instant Cloud Game Saves

INFO

This tool is distro agnostic, you can take ins and the way it manages dotfiles anywhere you like. It even works on Android and Steam Deck!

Game save management you can trust.

Like git for game saves.

Feature highlights

• Never lose saves again
• Support for most cloud storage providers via rclone
• Deduplicated save history with rollback feature
• Smart multi-device features
• Support for emulators, wine and native games.

Quick start

TLDR;

ins game init # create a game save repo in the cloud
ins game add  # add a game to be synced
ins game sync # sync game saves with the cloud

# --- on other device

# after having set up the repo
ins game setup # set up an existing game on a new device

Installation

This requires the following to be installed

• ins (obviously)
• restic
• rclone
• fzf

Arch

yay -S ins restic rclone fzf

Cloud storage

Create an account at pcloud or any other cloud storage provider which supports rclone.

Initialization

ins game init

This will ask you to select a your cloud storage provider configured in rclone and will create a folder for your game saves.

Adding a game

ins game add

Comand reference

ins game --help

This has built in help for all commands and subcommands, often times, this is all you need.

ins game init

This allows selecting which location to back up your game saves to and configures all ins game commands to use that location.

# Interactive (prompts for repository path and password)
ins game init

# Non-interactive with local path
ins game init --repo "~/games/backups" --password "mypassword"

# Non-interactive with rclone remote (cloud storage)
ins game init --repo "rclone:pcloud:instant-games" --password "mypassword"

# Non-interactive with SFTP
ins game init --repo "sftp:user@example.com:/backup/games" --password "mypassword"

# Non-interactive with S3
ins game init --repo "s3:my-bucket/instant-games" --password "accesskey"

Repository path formats

The --repo argument accepts any restic backend:

• Local path: /path/to/repo or ~/games/repo
• Rclone remote: rclone:remote:name (uses rclone config)
• SFTP: sftp:user@host:/path
• S3: s3:bucketname/path
• B2: b2:bucketname/path
• Azure: azure:containername/path
• Other: See restic documentation for all supported backends

For cloud storage, set up rclone first with rclone config to add your cloud provider (pCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).

ins game add

Add a new game to be synced. This will ask you for a name and the location of the game save on your device. The game save can either be a file or a directory. When selecting a directory, all of its contents will be synced. Adding a new file in that directory will also make it part of your game save.

# Non-interactive mode
ins game add --name "MyGame" --save-path "~/.local/share/mygame/saves"
ins game add --name "MyGame" --save-path "~/save.dat" --description "RPG save file"

# With launch command
ins game add --name "SteamGame" \
    --save-path "~/.steam/steam/compatdata/123456/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/SavedGames" \
    --launch-command "steam -applaunch 123456" \
    --description "My Steam RPG"

# Create save path automatically
ins game add --name "NewGame" --save-path "~/games/newgame/saves" --create-save-path

ins game setup

Set up an existing game on a new device. This will let you select a game from your existing cloud saves and add it to your local device. It will suggest where to put the save files, but you can also select a different path. You can keep the same game in different directories on different devices and they will still maintain connection. Games are identified by their name only.

ins game sync [gamename]

Synchronize all your games with the cloud (or a specific game). This feature smartly adjusts its behavior. If a game has no new saves, and the cloud already contains the most recent save, then the game will be skipped. If a game has a new save which is not yet backed up into the cloud, then it will upload the new save. If the cloud has a newer save then your local save will be overwritten by the newer save.

# Sync all games
ins game sync

# Sync a specific game
ins game sync "MyGame"

# Force sync even if checkpoint matches
ins game sync --force

ins game backup [gamename]

Uploads a save snapshot for a game to the cloud. If no game is specified, prompts for selection.

ins game restore [gamename] [snapshot_id]

Restore game saves from a backup snapshot. Interactive selection if snapshot_id is omitted. Warns if local saves are newer than the backup.

ins game launch [gamename]

Launch a game with automatic save sync. Syncs before launching, runs the launch command, waits 5 seconds after exit, then syncs again. Requires a launch command to be configured.

# Set launch command when adding or via edit
ins game add --launch-command "steam -applaunch 123456"
ins game launch

ins game exec <command...>

Execute an arbitrary command with pre/post-sync when internet is available. Useful for Steam launch options:

# In Steam launch options:
ins game exec %command%

# Or with a wrapper:
ins game exec steam -applaunch 123456

ins game menu

Interactive TUI menu for managing games. Provides options to:

• Launch games
• Edit game configuration
• Move save locations
• Browse and restore checkpoints
• Set up uninstalled games

ins game menu              # Show all games
ins game menu "MyGame"      # Jump directly to game actions

ins game list

List all configured games with descriptions and launch commands.

ins game info [gamename]

Show detailed information about a game including:

• Save path with file count, size, and last modified time
• Dependencies and their installation status
• Launch command configuration

ins game move [gamename] [--game <name>] [--path <path>]

Update a game's save location to a new path in the configuration. This does not move files — you must manually move the saves first, then run this command to update installations.toml to point to the new location.

ins game remove [gamename] [--force]

Remove a game from tracking. Prompts for confirmation unless --force is specified.

ins game prune [gamename] [--zero-changes]

Remove old snapshots based on retention policy:

• Retention policy (default): Keeps last N, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly snapshots
• --zero-changes: Removes snapshots with no file changes (deduplicates "no change" backups)

Prunes a specific game or all games if none specified.

ins game restic <args...>

Run raw restic commands with the instant games repository configuration. Advanced usage for direct restic operations.

ins game restic snapshots
ins game restic forget --keep-last 5

ins game deps

Manage game dependencies — files or directories that are backed up and can be installed on other devices.

ins game deps add [gamename]

Add a dependency for a game. Snapshots the source file/directory into restic. Useful for:

• Game configuration files
• Mods or custom content
• Wine prefixes or registry files

ins game deps install [gamename]

Install a dependency onto this device. Restores from the backed-up snapshot.

ins game deps uninstall [gamename]

Remove a dependency installation record from this device.

ins game deps list [gamename]

List all dependencies for a game with their installation status.

Configuration

ins game has two main configuration files.

• ~/.config/instant/games/games.toml
• ~/.config/instant/games/installations.toml

games.toml

This contains a list of all games and their names and other metadata. This can be synchronized between different machines using tools like ins dot, yadm, chezmoi, git or anything else you like. This file is intended to be identical across all your machines.

installations.toml

This contains information about how games are set up on your specific device. It should not be synchronized across your devices, as the information here is device specific. It contains the path where a game save is located, or how to launch a game on the specific machine it is on.

It can be used to make machine specific overrides for your games. As an example, a game might have a different launch depending on your hardware or operating system or keep its save files in a different location.

How does this work

Your game saves are kept in a restic repository whic in turns uses rclone to store its repo in the cloud. This means they are deduplicated, their integrity can be verified, and their history is kept.