gamewrap

gamewrap is a small Linux launcher for Steam games that keeps Steam launch options short while managing MangoHud, GameMode, gamescope, launch hooks, and per-game history from readable local config.

The main idea is simple:

• keep Steam launch options short
• move behavior into a readable config file
• make common settings easy to understand and change
• provide diagnostics when a launch setup is broken

For a normal Steam setup, launch options can stay as short as:

gamewrap %command%

gamewrap stores its configuration outside Steam, supports reusable profiles, can bind specific executables to profiles, and tries to explain technical behavior in plain language instead of expecting users to remember environment variable names.

Features

• Short Steam launch options
• Friendly setting names like overlay and performance
• Persistent config outside the Steam UI
• Named profiles for reusable setups
• Profile inheritance for layered setups
• Game-specific profile binding through game bind
• Quick access to the last played game through gamewrap last
• Play time and launch count tracking per game
• Game notes for remembering per-title quirks
• Filtered game listing and fuzzy game lookup
• Observed game cleanup through game forget
• Config export/import for backup and sharing
• Direct config editing through config edit
• Profile export/import for sharing one setup at a time
• Profile tree view for inheritance checks
• Per-profile environment variable overrides
• gamescope Wayland compositor integration
• FPS cap through MangoHud
• Pre-launch hooks
• vkBasalt and Proton esync/fsync/large-address-aware controls
• Graphical notification self-test
• Shell completion generation
• doctor, status, and dry-run commands for troubleshooting
• explicit run mode for command-name collisions
• Clear help text with both plain-language explanations and technical details

Install

Recommended low-maintenance install:

cargo install --path . --force

This installs the binary to ~/.cargo/bin/gamewrap, which is already on PATH for most users who have Rust installed.

# After installing, ensure ~/.cargo/bin is on your PATH.
# Most Rust setups do this automatically. If gamewrap isn't found
# in Steam launch options, add to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zprofile:
#   export PATH="$HOME/.cargo/bin:$PATH"

After that, Steam launch options can stay simple:

gamewrap %command%

User-local install:

cargo install --path .

That installs the binary to ~/.cargo/bin/gamewrap. If Steam cannot find commands from ~/.cargo/bin in your desktop session, use the full path in Steam launch options:

$HOME/.cargo/bin/gamewrap %command%

Quick Start

1. Put this in Steam launch options:

gamewrap %command%

If Steam cannot find gamewrap by name, use:

$HOME/.cargo/bin/gamewrap %command%

2. Turn MangoHud on by default:

gamewrap config set overlay on

3. Turn GameMode on by default:

gamewrap config set performance on

4. Check your setup before launching a real game:

gamewrap doctor

5. Launch a game explicitly from the terminal when needed:

gamewrap run /path/to/game/executable

Add -- only when the command or its arguments would otherwise look like gamewrap options.

6. Inspect what gamewrap would do without actually launching:

gamewrap dry-run /path/to/game/executable

7. Bind a known game executable to a profile:

gamewrap profile create benchmark
gamewrap game bind "Game.exe" benchmark

8. Layer one profile on top of another when you want shared defaults:

gamewrap profile create base
gamewrap profile set base overlay on
gamewrap profile create benchmark
gamewrap profile inherit benchmark base
gamewrap profile set benchmark verbose on

9. Export your config for backup or sharing:

gamewrap config export shared

10. Export one profile for sharing:

gamewrap profile export benchmark benchmark

11. Import a shared profile:

gamewrap profile import benchmark

12. Install shell completions:

gamewrap completion install zsh

You can still print the raw script with gamewrap completion zsh, but install is the user-friendly path. The installed completion script asks gamewrap for live data, so new profiles and observed games show up automatically without reinstalling.

If the real command you want to launch has the same name as a gamewrap subcommand, force launch mode with:

gamewrap run -- /path/to/game/executable

Common Commands

gamewrap --help
gamewrap help settings
gamewrap help doctor
gamewrap game list
gamewrap game list "elden"
gamewrap game show "Game.exe"
gamewrap game forget "Game.exe"
gamewrap status
gamewrap doctor
gamewrap notify test
gamewrap doctor /path/to/game/executable
gamewrap run /path/to/game/executable
gamewrap dry-run /path/to/game/executable
gamewrap completion zsh
gamewrap completion install zsh
gamewrap completion path zsh
gamewrap config show
gamewrap config edit
gamewrap config export shared
gamewrap config import shared
gamewrap last
gamewrap profile list
gamewrap profile tree
gamewrap profile create benchmark
gamewrap profile duplicate benchmark benchmark-copy
gamewrap profile inherit benchmark base
gamewrap profile clear-inherit benchmark
gamewrap profile export benchmark benchmark
gamewrap profile import benchmark
gamewrap profile set benchmark overlay on
gamewrap profile reset benchmark overlay
gamewrap profile env set benchmark DXVK_ASYNC 1
gamewrap profile env list benchmark
gamewrap profile env unset benchmark DXVK_ASYNC
gamewrap game bind "eldenring.exe" benchmark
gamewrap game unbind "eldenring.exe"
gamewrap game rename "eldenring.exe" "Elden Ring"
gamewrap game note "eldenring.exe" needs game-libs gamemode
gamewrap game clear-note "eldenring.exe"

