xtafkit

Mac-native TUI workbench for Xbox 360 (XTAF) and Original Xbox (FATX) drives. Plug a console drive into your Mac over USB, then browse, transfer files, resolve game titles, decode profile gamertags, and work with XISO disc images from a polished terminal UI plus a small CLI surface.

Highlights

• TUI file browser with slot-aware folder labels — game titles, content-type categories, and gamertags shown next to raw IDs
• Title resolution — ~5,500 Xbox 360 and Original Xbox games compiled in, with on-demand STFS header parsing for anything the catalog misses
• Profile gamertag extraction — decrypts the embedded Account file (ARC4 + HMAC-SHA1) to label profile XUIDs
• Per-file resolution for Arcade / XNA / Marketplace / Installer folders, with one-keystroke bulk scan
• XISO extraction and GoD conversion — stream XISO contents to a local directory or build Games-on-Demand packages for Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles
• STFS extraction — pull files out of Xbox 360 Arcade (XBLA), XBLIG, Title Update, and Marketplace DLC packages (CON / LIVE / PIRS)
• Sort toggle — by resolved name or by raw ID (display format flips to match)
• Persistent caches under ~/.config/xtafkit/ — plain text, human-editable
• macOS-native I/O (F_NOCACHE, F_RDAHEAD, device-optimal alignment)
• File-backed test image generator for development without hardware

Supported formats

Format	Console	Endianness	Auto-detected
FATX	Original Xbox	Little-endian	Yes
XTAF	Xbox 360	Big-endian	Yes

Both FAT16 and FAT32 entry sizes are handled automatically based on partition size.

Install

git clone https://github.com/rdmrocha/xtafkit.git
cd xtafkit
cargo build --release

Produces a single binary: target/release/xtafkit. No system dependencies required.

Quick start

# Find your Xbox drive
diskutil list | grep external

# Unmount macOS's hold on it
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN

# Scan for Xbox partitions
sudo xtafkit scan /dev/rdiskN

# Launch the TUI (guided picker — detects disks automatically)
sudo xtafkit

Commands

xtafkit                                       launch TUI (guided picker)
xtafkit browse [DEVICE] [--partition NAME]    launch TUI on a known device
xtafkit ls <DEVICE> [PATH] [-l]               list files (text in TTY, JSON when piped)
xtafkit scan <DEVICE> [--deep]                detect FATX/XTAF partitions
xtafkit mkimage <PATH> [--size 1G] [--populate] [--format fatx|xtaf]
xtafkit resolve <DEVICE> <PATH>               STFS-based title / file resolution
xtafkit extract <ISO> <DEST> [--keep-systemupdate] [--dry-run]
xtafkit extract-stfs <PACKAGE> [--to DIR] [--dry-run]
xtafkit god <ISO> <DEST> [--trim compact|preserve-layout|none] [--dry-run] [--game-title TITLE]

Eight subcommands total — file operations (download/upload/mkdir/rm/rename/copy/info/cleanup) live inside the TUI.

XISO Tools

xtafkit extract streams every file from an XISO to a local directory and skips $SystemUpdate by default. xtafkit god converts an XISO into a Games-on-Demand package; the default trim mode is compact, which repacks XDVDFS densely before GoD packaging. Pass --trim preserve-layout to keep mastered holes, or --trim none to use the full data partition.

STFS extraction

xtafkit extract-stfs <PACKAGE> reads any Xbox 360 STFS container (CON / LIVE / PIRS) and writes its inner files to a local directory. Works on Arcade (XBLA), XBLIG, Title Updates, and Marketplace DLC.

• Default destination is ./<DisplayName>/ taken from the package's STFS header — no catalog lookup, no [TitleID] suffix.
• --to <DIR> overrides the destination explicitly.
• --dry-run lists every entry with its size and totals, exits without writing.
• --json emits machine-readable output for both --dry-run and post-extract modes.
• Read-only / type-1 STFS only. Type-0 packages (read-write — save games, on-drive system files) surface a clean error rather than producing wrong output.

