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: Mcp7zOp

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

• A portable release bundle, or a source checkout built with pnpm 11.26.0

• Read access to the game directory selected in the conversation

Getting started

Download a versioned garbro-mcp-<version>-portable.zip from GitHub Releases and extract it. Configure your MCP client with absolute paths:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "garbro": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "C:/Tools/garbro-mcp/garbro-mcp.cjs"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Before connecting the client, verify the bundle and temporary workspace:

node C:/Tools/garbro-mcp/garbro-mcp.cjs --version --json
node C:/Tools/garbro-mcp/garbro-mcp.cjs --doctor --json

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 submits scan, inspect, and extract tasks through submit_task, 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 three task-control tools, 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.