SaveVault Documentation

Welcome to the SaveVault docs. SaveVault automatically detects your installed games, backs up their saves into portable archives, and can protect them in real time while you play — on Windows, Linux (including SteamOS), and macOS. Nearly everything the desktop app does is also available from the command line.

Start here

Installation — get SaveVault running on your platform.
Your First Backup — scan, back up, and know where things went.

Guides

Backing Up — manual and scheduled backups, formats, retention, pins and labels, verification.
Restoring — same machine, new machine, other OS; previews and the automatic undo.
Exclusions & File Selection — keep noise out of backups and pick exactly what to restore.
Live Protection — rolling snapshots while you play, the checkpoint hotkey and controller chord.
Cloud Backup — mirror your backup folder to your own storage with rclone.
Multiple Devices — share one backup folder between a PC, a Steam Deck, and a Steam Frame safely.
Install Roots — tell SaveVault where non-Steam launchers install games.
Custom Games — add your own save paths, config paths, and registry keys.
Themes and Translations — make the app yours, and (in the Steam edition) share via Steam Workshop.
Steam Deck & Handhelds — the UI built to Valve’s Deck Verified checklist, and protection in Game Mode.
VaultBridge — bring GameSave Manager and Ludusavi backups into SaveVault, or take SaveVault archives back out, with the free companion app.

Reference

CLI Reference — every savevault-cli command, flag, and example.
Configuration — file locations, the full key catalog, logs, settings backup.
Launch Wrapper — protect any game from Steam, Heroic, Lutris, or Playnite.
Archive Format — what’s inside a backup and how to restore one by hand.

Help

Troubleshooting & FAQ — common questions, reporting a problem, logs, known issues.

What SaveVault does

Automatic game detection via the PCGamingWiki / Ludusavi database, plus custom games.
Live Protection — rolling snapshots while you play, with a checkpoint hotkey and controller chord.
Scheduled backups with change detection and retention, run by your OS scheduler.
Portable restore across machines and operating systems, with a safety backup before every restore.
Launch wrapper — pre-launch restore and cloud pull, post-exit backup and push, from any launcher.
Cloud backup to your own storage via rclone.
Integrity verification with BLAKE3 checksums.
A full CLI that shares config, database, and backup folder with the desktop app.