# The bggpipe user's guide

Everything past the [README](../README.md)'s quick start: credentials, every stage and its flags, the web app, phones, RPGs, fixing the model's mistakes, and running without a BGG token. Screenshots of everything described here: the [tour](tour.md).

## Contents

- [Credentials and configuration](#credentials-and-configuration)
- [The web app](#the-web-app)
- [From your phone](#from-your-phone)
- [The stages, from the terminal](#the-stages-from-the-terminal)
- [Taking good shelf photos](#taking-good-shelf-photos)
- [Fixing what the model gets wrong](#fixing-what-the-model-gets-wrong)
- [RPGs on your shelves](#rpgs-on-your-shelves)
- [Uploading safely](#uploading-safely)
- [Running before your BGG token arrives](#running-before-your-bgg-token-arrives)
- [Keeping your data safe from git](#keeping-your-data-safe-from-git)

## Credentials and configuration

The `init` wizard is idempotent — re-run it anytime to check status or add keys you skipped. It prompts for the credentials below (hidden input, saved to a `.env` it creates with owner-only permissions) and offers the one-time Playwright Chromium download. Prefer doing it by hand? Copy [.env.example](../.env.example) beside your data, fill it in, and run `playwright install chromium` yourself.

Secrets live in environment variables only, never in config files, code, or logs, and `.env` is gitignored. Every `bggpipe` command loads `.env` from the working directory by itself — real environment variables always win over the file, so [direnv](https://direnv.net/) users and CI overrides keep working unchanged.

Your credentials never leave your machine except to sign in to boardgamegeek.com itself — [the README spells out the full privacy picture](../README.md#why-it-asks-for-your-bgg-password--and-where-your-credentials-go). The password exists solely because BGG has no write API: adding games means driving the real website, in a visible browser window, on your computer. The saved browser session (`storage_state.json`) is credential-adjacent — it stays local and gitignored too.

| Variable | Used by | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` | extract | Anthropic API key |
| `BGG_API_TOKEN` | resolve, diff, enrich | Bearer token from your registered BGG application |
| `BGG_USERNAME` | diff, upload, enrich | Your BGG username (public, but kept in `.env` so it lives in one place) |
| `BGG_PASSWORD` | upload (website login) | Your BGG password |

Non-secret knobs live in `config.toml`: `photos_dir`, `data_dir`, the BGG rate limit, and the vision setup — a `[vision.<provider>]` block per provider ("anthropic" or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including a local [Ollama](https://ollama.com/)), with `vision_provider` picking one. Local models read spines noticeably worse than frontier ones — expect a longer proofread pass on the Titles page, not a broken pipeline.

**What extraction costs:** the vision call is the pipeline's only paid step, and it's small — the author's full collection (65 shelf photos, 136 games) came to under a dollar on the default model (Claude Sonnet). It's also one-time: raw reads are cached per photo, so re-running extract is free, and only new or replaced photos are ever sent again. Everything BGG-side is free (the API token costs nothing).

## The web app

```sh
bggpipe web    # opens http://127.0.0.1:8377/ — the whole app in the browser
```

Seven pages — Pipeline, Photos, Titles, Review, Queue, Library, and Help — all [pictured in the tour](tour.md). Stage runs execute one at a time in the background with live output:

![The Pipeline page mid-extract: stage cards above a live activity log listing each photo and how many titles it yielded](screenshots/15-extract-live.png)

Stage runs execute one at a time; every decision saves immediately; the pages live-follow the data files, so a stage run in another terminal shows up without a refresh. The real upload sits behind a confirmation (and behind a stub-data lock if synthetic test fixtures ever regenerate). The in-app **Help** page documents every status chip and keyboard shortcut.

## From your phone

The app is localhost-only by default. To use it from a phone or tablet on your network — proofreading from the couch, or shooting shelf photos straight into the pipeline — serve it to the LAN instead:

```sh
bggpipe web --lan   # localhost + your network, behind an access key
```

Startup prints a pairing link (`?k=...`) and a QR code: point the phone's camera at the terminal and tap. Pairing is one-time per device — the key persists across restarts (`data/.lan_key`; delete it to revoke every paired device) and the cookie lasts a year. Save the page to the phone's home screen for the full-screen treatment, piper icon included.

To photograph shelves from the phone: on the Photos page, tap the drop zone and choose "Take Photo." The upload narrates its progress, and camera captures get unique `shelf-<timestamp>` names so rapid-fire shots never overwrite each other. The key is the only lock — there is no login behind it — so still prefer networks you trust (or use a device VPN like Tailscale against the localhost default instead).

## The stages, from the terminal

Every stage is also a command, and the two interfaces share all state:

```sh
bggpipe extract              # photos → titles.json (+ retake prompts)
bggpipe resolve              # titles → BGG ids/versions in matches.csv
bggpipe review --web         # review UI only
bggpipe diff                 # compare against your BGG collection
bggpipe upload --dry-run     # ALWAYS inspect this first
bggpipe upload --limit 1     # then one game, then small batches
bggpipe enrich               # full metadata → data/games.json
```

Each stage skips work it has already done; `--force`/`--refresh` flags redo it. Every stage is idempotent and resumable: kill it mid-run, restart, lose nothing. All artifacts are flat CSV/JSON files you can inspect and edit. `review` without `--web` runs in the terminal instead.

## Taking good shelf photos

Straight-on, one shelf (or part of one) per shot, close enough that spine text is legible to a human. If you can't read it, the model can't either. Overlap between shots is fine: duplicate reads are deduped automatically, with the merge shown (and veto-able) in review. Boxes the model spots but can't identify become retake prompts in `unidentified.json` and the Photos page's "reshoot" tickets: photograph those boxes up close, drop the new photo in, and run `extract` again.

