Skill

steam-web

Look up Steam players, games, achievements, friends, and stats from the command line

Verified: 2026-05-13 (printing-press-ingest-2026-05-13+enrich-capability-skill)

When to use steam-web

Choose if

You're inside an agent loop building gaming dashboards, achievement hunters, friend-comparison tools, or library-audit workflows against Steam from a free, rate-limit-aware CLI with local SQLite for offline pivots. Pick this over hand-rolling Steam Web requests when you want auto-backoff on eresult 25/84 and typed exit codes.

Avoid if

You need to launch games, modify Steam library state, or interact with Steam community features beyond read access — the CLI is read-only across the Web API. Also avoid for users with private Steam profiles (queries return empty payloads silently) or for endpoints that need Steamworks SDK access (which the Web API doesn't cover).

Risk Flags

  • MEDIUM rate_limit Post-2025 Steam Web budget is ~25 req/sec; the CLI is rate-limit aware and backs off on HTTP 429 with eresult codes 25 or 84. Agents bypassing the CLI must implement their own backoff.
  • MEDIUM data_quality Private Steam profiles return HTTP 200 + empty payload instead of a clear error — agents must distinguish "user has no data" from "profile is private." Regional/hardware appids return null from store endpoints. New game stats populate hours-to-days after purchase.
  • LOW scope Read-only across the Steam Web API. Vanity URL resolution only works for custom URLs, not numeric profile IDs.
  • LOW auth Some endpoints require a Steam API key (issued free); others are keyless. The CLI auto-routes but agents need the key for friends-list and full inventory endpoints.

Cost

Type: Free · Free tier: The CLI binary is free to install. Steam Web API is free with a key issued at steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey; some endpoints require no auth at all.

Install

Default

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press install steam-web
# Optional but recommended: free Steam Web API key
# Get one at https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey
export STEAM_API_KEY=<your-key>

Setup docs →

Estimated time to first success: ~5 min

Dependencies

Minimum runtime: Node.js (npx) or Go 1.26.3+; Claude Desktop 1.0.0+ for MCPB bundle; local SQLite for offline search/sync

Distribution

Repository
https://github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library
License
MIT