Decky Loader - A plugin loader for the Steam Deck

by React

Decky Loader

? About

Decky Loader is a homebrew plugin launcher for the Steam Deck. It can be used to stylize your menus, change system sounds, adjust your screen saturation, change additional system settings, and more.

For more information about Decky Loader as well as documentation and development tools, please visit our wiki.

? Features

? Clean injecting and loading of multiple plugins. ? Stays installed between system updates and reboots. ? Allows two-way communication between plugins and the loader. ? Supports Python functions run from TypeScript React. ? Allows plugins to make fetch calls that bypass CORS completely.

? Common Issues

  • Crankshaft is incompatible with Decky Loader. If you are using Crankshaft, please uninstall it before installing Decky Loader.
  • Syncthing may use port 8080 on Steam Deck, which Decky Loader needs to function. If you are using Syncthing as a service, please change its port to something else.
  • If you are using any software that uses port 1337, please change its port to something else or uninstall it.

? Installation

  1. Press the button and open the Settings menu.
  2. Navigate to the System menu and scroll to the System Settings. Toggle “Enable Developer Mode” so it is enabled.
  3. Navigate to the Developer menu and scroll to Miscellaneous. Toggle “CEF Remote Debugging” so it is enabled.
  4. Select “Restart Now” to apply your changes.
  5. Prepare a mouse and keyboard if possible.
    • Keyboards and mice can be connected to the Steam Deck via USB-C or Bluetooth.
    • Many Bluetooth keyboard and mouse apps are available for iOS and Android.
    • The Steam Link app is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It works well as a remote desktop substitute.
    • If you have no other options, use the right trackpad as a mouse and press + to open the on-screen keyboard as needed.
  6. Press the button and open the Power menu.
  7. Select “Switch to Desktop”.
  8. Open the Konsole app and enter the command passwd. You can skip this step if you have already created a sudo password using this command. (YouTube Guide)
  9. You will be prompted to create a password. Your text will not be visible. After you press enter, you will need to type your password again to confirm.
  10. Choose the version of Decky Loader you want to install and paste the following command into the Konsole app.
    • Latest Release Intended for most users. This is the latest stable version of Decky Loader. curl -L https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader/raw/main/dist/install_release.sh | sh
    • Latest Pre-Release Intended for plugin developers. Pre-releases are unlikely to be fully stable but contain the latest changes. For more information on plugin development, please consult the wiki page. curl -L https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader/raw/main/dist/install_prerelease.sh | sh
  11. Open the Return to Gaming Mode shortcut on your desktop.

? Uninstallation

We are sorry to see you go! If you are considering uninstalling because you are having issues, please consider opening an issue or joining our Discord so we can help you and other users.

  1. Press the button and open the Power menu.
  2. Select “Switch to Desktop”.
  3. Open the Konsole app and run curl -L https://github.com/SteamDeckHomebrew/decky-loader/raw/main/dist/uninstall.sh | sh.

? Getting Started

Now that you have Decky Loader installed, you can start using plugins. Each plugin is maintained by a different developer and has its own uses, but most follow a general structure outlined below.

? Plugins

  1. Press the button and navigate to the icon. This is the Decky menu used for interacting with plugins and the loader itself.
  2. Select the icon to open the Plugins Browser. This is where you can find and install plugins.
    • You can also install from URL in the Settings menu. We do not recommend installing plugins from untrusted sources.
  3. To install a plugin, select the “Install” button on the plugin you want. You can also select a version from a dropdown menu, but this is not recommended.
  4. To update, uninstall, and reload plugins, navigate to the Decky menu and select the icon.
    • Keep in mind that uninstalling a plugin will only remove its plugin files, not any other files it may have created.

?️ Plugin Development

There is no complete plugin development documentation yet. However a good starting point is the plugin template repository. Consider joining our Discord if you have any questions.

? Contributing

Please consult the wiki page regarding development for more information on installing development versions of Decky Loader. You can also install the Steam Deck UI on a Windows or Linux computer for testing by following this YouTube guide.

  1. Clone the repository using the latest commit to main before starting your PR.
  2. In your clone of the repository, run these commands. 

    pnpm i
pnpm run build
  3. If you are modifying the UI, these commands will need to be run before deploying the changes to your Steam Deck.
  4. Use the VS Code tasks or deck.sh script to deploy your changes to your Steam Deck to test them.
  5. You will be testing your changes with the Python script version. You will need to build, deploy, and reload each time.

⚠️ If you are recieving build errors due to an out of date library, you should run this command inside of your repository.

pnpm update decky-frontend-lib --latest

Source control and deploying plugins are left to each respective contributor for the cloned repos in order to keep dependencies up to date.

? Credits

The original idea for the plugin loader concept is based on the work of marios8543’s Steam Deck UI Inject project.

GitHub

View Github