is being quiet about it.

boiler init

Create .boiler.json with an interactive wizard.

It prompts for:

• App ID
• depot IDs
• content roots
• file exclusions
• one or more file mappings per depot

boiler init

boiler push [folder]

Generate VDF files and upload a build through SteamCMD.

# Use config from .boiler.json
boiler push

# Override the content folder for a single-depot project
boiler push ./dist

# One-off upload without a config file
boiler push ./build --app 480 --depot 481

# Add a build description
boiler push ./build --desc "v1.2.0 release"

# Set a branch live after upload
boiler push ./build --set-live beta

# Preview generated VDF without uploading
boiler push ./build --dry-run

# Force upload of every depot (disable changed-depot detection)
boiler push --all-depots

# Use strict content hashing for changed-depot detection (slower, safer)
boiler push --content-hash

# Fail instead of auto-downloading SteamCMD
boiler push --skip-download

Important behavior:

• If --desc is omitted, boiler generates a timestamp-based description.
• push retries transient SteamCMD failures up to 3 attempts with exponential backoff.
• For project-config uploads, push auto-detects changed depots and uploads only those depots unless --all-depots is set.
• Set BOILER_CONTENT_HASH=1 (or pass --content-hash) to use strict content hashing instead of metadata-only depot fingerprints.
• For projects with multiple configured depots, folder override is intentionally blocked to avoid accidentally uploading the same build to every depot.

Push options:

Global options:

boiler status

Show the current project state, including:

• per-depot mapping details
• output/artifact paths
• detected SteamCMD path
• saved username
• cached login status
• last upload details

boiler status

# Machine-readable output
boiler status --json

boiler doctor

Run preflight checks before uploading.

It checks:

• project config validity
• depot content roots
• SteamCMD availability
• saved username
• cached Steam login

boiler doctor

# JSON output for CI
boiler doctor --json

# Exit non-zero on warnings too
boiler doctor --json --strict

boiler help [command]

Show command usage from the CLI.

# Show all commands and global options
boiler help

# Show detailed help for a single command
boiler help push

boiler

Running boiler with no arguments opens an interactive menu for login, init, push, status, and doctor.

Config

Running boiler init creates a .boiler.json file in your project root:

{
  "appId": 480,
  "depots": [
    {
      "depotId": 481,
      "contentRoot": "./build",
      "fileMappings": [
        {
          "localPath": "*",
          "depotPath": ".",
          "recursive": true
        }
      ],
      "fileExclusions": ["*.pdb", "*.map", ".DS_Store", "Thumbs.db"]
    }
  ],
  "buildOutput": ".boiler-output",
  "setLive": null
}

This file is safe to commit.

Notes:

• buildOutput is where generated VDFs and upload artifacts are written
• setLive is used by default for push unless overridden with --set-live
• legacy configs with a single fileMapping object are still read automatically, but new configs should use fileMappings

If a depot needs more than one Steam FileMapping, use multiple entries:

{
  "depotId": 481,
  "contentRoot": "./build",
  "fileMappings": [
    { "localPath": "*", "depotPath": ".", "recursive": true },
    { "localPath": "extras/*.dll", "depotPath": "./bin", "recursive": false }
  ],
  "fileExclusions": ["*.pdb"]
}

CI / Automation

Typical CI flow:

boiler doctor --json --strict
boiler login --non-interactive
boiler push --skip-download

Recommended environment variables:

export BOILER_USERNAME=buildbot
export BOILER_PASSWORD=super-secret
export BOILER_NON_INTERACTIVE=1

If Steam Guard code entry is required in CI, also provide:

export BOILER_GUARD_CODE=123456

SteamCMD

boiler needs SteamCMD to upload builds.

If SteamCMD is not found, boiler can download it automatically from Valve unless you pass --skip-download. If you already have SteamCMD installed, boiler will look on your PATH, in common install locations, and in its own managed install directory.

Security

• Passwords are never stored by boiler
• Only the Steam username is saved in global config
• SteamCMD handles its own credential caching
• For automation, use a dedicated Steam account rather than your personal account

Global config is stored in ~/.boiler/config.json.

Development

git clone https://github.com/your-username/boiler.git
cd boiler
npm install
npm run build
npm run dev -- --help
npm test

License

MIT

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