Acquisition + patching pipeline for the Pokémon ROM-hack collection in the valhalla homelab library. Spun off from the homelabstack repo on 2026-06-06.

The catalog (the notes) lives in the self-hosted Obsidian vault, not in this repo — under Pokémon ROM Hacks/: one note per hack, plus Index, Types, Play Queue, Bases/, Platforms/, a Wanted acquisition list, and a _Claude.md ops reference. Access it via the Obsidian MCP (mcp__obsidian__*) or the vault skill. New hacks are added there manually (see the vault's _Claude.md checklist). This repo is just the tooling.

The ROMs live on valhalla under /storage1/Emulation/roms/<platform>/Hacks/, served by the RomM stack (roms.ginnoir.com) — deployed from homelabstack (stacks/roms/).

Layout

Path	What
`scripts/romhack-import.py`	Import a drop folder of mixed ROMs/patches/docs into the valhalla library (validate, clean-name, apply patches, archive). Runs on valhalla.
`scripts/romhack-fetch.py`	Acquire + patch + place worthwhile hacks from direct (non-gated) sources. Manifest-driven. Runs on valhalla.
`scripts/romhack-apply.py`	Apply a single IPS/BPS/UPS patch to a base ROM with checksum verification.
`scripts/build-vault-mocs.py`	Regenerate the vault's static MOC tables + header counts (Index/Platforms/Bases) from the notes. Read-only on `Hacks/*.md`. Re-run after any note change.
`scripts/scrape_match.py`	Match the Discord-scrape `metadata.json` entries to vault notes → `.scrape/_match_report.json` (curated-overlap / discord-match / unmatched).
`scripts/enrich_vault.py`	Synthesize the scrape into notes: `backfill` (frontmatter for imports), `merge` (scrape into curated), `create` (new notes), `rebuild` (normalize import bodies). `--apply` writes; default dry-runs to `.scrape/_preview/`.
`scripts/enrich_web.py`	Apply hand/web-researched facts from `.scrape/web_facts*.json` onto notes (summary, features, dev, version, notability), idempotently.
`scripts/build-wiki-data.py`	Export all notes → `wiki/catalog.json`, the data source for the wiki site (see `wiki/SPEC.md`).
`scripts/build-romhack-vault.py`	Archived. Original 75-hack bootstrap generator — do not re-run against the live vault. Kept only for its structured `HACKS` dataset.
`wiki/`	`catalog.json` (exported 368-hack dataset) + `SPEC.md` (build spec for the future static wiki site).
`drop/`	gitignored staging area (~1.3 GB) of ROM/patch binaries pending import.
`.scrape/`	gitignored per-machine scratch: Discord-scrape `metadata.json` pulled from valhalla + match report + `web_facts*.json` + note backups.

Enrichment pipeline

The vault catalog (368 notes) was enriched from the Discord scrape on valhalla (/storage1/labdata/romhacks/metadata/*/metadata.json) plus web research. To re-run or extend:

# 1. pull the scrape metadata locally (one-time / refresh)
ssh valhalla "cd /storage1/labdata/romhacks/metadata && tar cf - */metadata.json" | tar xf - -C .scrape

# 2. match scrape -> notes
python scripts/scrape_match.py --report .scrape/_match_report.json

# 3. synthesize (drop --apply first to preview into .scrape/_preview/)
python scripts/enrich_vault.py backfill --apply
python scripts/enrich_vault.py rebuild  --apply
python scripts/enrich_vault.py merge    --apply
python scripts/enrich_vault.py create   --apply

# 4. web-enrich more hacks: add a .scrape/web_factsN.json batch, then
python scripts/enrich_web.py --apply

# 5. refresh static surfaces + the site data
python scripts/build-vault-mocs.py
python scripts/build-wiki-data.py

Art for every scraped hack is web-served at https://romhacks-files.ginnoir.com/_meta/<scrape_dir>/<file> (copied into the Caddy-served library/_meta/ tree on valhalla).

Acquisition policy

Pre-3DS handhelds (gb/gbc/gba/nds) + pre-Wii consoles. Direct, non-anti-bot sources only for auto-fetch; gated hacks are tracked in the vault's Pokémon ROM Hacks/Wanted.md for manual hand-off. No offensive/"shitpost" content (e.g. Clover excluded).