# Inspect what's inside without writing anything
xtafkit extract-stfs ./XBLA_pkg --dry-run

# Extract to a chosen directory
xtafkit extract-stfs ./TU_patch --to ./out/title-update

TUI

# Guided
sudo xtafkit

# Direct
sudo xtafkit browse /dev/rdisk4 --partition "360 Data"

Keybindings

Key	Action
↑ / k / ↓ / j	Navigate
Enter / →	Open directory / show file info
Backspace / ←	Go up
R	Resolve title or bulk-scan files (slot-aware)
s	Toggle sort: by name ⇄ by ID (flips bracket order)
m	Create directory
d / u	Download / upload (XISO uploads prompt for e**(X)**tract / **(G)**oD / **(R)**aw — see below)
D / r	Delete / rename
i	Volume info
c	Clean up macOS metadata
Esc / q	Cancel running operation / quit

Entries that can be resolved show a ? marker. Resolution results are cached under ~/.config/xtafkit/ and persist across runs.

Uploading an XISO

When the file you point at is an Xbox / Xbox 360 disc image (XDVDFS volume detected automatically), the upload prompt becomes:

Detected XISO 'Halo.iso'. e(X)tract / (G)oD / (R)aw / Esc:

Choice	Result
(X)tract	Walks the XISO and writes each file into <cwd>/<name>/ on the drive. $SystemUpdate is skipped automatically. <name> is the catalog-known game title when available, otherwise the local filename stem. Best for alt dashboards (Aurora / FreeStyle / XBMC4XBOX) that launch loose default.xex / default.xbe directly.
(G)oD	Streams a Games-on-Demand package into <cwd>/<TitleID>/00007000/<MediaID>{,.data/}. Uses the compact trim by default so the output is sized to actual content, not the original mastered layout. Required for stock Xbox 360 backward-compatibility playback.
(R)aw	Plain byte-for-byte copy of the source ISO file.

The default action (the capitalized letter) flips by context: inside /Content/<XUID>/ the default is G (where the dashboard looks for BC packages); everywhere else the default is X.

Press Esc to cancel mid-conversion at any time — the worker checks between parts and between hash-tree steps.

xtafkit resolve

Auto-dispatches by what you point at:

• A title-ID folder (/Content/<XUID>/<TitleID>) → resolves the title name from the first STFS file inside.
• A content-type folder holding standalone STFS files (Arcade / XNA / Marketplace / Installer) → bulk-scans every file.
• A single STFS file → resolves that one file.

Output format

xtafkit ls auto-detects: human-readable text when stdout is a terminal, JSON when stdout is piped or redirected. Force either with --text or --json:

# Text in your terminal:
sudo xtafkit ls /dev/rdisk4 --partition "360 Data" /Content

# JSON for scripts (auto-detected — no flag needed):
sudo xtafkit ls /dev/rdisk4 --partition "360 Data" /Content | jq '.[] | .name'

# Force one or the other:
sudo xtafkit --json ls /dev/rdisk4 --partition "360 Data" /Content
sudo xtafkit --text ls /dev/rdisk4 --partition "360 Data" /Content > listing.txt

JSON output preserves raw on-disk names (slot-aware formatting only happens on text output).

Project structure

Cargo workspace with two crates:

Crate	Binary	Purpose
fatxlib	—	FATX/XTAF filesystem library: volume I/O, FAT operations, partition detection, title catalog, STFS parser, profile decryption
xtafkit (root)	xtafkit	CLI + TUI browser + image generator

macOS notes

• Use /dev/rdiskN (raw device), not /dev/diskN — raw is significantly faster.
• sudo is required for raw device access.
• Find your drive: diskutil list. Unmount macOS first: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN.

Testing

cargo test --workspace

Tests use file-backed FATX/XTAF images generated by xtafkit mkimage. No hardware required.

Origin

xtafkit started as a fork of joshuareisbord/fatx-rs, which provided the FATX/XTAF filesystem core. The project has since diverged — title catalog with merged Xbox 360 + Original Xbox sources, on-demand STFS resolution, profile gamertag decryption, slot-aware folder display, TUI-first workflow, XISO extraction, Games-on-Demand conversion, and STFS container extraction. Credit to the original author for the filesystem foundation.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for the full text and NOTICE for attribution requirements.