SteamTools, Steam, and Proton: what is the difference?
A plain-language comparison of the official Steam client, the community SteamTools project, and the Proton compatibility layer used on Linux and Steam Deck.
SteamTools Team
Three names come up constantly when you read about PC gaming on Linux, and they get conflated all the time. Here is the shortest honest version of what each one is, who maintains it, and what you would use it for.
Steam (the official client)
Valve's steam binary. It is the application you launch, sign into, browse the store in, and download games with. It is closed source, ships DRM, and is the only thing that legally proves you own the games in your library.
Use it for: buying games, signing in, launching the games you have purchased.
Do not confuse it with: anything else. The Steam client talks to Steam's own CDN and uses Steam's own authentication — no third-party tool can replace that step.
SteamTools (the community project)
An open-source, third-party command-line tool maintained on GitHub. It does not bypass Steam's authentication — it uses the manifests and depots the Steam client already validated, but does it without launching the Steam UI. People use it to script bulk installs, automate library moves, and run Steam games in environments where the full Steam client is not appropriate (containers, headless servers, kiosks).
Use it for: scripted installs, headless game servers, library tooling.
Do not confuse it with: piracy. The site you are reading is a tool for SteamTools users — it just helps you grab the manifest files SteamTools needs.
Proton (the compatibility layer)
Proton is also from Valve, but it is a different thing entirely. It is a fork of Wine plus a set of patches and a compatibility database, distributed through the Steam client. Proton lets Windows-only games run on Linux without porting — it translates Windows system calls to Linux ones at runtime.
Use it for: playing Windows games on Linux desktops, the Steam Deck, and Steam Deck-like handhelds.
Do not confuse it with: either of the above. Proton has nothing to do with manifests or depots; it is purely about running a Windows executable on a Linux kernel.
How they relate to each other
A typical Steam Deck setup uses all three:
- Steam to buy the game and prove ownership.
- Proton (selected per-game in the Steam UI) to translate the Windows binary to Linux.
- Sometimes a manifest generated by a tool like this one if you want to do something the Steam UI cannot — for example, re-downloading an old branch of a game after a bad patch, or pre-seeding depots for an offline environment.
The three layers never overlap. A SteamTools manifest does not help you run a Windows game on Linux (that's Proton). Proton does not help you install games without the Steam client (that's SteamTools). Steam does not help you script an unattended library install (that is also SteamTools).
What this site is for, specifically
We only touch the SteamTools layer. We do not sell or distribute games, we do not bypass authentication, and we do not touch the Steam client's networking. We turn an App ID into a manifest + Lua pair so that SteamTools can do its job faster. Everything else — the Steam client, Proton, your library, your purchases — is entirely your own setup.