Steam Deck Deploy

Deploy Unity builds to Steam Deck over SSH/rsync. Auto-discovers devices on the network via mDNS and registers games as Steam shortcuts.

Requirements

• Unity 6+ (uses BuildProfile API)
• Linux or macOS host with ssh, rsync, and avahi-browse
• Steam Deck with Developer Mode enabled
• SSH key from the SteamOS Devkit Client (auto-detected)

Install

Add to your manifest.json:

"com.api-haus.steamdeck-deploy": "https://github.com/api-haus/com.api-haus.steamdeck-deploy.git"

Or use the Unity Package Manager window: Add package from git URL.

Usage

Menu Items

• Build > Build & Deploy to Steam Deck -- builds the active build target (Build Settings), then deploys
• Build > Build Current Profile to Steam Deck -- builds the active Build Profile, then deploys

Project Settings > Steam Deck Deploy > Deploy Now rsyncs the last build to the deck without rebuilding.

Settings

Project Settings > Steam Deck Deploy to configure:

• IP address (auto-discovered if left empty)
• Username (default: deck)
• SSH key path (auto-detected from SteamOS Devkit Client)
• Remote base path, launch args, auto-launch toggle

API

using ApiHaus.SteamDeckDeploy.Editor;

// Deploy an existing build
await SteamDeckDeploy.Deploy("Builds/Linux");

// Deploy without launching
await SteamDeckDeploy.Deploy("Builds/Linux", launch: false);

// Test connection
await SteamDeckDeploy.TestConnection();

How It Works

1. Discover -- finds Steam Deck on the LAN via avahi-browse _steamos-devkit._tcp
2. Upload scripts -- rsyncs unity-run-game helper to ~/unity-scripts/ on the device
3. Rsync build -- transfers the build to ~/devkit-game/{productName}_Linux/, excluding *_DoNotShip, *_BackUpThisFolder_*, *.pdb, and Saved/
4. Register shortcut -- calls steam-client-create-shortcut via SSH to add the game to Steam
5. Launch -- runs the game through the Steam client IPC

Deploys and domain reloads

Uploading a player takes minutes, and an editor domain reload during that window destroys every pending await continuation in the deploy. Two things follow from that, and the package handles both:

• The deploy is protected while it runs. It holds LockReloadAssemblies and DisallowAutoRefresh for the duration, so regaining editor focus, a finished import, or a script edit cannot reload the domain mid-transfer. Any reload that was requested happens as soon as the deploy ends.
• Progress never blocks the editor. Progress is reported through UnityEditor.Progress, which draws in the status bar rather than over the editor. Cancel it from the background-task list there and the rsync is killed. A modal EditorUtility progress bar cannot be used for this: it is drawn native-side, so a reload that kills the code meant to clear it leaves a dead dialog blocking the editor until restart.

If a deploy is somehow interrupted anyway, the package clears the stranded state on the next domain reload and logs that the build on the deck may be incomplete.

License

MIT