Friendly Settings

• overlay: turns MangoHud on or off
• performance: turns GameMode on or off
• steam-host-libs: prefers host libraries inside Steam runtime environments and sets STEAM_RUNTIME_PREFER_HOST_LIBRARIES=1
• game-libs: controls whether gamewrap injects auto-detected host library directories into LD_LIBRARY_PATH
• verbose: shows more detail in diagnostic commands
• gamescope: wraps the game in the gamescope Wayland compositor
• gamescope-width, gamescope-height, gamescope-fps: pass -W, -H, and -r values to gamescope when gamescope is on
• fps-cap: caps frame rate through MangoHud when overlay is on, for example gamewrap config set fps-cap 60
• vkbasalt: enables vkBasalt post-processing with ENABLE_VKBASALT=1
• esync: forces Proton esync on or off with PROTON_NO_ESYNC; leave unset to use Steam/Proton defaults
• fsync: forces Proton fsync on or off with PROTON_NO_FSYNC; leave unset to use Steam/Proton defaults
• large-address-aware / laa: sets PROTON_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 for older 32-bit Proton games that need more than 2 GB of address space
• pre-launch: runs a shell command through sh -c immediately before the game launches
• post-launch: runs a shell command after the game exits; when set, gamewrap spawns the game and waits for it to finish before running this hook
• env-vars: per-profile environment overrides managed with gamewrap profile env set/list/unset/clear

How It Works

When gamewrap launches a game, it resolves your defaults, any inherited profile chain, and any matching game binding, prepares the needed environment variables, and then prefixes the game command with gamescope, mangohud, and/or gamemoderun when those features are enabled.

If something important is missing, gamewrap is designed to fail clearly instead of silently skipping the requested behavior. The doctor and status commands help you verify that before launching through Steam.

For terminal usage, gamewrap distinguishes between management commands and explicit launches:

• use commands like gamewrap game list, gamewrap profile list, or gamewrap game bind ... for management
• gamewrap game list <text> filters observed games by executable or path substring
• gamewrap last shows the most recently observed launch
• gamewrap game rename <text> <name> gives an observed game a friendlier display name
• gamewrap game forget <text> removes an observed game from local state
• gamewrap config edit opens the config file in $VISUAL, $EDITOR, or nano
• use gamewrap config export and gamewrap config import ... for full-config backup and sharing
• use gamewrap profile export and gamewrap profile import ... for sharing one profile
• use gamewrap profile tree to inspect profile inheritance
• use gamewrap profile env set <profile> <KEY> <VALUE> for per-profile environment overrides
• use gamewrap notify test to verify graphical failure notifications
• use gamewrap run <command> when you want to explicitly launch from the terminal
• use gamewrap dry-run <command> when you want to inspect the resolved launch without running it
• add -- only when the command or its arguments would otherwise look like gamewrap options

Shell Completion

Recommended:

gamewrap completion install zsh

Then open a new shell.

Other useful commands:

gamewrap completion zsh
gamewrap completion path zsh

The installed completion script is live rather than static. That means:

• new profiles appear in completion results automatically
• newly observed games appear automatically
• you generally only need to reinstall if your shell startup setup changes

Sharing Files

Suggested file names:

shared.gamewrap.toml
benchmark.gamewrap-profile.toml

You do not need to type the full extension yourself. These commands are equivalent:

gamewrap config export shared
gamewrap config import shared
gamewrap profile export benchmark benchmark
gamewrap profile import benchmark

gamewrap automatically adds .gamewrap.toml or .gamewrap-profile.toml when needed.

gamewrap config export writes resolved settings, not just the sparse internal overrides. That makes the exported file more predictable when you import it on another machine with different defaults.

gamewrap profile export also writes resolved settings. Imported profiles are brought in as standalone profiles with explicit values, so they keep the same behavior even if the importing machine uses different defaults.

Files

• Config: ~/.config/gamewrap/config.toml
• State: ~/.local/state/gamewrap/state.toml