shimeji-dl

An asynchronous downloader that turns remote Shimeji sources into packages ready for Shimeji-ee, VShimeji, and compatible alternatives.

Features

• Multiple sources and exact package inventories.
• XML and adaptive asset discovery.
• Sprite-atlas, image, and audio handling.
• Native layout and persistent local reuse.
• Concurrent downloads and compact reporting.

Install / run with uv

From a checkout:

uv run shimeji-dl https://shimejis.xyz/directory/undertale-shimeji-pack

Once published as a package:

uvx shimeji-dl https://shimejis.xyz/directory/undertale-shimeji-pack

A character URL or slug is also accepted:

uv run shimeji-dl https://shimejis.xyz/directory/shimeji/undertale-nightmare-sans-by-niuniu-nuko
uv run shimeji-dl undertale-nightmare-sans-by-niuniu-nuko

By default, output is written using the native layout shared by Shimeji-ee, VShimeji, and compatible alternatives:

shimeji-downloads/
└── img/
    └── <character>/
        ├── shime*.png
        ├── sound/
        │   └── ...
        ├── conf/
        │   ├── actions.xml
        │   ├── behaviors.xml
        │   └── info.xml
        └── metadata.json

info.xml and sound/ are created only when those resources are available or referenced.
Point --output at the installation root of Shimeji-ee, VShimeji, or a compatible alternative to install downloaded image sets directly under its img/ directory.
If the supplied output directory is itself named img, it is used directly instead of creating img/img.

Existing downloads

Existing valid configuration files, images, and referenced sounds are reused by default.
Re-running the same command therefore does not download files that are already present and valid.

Use --overwrite to explicitly refresh and replace existing valid files:

uv run shimeji-dl https://shimejis.xyz/directory/undertale-shimeji-pack --overwrite

An internal retry never overwrites successful files from the preceding attempt.
It retries only failed characters and reuses everything that was already downloaded successfully.

Retry and confirmations

When one or more characters fail, an interactive terminal offers to retry only those failed characters once.

Use --retry to perform that retry automatically:

uv run shimeji-dl https://shimejis.xyz/directory/undertale-shimeji-pack --retry

--yes / -y answers yes to all confirmation prompts, including the retry prompt and potentially expensive target validations:

uv run shimeji-dl https://shimejis.xyz --yes

Downloading the entire shimejis.xyz directory requires confirmation unless --yes is supplied.

Archiving

Archiving zips what was downloaded, inside the download folder.
Each target gets its own archive, named after that target: a pack gives undertale-shimeji-pack.zip, a character gives <character>.zip, the whole site gives shimejis.xyz.zip.

It happens either at the end of a download, with --archive, or later from what is already on disk, with the archive command, which never goes online.
With no target, the archive command zips everything.

An existing archive is replaced only after confirmation, or automatically with the blanket acceptance option, -y/--yes.

Target	What is archived
A character name or link	That character
A pack link, or its name ending with -shimeji-pack	That pack
The pack's display name, exactly as shown on the site (for example Undertale)	That pack
The site	Everything from that site
Nothing (archive command only)	Everything in the output folder

uv run shimeji-dl https://shimejis.xyz/directory/undertale-shimeji-pack --archive

uv run shimeji-dl archive
uv run shimeji-dl archive undertale-shimeji-pack

Every archive is rooted at img/, so extracting it directly at a Shimeji-ee, VShimeji, or compatible installation root reproduces the native layout.

download stays the implicit default command, so an existing invocation keeps working unnamed.
A target named exactly download or archive needs the explicit form to reach a character or collection sharing that name.

archive option	Description
-o, --output PATH	Set the Shimeji installation or download root to archive from.
-y, --yes	Accept confirmation prompts automatically.
-v, --verbose	Show matched-character details when resolving a collection.
-q, --quiet	Suppress progress output.

