Discovering saves

discover is the one part of a layout you always have to write. Given a game’s resolved save folder, it answers a single question: what are the individual saves in here? Everything else has a sensible default.

One save

Use these when the folder holds exactly one save.

• discover: singleton — the whole save root is the one save. Use it for a single save file, or a folder you treat as one unit.
• discover: {file: "profile.sav"} — one named file directly under the root.
• discover: {dir: "SaveData"} — one named folder directly under the root.

Many saves

Use these when the folder holds several saves and you match them by pattern.

• discover: {files: "*.sav"} — every direct-child file matching the glob is its own save.
• discover: {dirs: "Campaign*"} — every direct-child folder matching the glob is its own save.

The *.sav shorthand is the same as the long form {include: "*.sav"}. Switch to the long form when you need any of these:

• exclude — keep everything include matches except names that also match exclude: {dirs: {include: "*", exclude: "_temp"}} keeps every folder except _temp. You can supply just exclude — include then defaults to “match everything”.
• regex — set regex: true to match with regular expressions instead of globs: {dirs: {include: "^[0-9]+$", regex: true}} for numbered folders. The flag covers both include and exclude.
• recursive — look at any depth, not just direct children: {files: {include: "*.sav", recursive: true}}. It defaults to false.

Rules to remember

• include and exclude work together. A save is kept when include matches its name and exclude does not. include defaults to “match everything” and exclude to “match nothing”, so either one can stand alone.
• One language per matcher. regex: true switches both sides to regular expressions; leave it off (the default) for globs. include and exclude always share one language.
• exclude prunes folders. With recursive: true, a folder whose name matches exclude is skipped whole — its contents are never searched.
• recursive only changes how deep the search goes — direct children by default, every level when true.
• The base folder shifts between sections. In discover, clauses match against the save root — the folder your path points at. In payload, trigger, and ignore (the next page), they match against each save that discover found.

The smallest valid layout is just a discover line — the rest fills in from defaults:

# Each subfolder is its own save
save_layout:
  discover:
    dirs: "*"