SimLauncher

One click, or one Stream Deck key, to start a whole sim racing session on Windows.

A VR sim racing session usually means opening four or five programs in the right order before the game: the VR runtime, the wheel base software, SimHub, a spotter such as Crew Chief… SimLauncher starts each one if it isn't already running, waits for it to be ready, then launches the game. When you're done, one more click closes everything.

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Contents

• Features
• Screenshots
• Install
• Quick start
• Settings
• Stream Deck
• Home Assistant and webhooks
• AI assistants (MCP)
• Command line
• Updates
• Files and privacy
• Troubleshooting
• Build from source
• Version history

Features

Launching

• A sequence per game: choose which companion apps start before each game, in which order, with a delay after each one.
• Already running? Skipped. Nothing is started twice.
• Sequence profiles: for example VR (headset and everything else) and Flat (no headset). Each card shows one button per profile, and each profile has its own Stream Deck command.
• Starting lights: five lights follow the sequence and turn green when the game is launched.
• End session: one button, Stream Deck key or tray menu entry closes the game and every companion app.
• Optional auto-close: when the game exits, SimLauncher closes the apps you marked (Crew Chief, for example).

Your library

• Steam detection: finds the racing games installed in Steam and adds the ones you tick, with their Steam picture, process name and companion apps.
• Play time: hours played and last session on every card. Steam games show the full history recorded by Steam; other games are timed by SimLauncher while it is running.
• Card styles: four looks for the Games tab (Classic, Band, Sheet, Horizontal), picked in Settings › Appearance.
• Game pictures: use the Steam banner or any .jpg, .png or .webp image as the card background, and hide the name when the picture already shows the logo.

Integrations

• Stream Deck: a ready-to-paste command for every game and for End session. Original key icons are included.
• Home Assistant and webhooks: a POST request at the start and end of every session, to switch on the cockpit lights or set a scene.
• AI assistants (MCP): Claude Desktop and other assistants can launch games, end the session, add games and apps, or import your Steam games.

Everyday use

• Tray icon: starts with Windows as an icon next to the clock. Right-click to launch a game or end the session.
• Built-in updates: a banner when a new version is out, one-click install, or fully automatic if you allow it (never during a session). Every download is checked against the release's SHA-256.
• 5 languages: English, Français, Português (Brasil), Español, 简体中文. Follows the Windows language by default.
• Backup: export your whole configuration to a file and import it on another PC.
• Single portable .exe: no installer, nothing else to install.

Screenshots

Settings › Games › Find my Steam games	Settings: tabs on the left, one collapsible line per game
Settings › Appearance: four card styles	Stream Deck tab: one command per game and profile

Install

1. Download SimLauncher.exe from the latest release and put it in a folder of your choice (the Desktop works; avoid Program Files, which blocks self-updates).
2. Double-click it. Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unsigned app: More info › Run anyway.
3. The interface opens in its own window.

From then on, SimLauncher updates itself.

Quick start

1. Settings › Games › Find my Steam games: tick your racing games and click Add selected. They arrive with their Steam picture.
2. Settings › Companion apps: check the path of each app (VR runtime, wheel software, SimHub, Crew Chief…). A missing app shows Executable not found in the Games tab. Add yours with Add an app.
3. Tick Start with Windows if you want the tray icon, then click Save.
4. In Games, click Launch on a card. The lights follow each step.
5. At the end of the session, click End session.

The default setup is a Pimax + MOZA + SimHub + Crew Chief rig with AMS2, ACC, Assetto Corsa, AC EVO, AC Rally, Le Mans Ultimate, RaceRoom and BeamNG.drive. Everything can be changed.

Settings

Settings are split into tabs on the left. Save applies the changes of every tab at once.

Section	What you set
Appearance	Card style for the Games tab: Classic, Band, Sheet or Horizontal, with a preview of each.
General	Behaviour: start with Windows, stay next to the clock when the window is closed, close apps gracefully (or immediately), close apps when the game exits. Sequence: pause before the game, interface port. Backup: export and import the whole configuration as a JSON file.
Games	Find my Steam games, then one line per game (click to expand): name, ID, Steam AppID or executable, arguments, process name, colour, card picture (Browse or Steam picture), Hide the name, apps to start first.
Apps	One line per companion app: name, path, arguments, process name, delay after start, Close after (closed when the game exits). The order of the list is the start order.
Profiles	Name, ID and the apps allowed in each profile. A game only starts the apps it has and the profile allows.
Integrations	Home Assistant and webhooks: two URLs called at the start and end of a session, each with a Test button. See below.
Updates	Check for new versions automatically (on by default), install them automatically (off by default), Check now, links to the project, release notes and issues on GitHub.