Architecture

The project deliberately separates reusable mechanics from source-specific behavior:

Path	Description
src/shimeji_dl/archive/	Local-only archiving: resolver, naming, the shared archiver
src/shimeji_dl/core/	Generic HTTP, models, engine, storage and adaptive probing
src/shimeji_dl/formats/	Shimeji configuration formats
src/shimeji_dl/formats/shimeji_xml.py	lxml-backed XML implementation
src/shimeji_dl/sources/	Remote source adapters and their network-free target vocabularies
src/shimeji_dl/sources/shimejis_xyz/	shimejis.xyz extraction, URL layout and target vocabulary
src/shimeji_dl/ui/	Presentation implementations
src/shimeji_dl/ui/rich.py	Rich progress/reporting and confirmations
src/shimeji_dl/cli/	Typer CLI composition root: group class, download, archive
src/shimeji_dl/version.py	Reads installed metadata; pyproject.toml is the SSOT

The generic downloader only talks to protocols (SourceAdapter, optional ManifestSourceAdapter, ConfigFormat, and Reporter).

Adding another site does not require modifying the probing engine or download core.
A source can optionally expose an authoritative manifest and sprite atlas without making that capability mandatory for other adapters.

How assets are found

1. Read the Source Manifest When Available
   Use the exact configuration, metadata, and asset inventory whenever the source provides a manifest.
2. Extract Sprite Atlases
   Split source-provided sprite atlases into the individual PNG files expected by Shimeji-ee, VShimeji, and compatible alternatives.
3. Look for Standard Configuration Files
   Fetch actions.xml, behaviors.xml, and optional info.xml directly when the manifest does not supply them.
4. Follow Configuration References
   Find the images, preview images, splash images, and sounds named by the configuration.
5. Download Remaining Files
   Download referenced resources not supplied by the sprite atlas, placing sounds under the character's sound/ directory.
6. Report Missing Source Files
   Distinguish assets absent from the published package from temporary download failures.
7. Fall Back to Adaptive Discovery
   Use adaptive numeric discovery when a manifest is unavailable or cannot be loaded.
   Explicit --probe deep also searches beyond the published inventory.
8. Continue Around Successful Ranges
   Search around discovered image numbers and across occasional gaps without imposing a fixed upper limit.
9. Download Only Referenced Sounds
   Download sounds only when configuration references them; audio filenames are never numerically probed.
10. Honor Strict Mode
    Source omissions still make a package incomplete under --strict, but they are not retried indefinitely.

--probe auto is the default.
--probe deep widens sparse-tail exploration.
--probe off disables numeric probing entirely.

shimejis.xyz support

• Accepts slugs, character URLs, pack URLs, and directory targets.
• Reads /api/shimeji/<slug>/configuration for the exact package inventory.
• Uses published configuration, metadata, sprite maps, and spritesheets.
• Falls back to the legacy sprite CDN layout.
• Identifies assets omitted from the public source package.

Dependencies

Each runtime dependency replaces a concrete piece of infrastructure rather than duplicating it locally:

• httpx - Async HTTP transport and connection pooling.
• tenacity - Retry policy and exponential backoff.
• lxml - HTML/XML parsing and XPath.
• Pillow - Safe extraction of individual PNG files from source-provided sprite atlases.
• rich - Concurrent terminal progress, wrapping output and interactive confirmations.
• typer - CLI declaration, validation, help and option parsing.
• pathvalidate - Cross-platform validation of a downloaded asset's path.
• msgspec - Bounded, per-field validation of a source's manifest payload.

Useful options

download is the default command, so it never has to be named explicitly.

download option	Description
-o, --output PATH	Set the Shimeji installation or download root.
-j, --jobs INTEGER	Set concurrent character downloads, defaulting to 5.
--connections INTEGER	Set concurrent HTTP connections, defaulting to 20.
--timeout FLOAT	Set the HTTP timeout in seconds, defaulting to 20.
--retries INTEGER	Set HTTP retry attempts, defaulting to 3.
--probe auto|off|deep	Select the adaptive asset discovery mode.
--overwrite	Replace existing valid files.
--retry	Retry failed characters automatically.
-y, --yes	Accept confirmation prompts automatically.
--strict	Fail when a character or referenced asset is incomplete.
--metadata / --no-metadata	Enable or disable metadata.json.
--archive	Archive each target into the output root after downloading.
-v, --verbose	Show detailed discovery and URL diagnostics.
-q, --quiet	Suppress progress output.

--version is a top-level option, given before any command:

uv run shimeji-dl --version

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.

LLM Notice

Large language models, including Codex and Claude Code, were used in the development of this project.