Your game library
Fill the host's game library from your launchers, add a game by hand, and launch a title from a client, Moonlight, a link or the command line.
Fill the host's game library once, and every client, Moonlight and the web console can launch from it.
Add your launchers
The library fills from plugins, one per launcher. A fresh host has no games until you add one:
- Open the web console's Library page.
- In Game sources, under Add a source, click each launcher you use. Detected marks the ones found on this host.
Each plugin reads its launcher's own files on the host, with no account or API key. Plugins lists them all and what each one covers.
Every title gets a stable id, such as steam:570. To see what the host found without a client, run
punktfunk-host library on the host; it prints the library as JSON.
If a source reads … can't read N of its folders, click that line and Allow the folders. A source marked Stopped has a plugin that isn't running: see Plugins → Troubleshooting.
Hide games
- A whole source: click its button in Game sources. Its titles leave every client, Moonlight and launching; nothing is deleted. Click again to bring them back.
- One title: Hide from your devices on its poster. The console keeps it, marked Hidden, so you can Show on your devices again.
- For good: uninstall the source's plugin.
A game's page
Click a poster to open its page: Information, Media and Launch, plus a tab for each plugin that keeps something per game. A title a plugin syncs is read-only there, marked Managed by its source: change it in the launcher and the plugin syncs it again.
Adding a game by hand
For anything no plugin knows, such as an emulator, a DRM-free build or a tool:
- On Library, click Add custom game.
- On Information, enter a Title.
- Optionally, on Launch, enter a Launch command: what the host runs for this title. Without one, the entry is a poster with nothing to launch.
- Click Add. The page stays open on the new entry.
Saving a command, or an entry with prep commands, asks for your Console password. To change the entry later, open its page and Save; Delete is there too. Everything but the title is optional:
| Tab | Field | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Information | Platform, description, developer, publisher, release year, players, region, genres, tags | Free text. A poster shows the platform unless it is PC. |
| Media | Portrait, Hero, Header, Logo | The title's art, previewed as you type. See Cover art. |
| Media | Brand mark | Drawn on a launcher tile that has no cover art. |
| Launch | This entry opens a launcher | Puts it in the Launchers row above your games. |
| Launch | Executable path, Install directory or Process name | How the host recognizes the running game. Without one it can't see the game exit, end it on disconnect or count play time. |
| Launch | Who hears this title | On a shared display: Everyone, The display owner only, Joined sessions only or The session that launched it. |
Hand-added entries live in library.json in the host config directory (~/.config/punktfunk/
on Linux, %ProgramData%\punktfunk\ on Windows), readable by the host user only. Steps that run
before a title and undo after it go in that file: see
Per-app prep/undo.
Cover art
Enter an http:// or https:// URL, or the path of an image file on the host. A URL previews
right away; a path previews after you save.
- A URL: the host downloads it the first time a client asks, keeps it, and serves it to every client from then on. A redirect, a file over 16 MiB or a file that isn't an image goes to the client as a plain URL instead.
- A path: it must be inside a folder the host may read art from.
PUNKTFUNK_LIBRARY_ART_ROOTSin Configuration sets those folders. Network (UNC) paths are refused.
punktfunk-host library art --clear empties the host's cover store. Plugin titles bring their own
art; a source below fills what they lack.
Filling missing art and details
Install an Art & Metadata source to give every game covers and details, whatever listed it: SteamGridDB (covers, heroes, logos; needs a free API key), Libretro (box art and details for ROMs) and IGDB (descriptions, credits, genres and covers; needs a free Twitch app). They appear under Library → Sources → Art & Metadata.
- A source fills only what a game is missing. The first source in the list wins; reorder with the arrows.
- Use for every game lets that source's art replace a game's own covers too. Details still only fill gaps.
- On a game's page, Media says where each image came from. Choose… shows every source's images for that slot, a Wrong game? search when a source matched the wrong title, and a field for your own URL. Reset goes back to the automatic image.
- Information marks a field a source filled. On your own entries it shows as a hint until you type your own.
Your picks survive the plugin's next sync. Turning a source off or removing it takes its art and details away again.
Launching a game
The client sends only the title's id. The host runs its own launch recipe for it, so a client can never make the host run a command. The host must be paired.
Every library starts with a Desktop tile that streams the host and launches nothing. While a game runs on the host, the tile reads Resume and the game's name.
| From | How |
|---|---|
| Linux | The Library tab, or a host card's menu → Browse Library |
| Windows, Android (touch) | A host card's menu → Browse library… |
| Mac | Library in the window's sidebar |
| iPhone, iPad, Apple TV | The Library tab |
| Controller home (TV, Steam Deck, a client with a controller) | Y on a saved host, or the host's options → Library |
| Steam Deck | Open Punktfunk in the Decky panel, then the controller home. See Steam Deck. |
| Moonlight | Turn on GameStream (Moonlight). Titles appear in Moonlight's app list beside Desktop; titles with no launch command are left out. |
| A link | punktfunk://connect/couch-pc?launch=steam:570. See Presets and links. |
| Command line | punktfunk library couch-pc lists ids; punktfunk launch couch-pc --game steam:570 streams one. See the punktfunk CLI. |
Where the game opens (your desktop, a gamescope session, or a headless session of its own) is display policy: see Dedicated game sessions. Whether quitting the game ends the session, and the reverse, is under When a game ends.
Ending a game
End game closes a title on the host. A device can end a game it launched, while a stream plays it or after the stream has ended. It can't end a game another device started or one you started yourself on the host.
| Where | How |
|---|---|
| While streaming | End game on the quick-action dial's sheet. The stream ends with it. |
| A library | Hold or right-click the running title → End game |
| Controller home | The title's options → End game |
| Steam Deck | End game under Host menus in the Decky panel |
| Command line | punktfunk end-game couch-pc --game steam:570 |
The host asks the game to quit like its window's close button and forces it after 10 seconds. Unsaved progress is lost, so every client asks first. The web console's Home lists games still running after their stream ended as Nobody streaming, with End now.
Play stats
Each launch from Punktfunk records the time and adds one to the title's launch count. Play time grows while the host sees the game running with a session attached. A launcher tile, or a custom entry with no Process hint, gets no play time.
A Punktfunk session also credits its profile: the title's numbers count every launch, and each profile keeps its own beside them. A Moonlight session counts toward the title only.
The Apple apps sort by Recent and Most played and keep a Recently Played row.
The numbers live in library-stats.json in the host config directory. Delete a title's line to
reset it.