A visual manager for Steam Proton/Wine prefixes on Linux.

Steam names your prefix folders after AppIDs — so instead of "Starfield" you get "1091500". PrefixHQ turns that pile of numbers into a proper library with cover art, game names, and a clear indication of which prefixes are still attached to an installed game and which are just taking up space

• Visual library — cover art fetched from Steam and cached locally, so subsequent launches are instant

• Multi-library support — parses libraryfolders.vdf to find all your Steam libraries automatically, including secondary drives and external SSDs. Cross-library matching works even when game files and prefix live in different locations

• Orphan detection — green means the game is installed, red means the prefix is stale and can be cleaned up

• Works with native Steam, Flatpak, and Snap out of the box

• Safe deletion — confirmation dialogs before anything gets removed. Deleting a prefix is permanent (saves, configs, mods — all gone), so PrefixHQ makes sure you mean it

• Right-click menu to copy the prefix ID, load custom cover art (from file, URL, or SteamGridDB), or manually override the install status

• Linux
• Python 3.8+ (If you run directly the .py file)
• PyQt6 >= 6.4.0, requests >= 2.28.0, Markdown>=3.3.0

Binary (recommended): grab the latest release from the Releases page

From source:

git clone https://github.com/Nastas95/PrefixHQ
cd PrefixHQ
pip install -r requirements.txt
python PrefixHQ.py

On launch, PrefixHQ scans your Steam installations and reads libraryfolders.vdf to find every library. It then looks through steamapps/compatdata/ and matches each AppID folder to a game name — first via local .acf manifest files, then via the Steam API as a fallback

The result is a card grid where each prefix shows the game name, cover art, and whether the game is currently installed

Everything lives in ~/.config/PrefixHQ/:

• prefix_db.json — custom names, manual status overrides, API cache
• cache/ — downloaded cover art

Warning: deleting a prefix removes everything inside that Proton container — saves, configs, mods. Make sure it's actually orphaned before you delete it. When in doubt, back it up first

Bug reports and feature requests go in Issues

Developed with ❤️ and a little AI assistance for the Steam Deck and PC gaming community

GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE