steamwatch

This is a small command line app to the development of prices and other properties on the Steam store.

It is inspired by (but not related to) SteamDB.

You install steamwatch locally and run it periodically to collect data on selected games available on steam. The app uses an undocumented API that is also used by the Steam desktop client. No account required, all data is stored locally.

Installation

With pip

$ pip install steamwatch

After installation, you will probably want to create a cron job to update regularly:

12 * * * * steamwatch fetch

Of course, any other way to periodically execute steamwatch fetch will work.

Usage

Start watching a game

$ steamwatch watch 12345

Where "12345" is the appid for that game. You can find the appid for a game through its URL on the store page:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/316750/
                                  ^^^^^^
                                  appid

To stop watching a game:

$ steamwatch unwatch 12345

To view all the games that you are watching:

$ steamwatch ls

To view recorded changes for all (or some) watched games:

$ steamwatch report
$ steamwatch report --games 12345 442211

To see recent changes across all watched titles:

$ steamwatch recent

Configuration

Configuration files are:

global:

/etc/steamwatch.conf

user:

~/.config/steamwatch/steamwatch.conf

You can set the following options, the example shows the default settings:

[steamwatch]
# sqlite database with local data
db_path = ~/.local/share/steamwatch.db

# country code for which to fetch prices
country_code = us

# how many entries per game in `steamwatch report`
report_limit = 5

# output format for `steamwatch report` (built in: tree, tab)
report_format = tab

# output format for `steamwatch ls` (built in: tree, tab)
list_format = tree

# how many entries to show in `steamwatch recent`
recent_limit = 5

# output format for `steamwatch recent` (built in: tree, tab)
recent_format = tree

Steam Store Structure

Steam structures its store into Apps and Packages. An App is what you would usually understand to be the "game", e.g. "Civilization V". A Package is what you actually buy when you purchase a game. Every title will have some kind of default package that includes just the game. Other packages may include additional content or special editions of the game.

Each package has its own price and this, Packages are the entities that are tracked with steamwatch.

When you watch a game, all of it's packages are added to the watchlist and the ls, report and recent commands all list packages (sometimes grouped by game).