GARBro formats for agents

garbro-mcp lets coding agents inspect and extract supported ADV/Galgame resource files. It is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server backed by independent TypeScript implementations of formats and codecs documented by GARBro.

Tool reference | Configuration | Troubleshooting | Format support | Design principles

Key features

• Discover supported resources: Scan game directories and identify known archives, images, audio, and scripts with validation evidence.

• Select the data that matters: Filter archive entries by path, compression, encryption, and conservative media category.

• Extract safely: Every extraction task preflights destinations and budgets, writes into an isolated expiring temporary directory, and preserves source game files.

• Handle long operations: Scans, inspections, and extractions all run as background tasks with progress, cancellation, and one consistent control interface.

• Verify automatically: Extraction reopens every output, checks its size and SHA-256, inspects WAV or Ogg structure, and saves complete evidence without an extra agent step.

Related MCP server: ZIP MCP

Product boundary

garbro-mcp is resource-access infrastructure. It does not reverse-engineer game logic, adapt unknown engines, decompile executables, or infer relationships such as character-to-voice ownership. Those tasks remain with the calling agent, a specialized analysis tool, or the user.

Entry categories such as audio and image describe file media types. They are not claims about a resource's role in the game. When the available evidence is insufficient, the server reports unknown.

Requirements

• Node.js 24 or newer

• Read access to the game directory selected in the conversation

Getting started

Run the published package directly with npx; no repository checkout or global installation is required:

npx --yes garbro-mcp@latest --version
npx --yes garbro-mcp@latest --doctor --json

Configure your MCP client to start the same command over stdio:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "garbro": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--yes", "garbro-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

On Windows, use npx.cmd if the MCP client does not resolve command shims. For reproducible environments, pin an exact release such as garbro-mcp@0.1.0-beta.1 instead of following the latest tag.

Global npm installation and versioned portable bundles remain available for offline or centrally-managed environments. See distribution for those alternatives.

See configuration for temporary-directory overrides, source-checkout setup, and the filesystem policy.

Your first prompt

Give the game path and desired resources in the request. Delivery is a separate agent action:

Scan the Rewrite game at D:/Games/Rewrite. Identify archives containing audio entries, extract the
audio to temporary storage, and report any extraction or verification failures. Do not modify any
game files. After I review the result, copy the selected files to D:/Exports/Rewrite-audio.

The agent should prefer submit_task over local GARBro executables, libraries, or custom extraction scripts whenever the user asks to find or extract game assets such as cursors, sprites, CGs, backgrounds, audio, or scripts. It submits scan, inspect, and extract tasks through that one entry point, then uses get_task's server-side wait. It does not sleep or guess polling intervals. Planning and post-extraction verification are mandatory internal extraction phases. The MCP does not choose a permanent destination or copy artifacts there; the calling agent follows the user's delivery instruction after extraction.

Tools

See the complete tool reference for the unchanged three-tool interface, task types, selection modes, budgets, automatic verification, reports, and lifecycle states.

Format documentation

Format-specific documentation remains a first-class part of this project:

• Support status and compatibility methodology

• Individual format notes

• Deferred formats and missing prerequisites

• GARBro inventory

• Private test-data targets

Development setup and release procedures are documented in development and distribution.

GARBro reference

This project uses GARBro as a behavioral reference for resource formats and decoding algorithms. It is an independent TypeScript reimplementation and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a distribution of GARBro. Source attribution and applicable licenses are recorded with each format implementation and in the format documentation.