The Vessel game library

Start with npm run tauri dev, or run the built desktop executable. The app opens a persistent local library. On the first empty-library launch, it scans common game folders. Find games repeats that scan; Scan folder searches a folder selected with the native file picker; Add game imports a selected Windows .exe. There is also an explicit-path import dialog.

The bento library cards show artwork, title, running/readiness status, and a Play action. Select a card to edit its name, runtime, and arguments. Custom Wine/Proton executables can be chosen from disk; save or discard edits before switching games. Known Mines and Skyrim executables have artwork mappings; other games and failed remote image loads have a name fallback.

Discovery scope

Default roots are Vessel’s installed test games, ~/Games, the configured Downloads folder plus ~/Downloads, and common native/Flatpak Steam library locations. Discovery is heuristic: it searches for Windows executables, prefers a game over an adjacent launcher, and excludes common installers, uninstallers, crash reporters, and redistributable folders. A found executable is a candidate, not proof that it will run with the selected runner.

Scans inspect at most 20,000 directory entries, descend at most seven levels, and skip nested symlink trees. A limit notice suggests scanning a more specific folder. External drives and nonstandard Steam libraries can be scanned explicitly. Repeated scans preserve saved names, runtime selections, and arguments. Scanning adds metadata; it does not execute candidates or change their installation files.

This milestone covers directly launched Windows executables. It does not yet enumerate native Linux desktop games or route Steam-managed/DRM titles through steam -applaunch; those integrations need their own discovery and launch adapters. Manual import covers Windows games outside the scanned roots.

Launch behavior

Proton uses UMU, with the selected Proton installation and a per-game prefix under ~/.local/share/vessel/prefixes/game-<id>. Wine uses the chosen Wine executable and that same game’s prefix. Close the game before changing runners; runner switching can modify an existing prefix, and automatic prefix backups are not part of this milestone.

The executable’s parent is the working directory. Arguments are one per line and are passed as literal process arguments; a shell is not used. The app tracks the runtime process, prevents duplicate launches it knows are running, updates the running filter, and records exit status and last-played time. Games started externally are not attached to Vessel’s launch tracking.

Launch logs are under ~/.local/state/vessel/logs/library/game-<id>/. View launch log displays up to the last 64 KiB of the latest launch’s output; Proton’s separate detailed log is retained in that game’s log directory too. Closing Vessel does not terminate games. On reopening, Linux process start tokens identify a live tracked runtime; if it ended while the app was closed, the outcome is marked unknown rather than inventing a successful exit code.

SQLite schema v2 adds runtime/argument settings and launch history; v3 adds companion-app working folders and separate launch ownership while preserving existing game records. App data follows XDG directories. The local library can also be inspected with:

src-tauri/target/debug/vessel --list-games
src-tauri/target/debug/vessel --scan-games

Mines is the launch verification target. Skyrim can appear in the library without being launched; compatibility, mods, and trainers remain separate tests.