VPKTools

Parse and inspect Valve's VPK archive format. Works as both a CLI tool and a .NET library.

Uses ValvePak to read .vpk files. List, find, extract, and verify entries without needing any Valve tooling installed.

Install

Grab an archive from the latest release:

Archive	Needs .NET installed?	Use when
VPKTools-win-x64.zip	No	Windows, just run it
VPKTools-linux-x64.zip	No	Linux, just run it
VPKTools-win-x64-portable.zip	.NET 10 runtime	Windows, smaller download
VPKTools-linux-x64-portable.zip	.NET 10 runtime	Linux, smaller download

Those links always resolve to the newest stable release. On Linux, chmod +x VPKTools.App after unzipping.

As a library:

dotnet add package VPKTools

Layout

Project	Purpose
VPKTools.Tier0	Core framework: interface registry, ConVars, ConCommands, logging, terminal REPL.
VPKTools.Pak	VPK reading, backed by ValvePak. Public API in src/Shared/, implementation in src/Core/.
VPKTools.App	CLI entry point. One-shot VPK action when you pass -vpk + a flag, or interactive terminal.

Interactive terminal

Run with no arguments to get a REPL:

./VPKTools.App

help lists commands, help <name> describes one. cmds dumps every command, convars dumps every ConVar. quit exits.

Inspect VPK files

Read-only VPK inspection is built in — open a .vpk, list/find entries, extract, or verify hashes and signature, either as a one-shot CLI command or from the terminal.

One-shot:

./VPKTools.App -vpk pak01_dir.vpk -list
./VPKTools.App -vpk pak01_dir.vpk -list -filter .vmt -output listing.txt
./VPKTools.App -vpk pak01_dir.vpk -info
./VPKTools.App -vpk pak01_dir.vpk -verify
./VPKTools.App -vpk pak01_dir.vpk -find materials/foo/bar.vmt
./VPKTools.App -vpk pak01_dir.vpk -extract materials/foo/bar.vmt -dest bar.vmt
./VPKTools.App -vpk pak01_dir.vpk -extractall ./out -filter .vmt

-list/-output/-extractall accept -filter <substring> to narrow which entries are matched. -vpk with no action flag just opens the pak and drops you into the terminal instead of exiting, so pak_* commands below pick up where the CLI left off.

Entry listings (-list, -output, pak_list, pak_output, pak_find) print one line per entry:

path=materials/foo/bar.vmt crc=B5ECB9D0 size=51B size_in_bytes=51

crc is the 8-digit uppercase-hex CRC32; size is human-readable (KB/MB/... binary units); size_in_bytes is the exact byte count.

From the terminal, the same functionality is available as commands:

pak_open pak01_dir.vpk
pak_info
pak_list [filter]
pak_find <path>
pak_extract <entryPath> <destPath>
pak_extractall <destDir> [filter]
pak_verify
pak_output <filePath> [filter]
pak_close

Building from source

Requires the .NET 10 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/Swiftly-Tracker/VPKTools.git
cd VPKTools
dotnet build VPKTools.slnx -c Release

Output lands in build/Release/<project>/; the CLI is build/Release/VPKTools.App/VPKTools.App.

To produce a standalone binary like the release archives:

dotnet publish VPKTools.App/VPKTools.App.csproj -c Release \
  -r linux-x64 --self-contained true \
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:PublishReadyToRun=true -p:PublishTrimmed=false \
  -o out/linux-x64

PublishTrimmed must stay false. The app resolves its modules by name through Assembly.Load, which the trimmer cannot see.

Releases & branches

Branch	Publishes	Tag
main	Stable release	vX.Y.Z
beta	Prerelease	vX.Y.Z-beta.N

The flow:

1. Features and fixes land on beta. Every push builds and publishes a prerelease with all four archives attached.
2. When a batch is ready, open a PR from beta → main. Merging it publishes the stable release and pushes the NuGet package.
3. beta is then automatically force-reset onto main, so the next cycle starts clean. If you keep a local beta, run git fetch && git reset --hard origin/beta after each stable release.

Architecture

VPKTools/
├── VPKTools.Tier0/        # Framework layer
│   └── src/
│       ├── Core/                    # ConVar system, logging, terminal, serialization
│       └── Shared/                  # Public interfaces (IInterfaceSystem, IConVar, ITerminal, ...)
├── VPKTools.Pak/          # VPK reading (ValvePak-backed)
│   └── src/
│       ├── Core/                    # CPakSystem, CPakCommands (pak_* terminal commands), CPakModule
│       └── Shared/                  # Public API (IPakSystem, PakInfo, PakEntryInfo, ...) + Formatting/
├── VPKTools.App/          # CLI entry point
│   └── src/Application.cs
├── VPKTools.csproj        # NuGet packaging front
├── Directory.Build.props            # Shared metadata + version
└── GitVersion.yml                   # Versioning rules

Community

• Issues: Report bugs and request features
• Security: Report privately — never in a public issue

License

GPL-3.0. See LICENSE. Third-party attributions in THIRDPARTY.md.

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Made with ❤️ by the Swiftly Development team