gog-cli

gog is a Python CLI for backing up a user's owned DRM-free GOG game library.

It is focused on safe, scriptable workflows:

• list owned games with filtering and fuzzy search
• plan and execute backups to a local directory
• preserve metadata needed to audit and restore backups
• download installers and related files with resumable behavior
• verify downloaded files when checksums are available

It's also comfortable as a quick, interactive tool:

gog list                    # your purchased library
gog list civilization       # fuzzy title search
gog search "baldurs gate"   # public catalog, with an "owned" column
gog dl "civilization iv"    # download by name or id in the current directory
gog dl 1760534591 --win     # unambiguous by id, Windows files only
gog help dl                 # contextual help for any command

Install

Requires Python 3.12 or newer.

pip install gog-cli

To install the latest development version directly from GitHub:

pip install git+https://github.com/aleksandarristic/gog-cli.git

Development

python3 -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest

Run the CLI locally:

gog --help
gog list
gog plan --all --summary
gog dl --games-from games.txt --dry-run

Roadmap

See docs/TODO.md for planned features and improvements.

Reference

• CLI Reference
• Config Reference

Basic Workflow

gog auth login
gog refresh
gog list
gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all --storage --check-free-space
gog backup --destination /path/to/backups --all --yes
gog list --backup --destination /path/to/backups
gog sync --destination /path/to/backups --all --yes

gog refresh updates the local purchased-library and download-metadata caches. It does not download game installers. Run it before browsing or filtering newly added library metadata.

--destination is optional everywhere above — it defaults to the current directory, so cd into a backup folder and drop it from every command.

Browsing Purchased Games

gog list reads the local cache written by gog refresh; it does not contact GOG. Human output includes ID, title, release year, genre/category, and platforms when those fields are available. JSON output also includes scriptable metadata such as owned, release_date, genres, and is_installable.

gog list alone lists everything; gog list TEXT fuzzy-searches by title. Neither purchased nor backup is a reserved word — a game actually titled either one is never shadowed. gog list --backup/--back lists games recorded in a backup manifest instead.

Examples:

gog list
gog list --format json
gog list witcher
gog list "baldurs gate"
gog list --platform windows
gog list ftl --platform linux
gog list --year 1998..2005
gog list --year 2010..2020 --include-unknown-year
gog list --genre strategy
gog list --genre arcade,rts
gog list --genre strategy --include-unknown-genre
gog list "baldurs gate" --platform linux --format json

Use gog search TEXT to search the public GOG catalog instead of your local library — results include an owned column/field so you can see at a glance whether you already have a game.

Year filters omit games with unknown years by default; use --include-unknown-year to keep them. Genre filters similarly omit unknown genres by default; use --include-unknown-genre to keep those rows.

Planning Backups

gog plan shows the same dry-run plan as gog backup --dry-run without downloading files or creating backup directories. Use it before long backup runs to estimate size, inspect filters, and check destination free space.

Examples:

gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all
gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all --summary
gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all --storage
gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all --check-free-space
gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all --format json
gog plan --destination /path/to/backups cyberpunk_2077

Platform and language filters can reduce backup size:

gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all --platform linux --storage
gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --all --platform windows --language en --storage

Selecting Games

The simplest way to select a game is a bare positional argument — a product ID, slug, or title. Titles don't need to be exact: if there's no exact id/slug/title match, the selector falls back to fuzzy title matching.

gog dl "civilization iv"          # fuzzy title match
gog dl 1760534591                 # exact id, never ambiguous
gog backup witcher_3 --yes

If a fuzzy selector matches more than one game, gog prompts you to pick one at an interactive terminal, or exits with an error listing the candidates otherwise (scripts, --no-interactive, or CI). Use an exact id or slug to sidestep ambiguity entirely.

--game/-g behaves the same but only ever matches exactly (product id, slug, or exact title) — no fuzzy fallback — which is what you want for scripts and games.txt files where the match must be deterministic. It's repeatable:

gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --game witcher_3 --game cyberpunk_2077
gog backup --destination /path/to/backups --game 123456789 --yes

Platform and role filters have shortcut flags on top of the general --platform/--role options:

gog dl "civilization iv" --win              # shortcut for --platform windows
gog dl "baldurs gate 3" --mac --lin         # --mac / --lin (or --linux)
gog dl "civilization iv" --extras           # shortcut for --role extra

For larger curated lists, put selectors in a UTF-8 text file and pass --games-from. Blank lines and lines whose first non-whitespace character is # are ignored.

Example games.txt:

# first NAS batch
witcher_3
cyberpunk_2077
123456789

Use the selector file in plan, backup, or sync workflows:

gog plan --destination /path/to/backups --games-from games.txt --storage
gog backup --destination /path/to/backups --games-from games.txt --downloader aria2c --yes
gog sync --destination /path/to/backups --games-from games.txt --dry-run

--games-from is repeatable and combines with repeated --game flags. Do not combine explicit game selectors with --all.

Downloading

gog backup/gog download/gog dl are the same command. If aria2c is installed and on PATH, it's used automatically; otherwise the built-in direct downloader is used. Pass --downloader explicitly to override either way:

gog dl --games-from games.txt --yes                    # aria2c if present, else direct
gog dl --games-from games.txt --downloader direct --yes # force the built-in downloader

When file size metadata is available, gog chooses aria2c connection settings by size: very small files use one connection, mid-size files use two or four, and multi-GB installers use eight or sixteen. Configure aria2c_policy = "conservative" or aria2c_policy = "aggressive" to tune this behavior.

Without --yes, backup and sync commands print a dry-run plan and exit without downloading or modifying backup files.