KeyValues is a simple key-value pair format used by Valve in Steam and the Source engine for configuration files, game data, and more (.vdf, .res, .acf, etc.). This library aims to be fully compatible with Valve's various implementations of KeyValues format parsing (believe us, it's not consistent).

KeyValues1

Used by Steam and the Source engine.

Deserializing text

Basic deserialization

var stream = File.OpenRead("file.vdf"); // or any other Stream

var kv = KVSerializer.Create(KVSerializationFormat.KeyValues1Text);
KVObject data = kv.Deserialize(stream);

Console.WriteLine(data["some key"]);

Typed deserialization

public class SimpleObject
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Value { get; set; }
}

var stream = File.OpenRead("file.vdf"); // or any other Stream

var kv = KVSerializer.Create(KVSerializationFormat.KeyValues1Text);
KVObject data = kv.Deserialize<SimpleObject>(stream);

Options

The Deserialize method also accepts a KVSerializerOptions object.

By default, operating system specific conditionals are enabled based on the OS the code is running on (RuntimeInformation).

KVSerializerOptions has the following options:

• Conditions - List of conditions to use to match conditional values.
• HasEscapeSequences - Whether the parser should translate escape sequences (e.g. \n, \t).
• EnableValveNullByteBugBehavior - Whether invalid escape sequences should truncate strings rather than throwing an InvalidDataException.
• FileLoader - Provider for referenced files with #include or #base directives.

var options = new KVSerializerOptions
{
    HasEscapeSequences = true,
};
options.Conditions.Clear(); // Remove default conditionals set by the library
options.Conditions.Add("X360WIDE");

var stream = File.OpenRead("file.vdf");

var kv = KVSerializer.Create(KVSerializationFormat.KeyValues1Text);
var data = kv.Deserialize(stream, options);

Deserializing binary

Essentially the same as text, just change KeyValues1Text to KeyValues1Binary.

Serializing to text

class DataObject
{
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public string Developer { get; set; }

    [KVProperty("description")]
    public string Summary { get; set; }

    [KVIgnore]
    public string ExtraData { get; set; }
}

var data = new DataObject
{
    Developer = "Valve Software",
    Name = "Dota 2",
    Summary = "Dota 2 is a complex game.",
    ExtraData = "This will not be serialized."
};

using var stream = File.OpenWrite("file.vdf");

var kv = KVSerializer.Create(KVSerializationFormat.KeyValues1Text);
kv.Serialize(stream, data, "root object name");

Serializing to binary

Essentially the same as text, just change KeyValues1Text to KeyValues1Binary.

KeyValues2 (Datamodel)

This library does not currently support KeyValues2 (Datamodel). If you need KV2/Datamodel support, use our fork of Datamodel.NET instead.

KeyValues3

This library does not currently support KeyValues3. There is an open pull request for KV3 support.

If you need KV3 support, use ValveResourceFormat which supports parsing Source 2 formats including KV3.