debugging-linux-games

debugging-linux-games is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from joshsymonds/nix-config. It costs 274 tokens per session (2,690 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A research-first guide for diagnosing Steam and Windows games running on Linux through tools such as Proton, Wine, Lutris, or Heroic.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for investigating crashes, black screens, missing graphics features, anti-cheat problems, shader stutter, controller, HDR, Wayland fullscreen, and intro-video issues.
Why use it?
It makes you check documented fixes before changing compatibility software or game files, reducing unnecessary debugging work.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/joshsymonds/nix-config/debugging-linux-games
Any agent
npx skills add joshsymonds/nix-config --skill debugging-linux-games
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/joshsymonds/nix-config

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for debugging-linux-games

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/joshsymonds/nix-config/debugging-linux-games.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/joshsymonds/nix-config/debugging-linux-games)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/joshsymonds/nix-config/debugging-linux-games"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/joshsymonds/nix-config/debugging-linux-games.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 274 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,690 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00274 $0.02690
Opus 5 $0.00137 $0.01345
Sonnet 5 $0.00055 $0.00538
Haiku 4.5 $0.00027 $0.00269

Measured 4d ago against content hash 2e5202bdb868, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

debugging-linux-games scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

home-manager/claude-code/host-skills/debugging-linux-games/SKILL.md · 199 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 199 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Debugging Linux Games (Research-First)

Overview

Steam-on-Linux problems almost always have a documented community fix. The documented fix is usually a game launch option, an env var, a config tweak, or a known proton-ge / proton-cachyos release with a workaround baked in — NOT a patch to dxvk-nvapi or vkd3d-proton. Diving into shim code without checking first is how 10 hours get spent producing patches that the actual fix renders unnecessary.

Core principle: Community research first. Code second. Always.

Iron Law: NO patches, forks, overlays, postFixup drops, or any code changes to the Wine/Proton/DXVK/vkd3d/gamescope stack until the six-source research checklist below has been completed within a 30-minute time-box. If a launch option, env var, config flag, or proton-ge build already solves the problem, that's the answer — even if reading the source feels more satisfying. No exceptions.

Announce at start: "I'm using debugging-linux-games to research before touching code."

Rigidity Level

LOW FREEDOM — The research phase is mandatory. The 30-minute time-box is mandatory. The "no shims until research is done" gate is mandatory.

The Six-Source Checklist

Time-box: 30 minutes. Stop earlier if a documented fix matches the symptom.

# Source What you're looking for
1 ProtonDB (protondb.com/app/<id>) Working launch options, known issues, Proton version that works
2 Steam Community discussions for the app, Linux/Wine/Proton tags Fix threads from devs or users — this is where /WineDetectionEnabled:False for PRAGMATA was found
3 Game-specific subreddits + r/linux_gaming Recent threads naming the title
4 GitHub issues across ValveSoftware/Proton, HansKristian-Work/vkd3d-proton, doitsujin/dxvk, jp7677/dxvk-nvapi, ValveSoftware/gamescope Engine-specific bugs and merged workarounds; check both open AND closed
5 GE-Proton + proton-cachyos release notes Per-release "added fix for X" entries with env vars
6 PCGamingWiki Linux section for the title Engine-level fixes, "Wayland-broken" / "needs DXVK_CONFIG" notes

Read the full file on GitHub · 199 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 199 lines · 274 tokens per session scan A 2e5202bdb868

Subscribe to this mod's changes

debugging-linux-games is a skill published in the GitHub repository joshsymonds/nix-config (835 stars, last pushed 7d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 274 tokens to every session and 2,690 once invoked, about $0.0014 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.