Self-hosted save-file sync and ROM trading for Anbernic and TrimUI handhelds. Runs on NixOS, stores saves in a git working tree, and serves a web UI for browsing, restoring history, and copying ROMs between devices on your local network. There is no authentication - this is intended for personal use on a trusted LAN.

trove v0.4.5 - early development; unstable, APIs may change. Use at your own risk. Trove facilitates ROM transfers between devices on local networks and does not host ROMs.

---

NixOS setup

Add trove as a flake input:

inputs.trove = {
  url = "github:CRBroughton/trove";
  inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};

Import the module and enable the service:

imports = [ inputs.trove.nixosModules.default ];

services.trove = {
  enable      = true;
  openFirewall = true;   # exposes port on LAN
  port        = 8080;    # default; change if taken
};

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#hostname
systemctl status trove

---

Anbernic (AmberELEC)

AmberELEC uses EmulationStation event scripts. Two hook files call sync.sh on game start (pull) and game end (push).

1. Copy the sync script

scp nix/sync-client.sh root@DEVICE_IP:/storage/.config/trove/sync.sh
ssh root@DEVICE_IP "chmod +x /storage/.config/trove/sync.sh"

2. Edit the config at the top of sync.sh

SERVER="http://192.168.x.x:8080"   # LAN IP of your trove server
DEVICE_NAME="anbernic"              # unique name for this device
SAVES_DIR="/storage/roms"           # AmberELEC saves alongside ROMs, not in a subdirectory
ROMS_DIR="/storage/roms"            # ROM root for trading (set to "" to disable)

3. Create the event hooks

mkdir -p /storage/.config/emulationstation/scripts/game-start
mkdir -p /storage/.config/emulationstation/scripts/game-end

/storage/.config/emulationstation/scripts/game-start/trove.sh:

#!/bin/bash
/storage/.config/trove/sync.sh pull

/storage/.config/emulationstation/scripts/game-end/trove.sh:

#!/bin/bash
/storage/.config/trove/sync.sh push

chmod +x /storage/.config/emulationstation/scripts/game-start/trove.sh \
         /storage/.config/emulationstation/scripts/game-end/trove.sh

4. Add Trove Trade to Tools

AmberELEC resets /storage/.config/distribution/modules/ on every boot. Copy the install script and wire it into custom_start.sh so the entry is recreated automatically:

scp nix/amberelec-install-tool.sh root@DEVICE_IP:/storage/.config/trove/install-tool.sh
ssh root@DEVICE_IP "chmod +x /storage/.config/trove/install-tool.sh"

Add to the "before" case in /storage/.config/custom_start.sh:

/storage/.config/trove/install-tool.sh

Run it once now to create the entry immediately:

/storage/.config/trove/install-tool.sh

Appears under Tools in EmulationStation. Launch it when you want to trade ROMs.

5. Test manually

/storage/.config/trove/sync.sh pull
/storage/.config/trove/sync.sh push
/storage/.config/trove/sync.sh trade

---

TrimUI Brick (Batocera / Knulli)

Batocera calls a single dispatcher script with the event name as $1 rather than separate hook directories. Two files are needed under /userdata/system/scripts/trove/.

1. Copy the sync script

scp nix/sync-client.sh root@DEVICE_IP:/userdata/system/scripts/trove/sync.sh
ssh root@DEVICE_IP "chmod +x /userdata/system/scripts/trove/sync.sh"

2. Edit the config at the top of sync.sh

SERVER="http://192.168.x.x:8080"   # LAN IP of your trove server
DEVICE_NAME="brick"                 # unique name for this device
SAVES_DIR="/userdata/saves"         # Batocera/Knulli saves directory
ROMS_DIR="/userdata/roms"           # ROM root for trading (set to "" to disable)

3. Create the event dispatcher

/userdata/system/scripts/trove/trove:

#!/bin/bash
SYNC=/userdata/system/scripts/trove/sync.sh
case "$1" in
  gameStart|gameLaunch) exec "$SYNC" pull ;;
  gameStop|gameEnd)     exec "$SYNC" push ;;
esac

chmod +x /userdata/system/scripts/trove/trove

Batocera discovers any executable in /userdata/system/scripts/<name>/ and calls it with events like gameStart and gameStop. The dispatcher maps these to push and pull on sync.sh.

4. Add Trove Trade to Ports

mkdir -p /userdata/roms/ports
cat > "/userdata/roms/ports/Trove Trade.sh" << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
/userdata/system/scripts/trove/sync.sh trade
EOF
chmod +x "/userdata/roms/ports/Trove Trade.sh"

Appears under Ports in EmulationStation. Launch it when you want to trade ROMs.

5. Test manually

/userdata/system/scripts/trove/sync.sh pull
/userdata/system/scripts/trove/sync.sh push
/userdata/system/scripts/trove/sync.sh trade

---

ROM Trading

The ⇌ TRADE tab in the web UI shows all devices on your local network. Select a ROM from one device and hit SEND to copy it to another. Trove facilitates ROM transfers between devices on your local network and does not host ROMs. ROMs are held in a temp file only while in-flight and deleted after delivery.

To trade, launch Trove Trade from EmulationStation on both devices (set up in the device sections above). This runs sync.sh trade which announces the device's ROM library to the server and processes any pending transfers. Both devices must announce before they appear in the TRADE tab.

---

API

Saves

Method	Path	Description
GET	/api/files	List all tracked saves
POST	/api/push/<path>?device=<name>	Upload a save
GET	/api/pull/<path>	Download the latest save
GET	/api/history/<path>	Git commit log for a save
POST	/api/restore/<path>?hash=<sha>	Restore to a previous commit

curl -X POST --data-binary @pokemon.srm \
  http://192.168.x.x:8080/api/push/gba/pokemon.srm?device=anbernic

curl http://192.168.x.x:8080/api/pull/gba/pokemon.srm -o pokemon.srm

Trading

Method	Path	Description
POST	/api/trade/announce	Register device with ROM list
GET	/api/trade/devices	List online devices and their ROMs
POST	/api/trade/transfer	Queue a ROM transfer between two devices
GET	/api/trade/pending?device=<name>	Check pending uploads/downloads for a device
POST	/api/trade/upload/<path>?transfer=<id>	Source device uploads ROM to server
GET	/api/trade/fetch/<path>?transfer=<id>&device=<name>	Target device downloads ROM from server
GET	/api/trade/events	SSE stream for live UI updates

---

Docker

docker compose up -d --build
docker compose logs -f

Save data persists in the trove-data volume across rebuilds. Point SERVER in your client script at the Docker host's IP.

---

Building locally

pnpm install
pnpm -F trove-ui build
go build -o trove ./cmd/trove
./trove -repo /tmp/test-saves -addr :8080