Process names (for example AMS2AVX.exe) let SimLauncher know whether something is already running, and close it at the end. The exact name is in Task Manager › Details.

Steam detection reads your Steam library on disk. It knows the main racing titles (AMS2, ACC, AC, AC EVO, AC Rally, LMU, RaceRoom, BeamNG.drive, rFactor 2, iRacing, Automobilista, Project CARS 2, EA WRC, DiRT Rally 2.0, F1 24/25, Forza…); tick All games to list everything else. Pictures are copied into SimLauncher's folder, so they keep working when Steam renames its cache. If a game has no picture, open it once in your Steam library.

Stream Deck

1. Open the Stream Deck tab and copy a command, for example: "C:\Users\you\Desktop\SimLauncher.exe" --game ams2
2. In the Stream Deck app, drag a System › Open action onto a key and paste the command.
3. Set a key image: the release includes original icons, and assets/streamdeck has the sources.

The End session key uses --end. Launching from the Stream Deck shows no window; a message appears only if something goes wrong.

Home Assistant and webhooks

SimLauncher sends a POST request with this JSON body:

{ "event": "session_start", "game_id": "ams2", "game": "Automobilista 2", "time": "2026-11-12T21:30:00+01:00", "source": "SimLauncher" }

event is session_start when a launch begins, and session_end when the game closes or you click End session (sent only once per session). Any service that accepts a webhook works: Home Assistant, Node-RED, IFTTT…

Home Assistant example (automations.yaml):

- alias: Sim rig on
  triggers:
    - trigger: webhook
      webhook_id: simlauncher_start
      allowed_methods: [POST]
      local_only: true
  actions:
    - action: light.turn_on
      target: { entity_id: light.cockpit }
    - action: notify.notify
      data: { message: "Session started: {{ trigger.json.game }}" }

- alias: Sim rig off
  triggers:
    - trigger: webhook
      webhook_id: simlauncher_end
      allowed_methods: [POST]
      local_only: true
  actions:
    - action: light.turn_off
      target: { entity_id: light.cockpit }

Then, in SimLauncher: Start = http://homeassistant.local:8123/api/webhook/simlauncher_start, End = http://homeassistant.local:8123/api/webhook/simlauncher_end. Save, then click Test.

AI assistants (MCP)

SimLauncher speaks the Model Context Protocol over stdio. In Claude Desktop, add this to claude_desktop_config.json and restart it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "simlauncher": {
      "command": "C:\\Path\\To\\SimLauncher.exe",
      "args": ["--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Tool	What it does
list_games, list_apps, get_status	Games (with play time), profiles, apps (running or missing) and the current step
launch_game	Runs the full sequence for a game, optionally with a profile
start_app, stop_app	Starts or closes one app
end_session	Closes the game and every app
add_game, add_app	Adds a game (Steam AppID or .exe) or an app, optionally to some games
scan_steam_games, import_steam_games	Lists installed Steam games and adds them with their picture

Examples: "Launch Le Mans Ultimate", "Is SimHub running?", "Add my new Steam racing games", "Add OpenKneeboard before AMS2 and LMU", "End the session".

When SimLauncher is already running in the tray, the MCP server relays commands to it, so the interface stays in sync. Claude Desktop keeps its own SimLauncher.exe --mcp processes running while it is open; that is expected.

Command line

SimLauncher.exe                         open the interface
SimLauncher.exe --game <id>             run the launch sequence (Stream Deck, shortcuts)
SimLauncher.exe --game <id> --profile <p>   use a sequence profile (vr, flat…)
SimLauncher.exe --game <id> --apps      only start the companion apps
SimLauncher.exe --game <id> --nowait    don't watch for the game exit
SimLauncher.exe --end                   end the session: close the game and every app
SimLauncher.exe --tray                  tray icon, no window
SimLauncher.exe --mcp                   MCP server on stdio
SimLauncher.exe --list                  print game IDs

Updates

SimLauncher checks GitHub Releases at startup and every 6 hours. When a new version is out, a green banner offers Update now and What's new. The new exe is downloaded, its size and SHA-256 are checked against the release, then it replaces the old one and SimLauncher restarts. With Install updates automatically, this happens on its own, but never while a launch is running or a game is being watched.

