Steam

Macro Deck finds the Steam installation on your computer and starts games through it. With an optional Steam Web API key it can also show your online status, your friends and your library with its playtime, for as many Steam accounts as you like.

Turning it on

The Steam integration is off until you turn it on, because it only does something on a computer that has Steam installed. Open Integrations, choose Steam and turn it on.

Actions and widgets work right away for everything on this computer: the games you have installed, the game you are playing and starting games. The variables come with a configuration, which needs a name and nothing else. A SteamID and a key are only needed for the information that only Steam’s servers have.

Setting it up (optional)

Choose Steam under Integrations and add a configuration. Each configuration is one Steam account, and you can add as many as you like, for example your own and one of a friend or family member who gave you their key:

• Configuration name: how the account is called in the widget settings and in its variable names, for example Main.
• Web API key: a key from Steam that lets Macro Deck ask Steam about your profile. Open the Steam Web API key page, sign in, and register a key. The page asks for a domain name; any value works. Steam does not give keys to limited accounts, which are accounts that never spent money on Steam. The key is stored encrypted on this computer and only used to ask Steam about your profile.
• SteamID: your 17-digit SteamID64, the link to your Steam profile, or your custom profile name.

Enter the SteamID and the key together, or neither; without them the configuration only covers this computer. Macro Deck checks both with Steam before it saves them and tells you when the profile is unknown, the key is rejected or Steam cannot be reached.

Under Advanced you can add Additional library folders: game libraries on this computer that Macro Deck does not find by itself. Add them one by one and pick each with the folder dialog. Steam’s own library folders on other drives are found automatically. The folders count for the whole computer, whichever configuration they are in.

If something is wrong with an account, the integration shows a notice, for example when Steam rejected the key or when it does not hand out the friends or the games of an account because they are private. To show the friends of an account, open Steam, choose Edit Profile, then Privacy Settings, and set Friends List to Public. For owned games and playtime, set Game details to Public as well.

What needs what

	Works without a key	Needs the key
Installed games, starting games, opening Steam, store and library pages	Yes
The game you are playing on this computer and for how long, closing it (Windows)	Yes
A game you are playing on another computer or device		Yes
Friends online and in a game, the friends widget and the friend events		Yes, and a public friends list
Your online status and its event		Yes
Owned games, total playtime and playtime of the last two weeks		Yes, and public game details

If your Steam profile or friends list is private, Steam does not give out the friends list. If your game details are private, Steam does not give out your owned games and playtime. Macro Deck then treats those variables as unavailable and does not show wrong numbers.

Actions

Action	What it does
Launch Steam game	Starts a game. Pick one of your installed games or type a Steam app ID
Launch Steam	Opens the Steam client
Open Steam store page	Opens a game’s store page in Steam
Open Steam library page	Opens a game’s page in your Steam library
Close Steam game	Closes the Steam game that is running on this computer

A game is started through Steam itself, the same as double-clicking it in your library, so Steam may first ask you to sign in or update the game. Starting a game does not need the key.

Close Steam game asks the game that runs on this computer to close, the same as closing its window, and waits up to 10 seconds. A game that does not close by then, or has no window to close, keeps running, unless you turn on Force quit: then Macro Deck ends it. Force quit can lose progress the game has not saved yet. Closing a game works on Windows only: on Linux and macOS a game cannot be asked to close the way its window would be, so the action says it is not supported there. The action only closes a game running on this computer, never one an account plays elsewhere.

Widgets

The Steam widgets have a dark face in Steam’s colors unless you pick a background color or a transparent background in their settings.

Steam currently playing

Shows the game you are playing with its cover, its name and how long you have been playing it. A widget one cell wide shows the cover across the whole widget, a wider one shows the cover next to the name. When you are not playing, it says so. When Steam is not found on this computer it says that instead. In its settings:

• Account: leave it on This computer to show the game that is running here. Pick an account to show the game that account is playing, wherever it plays it. This needs the Web API key of that account.
• Show session time turns the time off.

Steam game launcher

Starts a game with one tap. Choose in its settings:

• Games: Recently played shows the games you played most recently, Favorites shows the games you pick under Favorite games, in the order you put them, and One game always shows the game you pick.
• Number of games: how many recently played games to show, from 1 to 6.

A widget one cell wide shows one game. A wider or taller widget shows up to three, and a widget at least two cells wide and two tall shows up to six.

Covers come from Steam’s own servers. A game without a cover shows its name instead.