## Fixing what the model gets wrong

Vision reads aren't perfect, and you know things the photos don't show. The Titles page lets you **edit** a title (fix a misspelling, add publisher/edition/year/language cues you know offhand), **split** a line into per-photo copies when one title is actually several boxes, **remove** lines that aren't games at all, and **add** a game no photo caught. Every one of these is durable: the decision lands in a small committed store (`data/title_edits.json`, `data/title_splits.json`, `data/title_removals.json`, `data/title_additions.json`) that is replayed on every rebuild — re-running extract or resolve can never undo your curation. Undo any decision by deleting its record from the store.

Games BGG doesn't have at all can be kept as **local** library citizens: their detail page in the Library takes hand-written facts (players, playtime, publisher, notes) and a cover photo of your own, stored in `data/local_games.json` and `data/local_art/` — the only source such a game will ever have.

## RPGs on your shelves

Tabletop RPGs aren't in BGG's board-game database — they live on RPGGeek, which shares the same underlying API. When a title isn't found as a board game, bggpipe retries as an RPG: matches are identified, enriched (designers, publishers, genres from RPGGeek), and browsable in the library (filter: RPGs), but they stay **local only** — they're never uploaded, since your BGG collection can't hold them. When the automatic search can't reach the right database (BGG has board games named "Dungeons & Dragons" too), every Review card has explicit **search BGG** / **search RPGGeek** buttons.

## Uploading safely

`upload` drives a real logged-in browser session against your real account, so it is deliberately careful:

- `--dry-run` logs what would happen without touching the site — always read it first, then `--limit 1`, then small batches:

  ![A dry run's output: seven pending jobs listed as "would add" lines with BGG ids, and one "would set version" line naming the exact collection entry](screenshots/14-upload-dry-run.png)
- The browser runs **headed** by default — BGG's Cloudflare check blocks headless ones, and a first login may need one human click before the session is saved locally and reused.
- Requests are slow on purpose (seconds between actions, per BGG's API policy); the Queue page shows exactly what will run before it runs, and `upload_log.csv` keeps a permanent record of every attempt.
- `--retry-failed` re-attempts failures; `--verify` re-fetches your collection and cross-checks the log. Note that BGG's collection export can lag the website by hours — freshly-landed work may look missing to `diff`/`--verify` until it catches up.
- Review decisions outrank the queue: re-deciding a match after `diff` retires its queued job automatically.

## Running before your BGG token arrives

BGG application approval can take a week or more. Until then: `extract` works immediately (it only needs the vision key), and `resolve` does what it can, parking the rest as "waiting on BGG API token" — it picks them up automatically once the token exists. Everything is saved as you go.

`diff` normally fetches your collection live, but there's a logged-in-browser exemption that needs no token: while signed in to BGG, save these two URLs as `data/collection_snapshot_base.xml` and `data/collection_snapshot_expansions.xml` (if you get a "queued" message, refresh after a few seconds):

- `https://boardgamegeek.com/xmlapi2/collection?username=YOU&own=1&version=1`
- `https://boardgamegeek.com/xmlapi2/collection?username=YOU&own=1&version=1&subtype=boardgameexpansion`

## Shelf-space planning

Physical box dimensions live on BGG *versions*, not games, so enrich collects
them in a second cached pass: your exact version's numbers where you chose
one, otherwise a value only when every listed printing agrees (within half an
inch per axis — disagreement is stored as `conflicting`, never guessed, and
BGG's `0` means "never entered", not zero inches). Then:

```sh
bggpipe dims
```

reports coverage, the ten biggest footprints, and a fit check against an IKEA
Kallax cube (13.2" × 13.2" opening, 15.4" deep) — listing every box that fits
in **no** orientation, and every game whose dimensions can't be verified,
because can't-verify is not the same as fits. Trusted dimensions also show on
each game's Library detail page.

## Publishing your library on your own site

```sh
bggpipe export --out ~/my-site/static/library --title "My Game Shelves"
```

Writes the library as self-contained static pages: an index with search, one
page per game, and a local copy of every cover (public pages must not hotlink
BGG's image CDN). No server, no build step — drop the directory into any
static host, Hugo/Jekyll `static/` folder included. Re-runs are idempotent:
already-downloaded covers are kept, failed downloads are retried, and page
URLs stay stable.

What's included follows a privacy rule: cover art, stats, your editions, and
your hand-added local games — **never your shelf photos** (they picture the
inside of your home; they stay in the private app).

BGG's API policy asks public-facing apps to display the "Powered by BGG"
badge. The footer carries a text badge automatically; to show the official
logo, save it from your registered application page at
[boardgamegeek.com/applications](https://boardgamegeek.com/applications) as
`data/powered-by-bgg.png` and re-export.

## Keeping your data safe from git

The [README's quick start](../README.md#quick-start) — installed as a tool, run in a directory of your own — is the only supported way to use bggpipe on your collection. Everything the pipeline produces lives where you run it, and `uv tool upgrade bggpipe` picks up fixes without going anywhere near your data.

**Why not clone and run?** The source repo doubles as its author's live pipeline: `data/` ships with their real artifacts, committed and updated often. Run inside a clone and *your* data lands at git-tracked paths — the next `git pull` will refuse to merge, and the usual remedies (`git reset --hard`, `git checkout .`, `git stash`, `git clean -fdx`) would destroy your review decisions, hand-written games, upload log, and photos. bggpipe detects this arrangement and warns at `init` and on the web dashboard; don't ignore it.

One committed file of the author's data deserves a word: `data/STUB_DATA.marker` is normally absent. It appears only if the synthetic stub fixtures (from `scripts/write_stub_fixtures.py`) regenerate the CSVs, and the upload stage refuses to run while it exists — so placeholder data can never reach a real BGG account.
