kSteam

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kSteam

kSteam is a JVM/Android Kotlin library which allows you to connect to the Valve's Steam network.

Its usage is mostly based on Kotlin Coroutines and states to better suit for modern application development.

This library is in very early state, so expect bugs and incomplete features. Also, releases are mostly not binary compatible between each other due to rapid development process.

Please note that this library is UNOFFICIAL and not endorsed, sponsored, allowed, developed by Valve Corporation or related to it. Don't report bugs to them!

Usage

Refer to the examples document for more information how to use kSteam for various needs.

You can also check out Cobalt - an Android replacement for the official Steam client that uses kSteam.

Platform Support

• JVM/Android: highest priority
• iOS/macOS: experimental
• WASM: nearly impossible due to possible CORS issues

Android has several special features: Jetpack Compose stability annotations for optimized rendering.

Features

• Access to the Steam network by using the modern WebSocket approach
• Stable and async-first architecture with proper documentation
• Providing Flows and suspending API for reactive UIs without any callback hell

Goals

• Provide an easy-to-use library for accessing the Steam network on JVM/Android
• Make UI development easier by providing state-based approach without taking care of Protocol Buffers
• Manage high performance and low memory/storage footprint by using well-tested modern technology such as Wire (for protobufs) and Ktor (for networking)
• Provide full Steam Guard and new auth flow support
• Removing the gap between WebAPI and Steam3 messages
• Actively cache data for minimizing network usage and portability

Modules

• core: main kSteam core, especially a small client that can connect to the Steam network and handle API/Authorization requests.
• core-persistence: implementation for kSteam persistence subsystem, allowing for saving user credentials and machine tokens.
• extension-client: full-blown client based on kSteam core that provides user-friendly access to Steam API with active caching. Relies heavily on Realm Database.
• kotlinx-vdf: KotlinX Serialization adapter for Valve Data Format, useful for PICS/Library parsing.
• proto-common: common Steam protobufs used in several kSteam modules.

Which module set should I use?

If you are planning to use kSteam only for basic Steam communication, consider using core and core-persistance (optional) modules. They provide authorization, credential management (optional) and raw Steam API connection (by using protobufs or binary messages).

However, if you are going to create a GUI client, consider including the extension-client module as well (if your target platform is supported by the Realm Database). It provides a lot of useful Steam API mappings paired with automatic Kotlin Flow support for dynamic UI.

The kotlinx-vdf module is already provided with the modules above, but you can import it separately in case of not requiring to use any of kSteam features.

Credits

• SteamKit and JavaSteam - base for understanding how Steam3 network works
• SteamDB protobuf repository is used in modules
• Ktor is used as a networking library
• Wire is used for protobuf decoding/encoding
• Okio is used for cross-platform filesystem access, VDF parsing and byte manipulation