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Steam Compatibility Tool

360900 edited this page Aug 2, 2026 · 2 revisions

Overview

To use TinkerGame as a Steam Compatibility Tool, run tinkergame compat add. If TinkerGame is not on your PATH, you can run the script with ./path/to/tinkergame compat add. Once added, Steam will need to be restarted for TinkerGame to become available, as with any other third-party compatibility tool.

When TinkerGame is selected as the compatibility tool for a game, Steam will always download the Windows release. The Proton version to use with a game can be selected from the Game Menu within TinkerGame.

If you want to use TinkerGame with a native Linux game, use the Steam Launch Option instead.

Command-Line Usage

TinkerGame can be configured as a Steam Compatibility Tool with the built-in Command Line options:

  • tinkergame compat add - adds TinkerGame to the Steam compatibilitytools.d folder
  • tinkergame compat del - removes TinkerGame from the Steam compatibilitytools.d folder
  • tinkergame compat get - checks whether TinkerGame is installed as a Compatibility Tool and where its symlink points

Running compat add creates a TinkerGame directory inside Steam's compatibilitytools.d folder and:

  • symlinks the tinkergame script into it (from wherever it was installed, such as /usr/bin/tinkergame or ~/tg/prefix/tinkergame)
  • writes a toolmanifest.vdf containing the commandline Steam needs to launch TinkerGame
  • writes a compatibilitytool.vdf describing the tool to Steam, including the internal name Proton-tg (used for Non-Steam shortcut assignments too)

The Generic menu entry Steam-Tools/add as Steam Compatibility Tool does the same thing from inside the GUI.

Global Usage

It is possible to use TinkerGame globally as the default compatibility tool if you want, though users in the past have reported that this may not work (#278 (comment)), likely due to a Steam client bug.

If you run into this issue, you can fix it manually by opening the /path/to/steam/config/config.vdf file, and updating the name field for the 0 entry under CompatToolMapping. This block of the config file defines which AppIDs use which compatibility tools (determined by the name field). In this case, 0 refers to the default compatibility tool, and the name field should be updated to Proton-tg, which is the internal name defined in the compatibilitytool.vdf written by tinkergame compat add:

"CompatToolMapping"
{
	"0"
	{
		"name"		"Proton-tg"
		"config"		""
		"Priority"		"75"
	}
}

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