sortof

A Project Zomboid mod load-order sorter. Paste Steam Workshop IDs or a collection URL, get back the three lines (WorkshopItems=, Mods=, Map=) you paste into your dedicated server's .ini file.

Stack

API — FastAPI + asyncpg, Python 3.12.
Cache — PostgreSQL 16. One row per (workshop_id, mod_id) parsed from each mod's mod.info. Cache invalidates on Steam's time_updated; no manual TTLs.
Drain worker — pulls cache misses via DepotDownloader, parses mod.info and media/maps/*/map.info, writes back to Postgres.
Frontend — vanilla JSX in frontend/, served by FastAPI StaticFiles, transpiled in-browser by Babel-standalone. No build step, no npm.
Deployment — Docker for Postgres only; the API and drain workers run as systemd units on the host.

What it actually does

Resolves bare workshop IDs and collection URLs (anonymous Steam API expansion).
Topologically sorts mods by requirements, loadAfter, loadBefore with explicit support for loadFirst / loadLast and the "patch" tier.
Detects multi-branch wsids (e.g. AuthenticZ, Project RV Interior), auto-picks a sensible default by build flavor or input cross-reference, and surfaces the alternates in a picker.
Emits actionable warnings: missing dependencies (with one-click "add" buttons when the dep is in our cache), build-mismatch flags with swap-or-remove actions, duplicate-mod_id conflicts, addon detection, and required-item suggestions scraped from the Workshop page.
Tracks community-reported broken mods per PZ build, with thumbs-up / thumbs-down voting and a search panel.

Bootstrapping (rough)

docker compose up -d sortof_db — runs Postgres on 127.0.0.1:5439, applies init/*.sql migrations on first boot.

Create the two virtualenvs:

python3.12 -m venv api/.venv     && api/.venv/bin/pip install -r api/requirements.txt
python3.12 -m venv worker/.venv  && worker/.venv/bin/pip install -r worker/requirements.txt

Drop a .env next to docker-compose.yml with POSTGRES_USER, POSTGRES_PASSWORD, POSTGRES_DB, and SORTOF_CORS_ORIGINS.
Set DD_PATH to wherever DepotDownloader lives, then start the API (api/.venv/bin/uvicorn app:app --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8801) and a drain worker (worker/.venv/bin/python drain.py).

For the systemd units, see docs/ (and the running host).

Layout

api/         FastAPI service + adapters + sort engine
worker/      drain worker — DepotDownloader + mod.info parser
frontend/    vanilla JSX + index.html (no build step)
init/        Postgres bootstrap migrations (runs in order)
data/        checked-in JSON like pz_versions.json
docs/        specs, plans, audit notes

License

TBD.