Steam friends

Shows how many of your friends are online and how many of them are playing. A larger widget also lists the friends who are online, with their profile picture and the game they play or their status: two in a widget two cells wide, four in one two cells tall, and five in one two cells wide and two tall. Friends who are playing come first. In its settings, pick the Account whose friends to show; left empty, it uses the first account with a Web API key. The widget needs a key and a public friends list.

Steam library

Shows the hours you have played in total and how many games you own. A larger widget also shows the hours of the last two weeks and the games you played last, with how long you played them. In its settings, pick the Account whose library to show; left empty, it uses the first account with a Web API key. Without any key, it shows the games installed on this computer and the ones you played here last. Steam does not give out achievements this way, so the widget does not show them.

Events

The Steam events start automations. In each one you can pick the account it is about; leave it empty to react to every account.

Event	When it happens	What it carries
Game started	A game starts on this computer, or with a key, a game an account plays on another device	Account, game ID, game name
Game closed	Such a game ends	Account, game ID, game name, how long it ran in seconds
Friend came online	A friend goes from offline to online	Account, friend, friend name, game ID, game name
Friend went offline	A friend goes offline	Account, friend, friend name
Friend started a game	A friend starts playing a game, or switches to another game	Account, friend, friend name, game ID, game name
Online status changed	Your own Steam status changes, for example from Online to Away	Account, status, previous status

For a game on this computer, the account is This computer. A game an account plays on this computer is reported as this computer’s, and not again for the account. Only when Steam’s servers report the game before this computer notices it, which can happen on macOS, is it reported for the account as well. Games, friends and statuses that are already there when Macro Deck starts are not reported, and neither is anything that changes while Steam cannot be reached: the events start again from what Steam reports once it is back. The friend events and the status event need the key. Friends are checked once a minute and your status every 30 seconds, so these events can arrive up to that much later. A status is one of online, busy, away, snooze, trade, play or offline.

Variables

Every configuration has its own set of variables, named after its configuration name, for example steam_main_is_playing for a configuration called Main. There are no variables without a configuration, so add one to get them; it needs no SteamID or key. Renaming the configuration later keeps the names, so your buttons and scripts keep working. The Variables page shows the exact names.

Variable	Contains	When nothing is played
steam_<name>_is_playing	Whether you are playing a game	false
steam_<name>_current_game_name	The name of the game	empty
steam_<name>_current_game_id	The Steam app ID of the game	0
steam_<name>_current_game_playtime_seconds	How long this game has been running, in seconds	0
steam_<name>_games_installed	The number of installed games	unavailable when Steam is not found
steam_<name>_friends_online	How many friends of that account are online	unavailable without a key or with a private friends list
steam_<name>_friends_ingame	How many friends of that account are playing a game	unavailable without a key or with a private friends list
steam_<name>_games_owned	How many games that account owns	unavailable without a key or with private game details
steam_<name>_total_playtime_hours	The hours that account has played in total	unavailable without a key or with private game details
steam_<name>_recent_playtime_hours	The hours that account played in the last two weeks	unavailable without a key or with private game details

The game is the one running on this computer, for every configuration alike, because Macro Deck cannot tell which Steam account is signed in here. So add configurations for accounts you play with on this computer. When nothing runs here and the configuration has a key, it is the game that account plays on any other device. The installed games are the same for every configuration, because they belong to this computer.

A configuration’s friends variables are unavailable while Steam rejects its key or cannot be reached, and also while its friends list is private.

The session time starts when Macro Deck first notices the game, not when Steam started it. A game that was already running when Macro Deck started begins at zero then. A friend counts as online when they are anything but offline.

How Macro Deck finds things

• The Steam installation is found in the usual places on Windows, macOS and Linux, including the Flatpak and Snap versions of Steam. It is looked for again once a minute while Steam is not found.
• Installed games are read from Steam’s own library files, on every drive Steam uses. A drive that is not connected is skipped. Steam’s tools and compatibility layers are not listed as games.
• The running game is read from Steam on this computer every few seconds. On macOS and Linux, Macro Deck relies on a file Steam keeps up to date while it runs; this has not been tested on macOS, so the game may be noticed late or not at all there.
• The status and friends of your accounts are asked from Steam every 30 and 60 seconds, and the owned games and playtime every 10 minutes. Every widget, variable and event uses the same answers.
• The game to close is found from the folder Steam installed it in.

Privacy

Macro Deck contacts Steam only for the things above: with a key, api.steampowered.com for the status, the friends and the owned games and playtime of that account, cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com for game covers, and avatars.fastly.steamstatic.com or another of Steam’s avatar servers for the profile pictures of the friends a widget shows. Without a key it only asks for covers when a widget shows them.