Protondb

ProtonDB

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

Rating Tiers (best → worst)

platinum > gold > silver > bronze > borked

• Platinum: Runs perfectly out of the box
• Gold: Runs after tweaks
• Silver: Runs with minor issues
• Bronze: Runs but with significant issues
• Borked: Doesn't run or unplayable

API 1: Official Summary

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

Status codes:

• 200 application/json — game has ≥1 report
• 404 text/html — game has 0 reports (returns Netlify 404 page, NOT empty JSON). Always check status before parsing.

Response fields:

• tier — official rating (platinum/gold/silver/bronze/borked), or "pending" when confidence: "inadequate" (typically <5 reports)
• provisionalTier — tier estimate used while tier is pending. Fall back to this when tier === "pending".
• bestReportedTier — highest tier anyone reported (optimistic)
• trendingTier — recent reports' tier (may differ from tier → indicates regression/fix). Also can be "pending".
• confidence — inadequate / low / moderate / high / strong
• score (0-1), total (report count)

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:

• Deck Verified Status (Valve's official judgement: Verified / Playable / Unsupported / Unknown) — independent of community reports, often the most important signal
• Chromebook Ready Status
• Native platform support icons
• External links: Steam, SteamDB, Steamcharts, PCGamingWiki, GitHub Proton issue search

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:

• responses.verdict: "yes" (works) / "no" (issues)
• responses.notes.verdict: Free-text user review (the actual feedback)
• responses.protonVersion: e.g. "10.0-3"
• responses.graphicalFaults, audioFaults, inputFaults, etc.: "yes"/"no"
• device.hardwareType: "pc" or "steamDeck"
• device.inferred.steam.os: OS name
• device.inferred.steam.gpu: GPU name
• device.inferred.steam.cpu: CPU name
• contributor.steam.nickname: Steam username
• timestamp: Unix timestamp

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}