After an update, restart Claude Desktop so the MCP server uses the new version.

Files and privacy

Everything stays on your PC, in %APPDATA%\SimLauncher:

File	Content
config.json	Your settings
covers\	Pictures copied from Steam
stats.json	Play time measured by SimLauncher (Steam's own play time is only read, never changed)
launcher.log	Log of the last sessions
crash.log	Error details, if SimLauncher ever crashes

SimLauncher only connects to GitHub (update check and download) and to the webhook URLs you enter. The interface listens on 127.0.0.1:47821 only, and every request that changes something must carry an X-SimLauncher header, so web pages can't trigger a launch.

Troubleshooting

• An app shows "Executable not found": fix its path in Settings › Companion apps.
• Apps don't close when the game exits: the game's process name is wrong or empty. Check it in Task Manager › Details.
• "Find my Steam games" finds nothing: Steam must be installed for the current Windows user. Games in other libraries are found through Steam's libraryfolders.vdf.
• An app won't close ("runs as administrator"): Windows doesn't let a normal program close an elevated one. Turn off Run as administrator for that app (Properties › Compatibility), or close it by hand.
• Two SimLauncher.exe in Task Manager after quitting: they are the MCP servers started by Claude Desktop (--mcp). They close with Claude Desktop.
• The update fails with "Access denied": SimLauncher is in a protected folder such as Program Files. Move the exe to a folder you own.
• Something else: send launcher.log (and crash.log if it isn't empty) in an issue.

Build from source

Requires Go 1.23 or later. Builds the Windows exe from any OS:

go install github.com/akavel/rsrc@v0.10.2   # optional, embeds the icon
./build.sh                                   # → dist/SimLauncher.exe

go test ./... runs on any OS (Windows calls are replaced by a fake). Node.js is used, when present, to check that every interface language has every string.

File	Role
stats.go	Play time
launcher.go, session.go	Launch sequence, end of session, webhooks
steam.go	Steam library and pictures
update.go	Self-update
config.go, server.go, ui/index.html	Settings, local API, interface
mcp.go, mcp_add.go	MCP server
tray_windows.go, sys_windows.go	Windows tray, processes, dialogs
i18n.go	Engine and tray strings

Translations: engine strings are in i18n.go (catalog), interface strings in the I18N object of ui/index.html. To add a language, add its code to languages, a column in catalog, a block in I18N and an <option> in the language menu; go test fails if a string or a placeholder is missing. Corrections from native speakers are very welcome.

Version history

Version	Changes
1.7.0	General tab reorganised: stay next to the clock when the window is closed, graceful or immediate closing, configuration export and import.
1.6.1	Default profile names follow the interface language; Band cards no longer overlap on narrow windows.
1.6.0	Card styles (Appearance tab), play time and launch buttons under the picture, GitHub links in Updates, new screenshots.
1.5.1	Settings split into tabs with collapsible lines; clear message when an app can't be closed because it runs as administrator.
1.5.0	Sequence profiles (cards, tray, --profile, Stream Deck, MCP) and play time per game.
1.4.1	Updates work even when Claude Desktop's MCP server still uses the previous exe.
1.4.0	Steam detection with pictures, End session (button, tray, --end, MCP), Home Assistant webhooks, MCP tools end_session, scan_steam_games, import_steam_games.
1.3.0	MCP tools add_game and add_app.
1.2.0	Game pictures, Hide the name, built-in updates, version shown, crash log; fixed the Browse buttons.
1.1.0	First public release: launch sequences, starting lights, tray icon, Stream Deck, MCP server, 5 languages.

License

MIT. SimLauncher is not affiliated with Pimax, MOZA Racing, SimHub, Crew Chief, Elgato, Valve, Home Assistant or any game publisher. Game names and Steam pictures belong to their owners; SimLauncher ships no game artwork, and the bundled Stream Deck icons are original.