Inspecting and comparing saves
Look inside a saved game and see what changed between two of them, with a tool that only ever reads — raw stored values, decoded kinds, file status and integrity, side by side.
What it is#
Tools ▸ PersistKit ▸ Inspect or Compare Saved Games opens a window that shows what is actually inside a saved game, and what changed between two of them. It is the answer to the two questions a save system always gets: what is really in this file? and why does this save behave differently from that one?
Available In the package, with the reading and comparison logic covered by tests.
What it shows, and why the split matters#
The window keeps three things apart, because they fail in different ways:
| Part | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| The file | Where it is, how big it is, when it was written, and — when the main file could not be used — which copy had to be read instead |
| The status | Whether the save can be read at all. When it can't, the exact code and the sentence that goes with it, and nothing from inside the file is shown |
| The contents | Every key, what kind of value it holds in plain words, and the stored text itself, so a raw value and a decoded one are never confused |
Picking a second save compares them by key: what is only in the first, what is only in the second, what is saved under both with a different value, and how many are identical.
What it never does#
- It never writes. No button here saves, repairs, renames or deletes anything, and reading a save cannot change it — which is checked by comparing the file's own bytes before and after a read.
- It never switches the game's slot. It reads the file directly, through the same version gate, damage check and backup fallback a load uses, so it can never show data the game would refuse or miss data the game would find.
- It never shows a secret. A save protected by a passphrase shows its values only when that passphrase is already set in this session. Otherwise the reason is shown and nothing from inside the file is displayed. No key or passphrase is ever printed.
- It never guesses. A shape this build does not recognise is labelled as unrecognised, and two saves that cannot both be read are reported as not comparable rather than called identical.
Empty, damaged and older saves#
The three states a beginner meets first all have an answer that says what to do:
- Never saved yet — the window says so, and that it is not a problem.
- Damaged or unreadable — the exact code, the explanation, and the plain statement that nothing has been changed, moved or repaired.
- Read from a backup — a warning saying which copy was used, so a recovery is visible rather than silent.
Older saves simply have fewer keys: comparing one against a newer save is how a migration's effect is seen, and the migration tools never write during a preview either.
Something wrong on this page? Every page here describes behaviour that is checked in the repository. If a page and the package disagree, the package wins.
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