Steam browser protocol

This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality.
For help, see the VDC Editing Help and Wikipedia cleanup process. Also, remember to check for any notes left by the tagger at this article's talk page.

Commands

There are several commands available that interact with Steam. All of them open up Steam if it is not open. They can either be typed into a command box (Start-> Run) or through your browser's address bar. Use a Steam Applaunch ID in place of <id> (i.e. 211 for the Source SDK).

• steam:<commands> This opens Steam with command line arguments, which can be found here: Steam Command Line Options
• steam://appnews/<id> This opens up the appnews web page for an app.
• steam://backup/<id> This opens up Steam's backup utility. If an AppId is specified then the product is checkmarked automatically.
• steam://connect/<IP or DNS name>[:port] This connects the user to the server specified by the IP or DNS name. Using this, you can connect to servers for third party mods without needing to know the mod's installation path.
  • Example: steam://connect/1.0.0.27:27015
  • Example: steam://connect/dns.server.com
• steam://defrag/<id> This defragments the GCFs of an app.
• steam://install/<id> This installs an app.
• steam://installaddon/<addon> This installs the specified add-on. Example: Template:Steamlink installs HL High-Def Pack
• steam://open/<component> Opens a Steam window. Known <component> values:
  • Template:Steamlinktitled
  • Template:Steamlinktitled
  • Template:Steamlinktitled
  • Template:Steamlinktitled
  • Template:Steamlinktitled
  • Template:Steamlinktitled
  • Template:Steamlinktitled
• steam://openurl/<url> Opens URL in default web browser.
• steam://preload/<id> This preloads an app.
• steam://purchase/<id> This opens a dialog box to buy an app from Steam.
• steam://purchase/subscription/<id> This opens up a dialog box to buy a subscription to a Steam product/service. None are available yet.
• steam://removeaddon/<addon> This uninstalls the specified add-on. Example: Template:Steamlink uninstalls HL High-Def Pack
• steam://run/<id> This opens an app.
• steam://runsafe/<id> This resets CVARs of an app.
• steam://store/<id> This opens up the store for an app, if no app is specified then the default one is opened.
• steam://support/?Issues=* Launches the Steam Support utility, running all tests. Enter valid support string to filter results.
• steam://updatenews/<id> This opens the news about the latest updates for an app.
• steam://validate/<id> This validates the GCFs of an app.

Suggested

• steam://connect/<IP or DNS name>[:port]/<password>
  • Connects to the specified server with the right password --Semi
• steam://connect/<IP or DNS name>[:port]/'command1 "arg1" "arg2";command2 "arg1";password "blah";etc..'
  • Connects to the specified server after executing the specified commands --ts2do
• steam://vdc/<page title>
  • Open title page on the VDC. -- AiusEpsi and ts2do
• steam://friends/add/<user>
  • Prompt to add user to Friends list. --VealCalf
• steam://friends/chat/<user>
  • Open chat window with user (if online). --STUART ^(TALK  )
• steam://gameinfo/<IP or DNS name>[:port]
  • Opens the "game info" window for the specified server. Maybe also integrated into the server browser, so you don't have to add a server to the favorites to have access to that window. --Koraktor
• steam://runsingle/<AppID>
  • Runs an app, then shuts down Steam once the game closes. -- AiusEpsi

Ability

What can be done with these commands from a websites point of view? Its a pretty open and powerful system. A website link can start up steam and not only change any ConVar of a user, but it can also execute ConCommands like making a player join a specific server running a specific mod. It can even get the player to start up a dedicated server with a single click.

Here some examples:

steam:"-applaunch 70 -game "<mod>" +map "<map>"" - This starts up Half-Life running the specified mod then loads a specified map.

steam://connect/<IP or DNS name>[:port]" - If a mod was running at the specified server, Steam would attempt to start up that mod and connect there. This applies to any kind of Goldsource/Source server.

To view this browser based command system in action look at this server browser website and click on one of the servers.

Note:If you forget the closing quote on a steam:"<command>", you will get an assertion failed error from Steam.exe/BootStrapperApp.cpp.