rpycdec

A tool for decompiling Ren'Py compiled script files (.rpyc and .rpymc) back to readable .rpy source. It reads scripts compiled by Ren'Py 7 and 8, and is tested against 7.6.3, 8.2.3, 8.4.1 and 8.5.3.

Features

What it does	Command	Notes
Decompile a script, or a whole game	rpycdec decompile	Ren'Py 7.x and 8.x
Inspect a compiled script, or compare two	rpycdec dump	what the .rpyc carries, not just the source
Extract an RPA archive, all or part of it	rpycdec unrpa	filter by path expression or suffix
Build an RPA archive	rpycdec rpa	files or whole directories
Pull the game out of an Android APK	rpycdec extract-game
Write a game's translations out	rpycdec extract-translate	to tl/<language>/
Take a save file apart and put it back	rpycdec save	.save to JSON and back, re-signing included

The decompiled source is checked by compiling it again and comparing the two structures, against fixtures and the scripts the Ren'Py SDKs ship: see Testing.

Installation

Needs Python 3.10 or newer.

pip install rpycdec

To work on rpycdec itself, install it from a clone in editable mode, which brings the linter along:

git clone https://github.com/cnfatal/rpycdec.git
cd rpycdec
pip install -e ".[dev]"

The wheel also installs the renpy and store packages the tool uses to rebuild a script's objects, so keep it out of an environment where the real Ren'Py is installed.

Usage

<required>, [optional], ... repeats, -v for verbose output.

# decompile a file, or every .rpyc / .rpymc under a directory
# -o writes somewhere else, -d also prints the pickle disassembly
rpycdec decompile <path>... [-o <dir>] [-d]

# print the structure a compiled script carries, or diff it against another
# file names, line numbers and the like are left out: no decompiler can keep
rpycdec dump <path> [<other>]

# extract an rpa archive, or just the files matching a path
# -e takes a regular expression, -s a suffix; both may be repeated
rpycdec unrpa <archive.rpa> [-o <dir>] [-e <regex>]... [-s <suffix>]...

# build an rpa archive, naming the files inside relative to --base
rpycdec rpa <path>... -o <archive.rpa> [--base <dir>]

# pull the game out of an Android APK
rpycdec extract-game <game.apk> [-o <dir>]

# write a game's translations to tl/<language>/
rpycdec extract-translate <game-dir>... -l <language> [-o <dir>]
rpycdec extract-translate <game-dir> -l Chinese --no-strings --empty

# take a save file apart into JSON, edit it, put it back together
rpycdec save extract <save> [<dir>] [-d] [-V]
rpycdec save restore <dir> [<save>] [-k <security_keys.txt>]
rpycdec save info <save>
rpycdec save genkey [<security_keys.txt>]

# for example
rpycdec decompile /path/to/game/ -o out/
rpycdec dump script.rpyc script.roundtrip.rpyc
rpycdec unrpa archive.rpa -s .rpy .rpyc

Security Warning

This tool processes .rpyc, .rpymc, .rpa, and .save files which use Python's pickle format internally. rpycdec uses restricted unpicklers with whitelist-based class loading to mitigate arbitrary code execution risks, but no pickle safeguard is perfect. Only process files from sources you trust.

Set RPYCDEC_NO_WARNING=1 to suppress the CLI security warning. What the restricted unpicklers allow, and how to report a vulnerability privately, is in SECURITY.md.

See also: Python pickle security warning

Troubleshooting

• Q: Pickle error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '...'

  A: This means our fake renpy/store packages don't cover the class your file needs. Please open an issue with the Ren'Py version and the file that failed.

• Q: A statement came out wrong, or as a comment like # <unrecognized: Foo>

  A: Attach the structure of the file to the issue: rpycdec dump game/script.rpyc. It prints every node with the attributes it carries, including what the decompiled script has no way to show, and an <unrecognized: ...> names the class our fake renpy package is missing.

• Q: The decompiled script looks right, but compiling it again changes something

  A: rpycdec dump original.rpyc decompiled.rpyc prints what differs between the two, which is how the tests in this repository check a round trip. Paste that, together with the file and the Ren'Py version, into the issue.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue before submitting major changes so we can discuss the approach.

How the decompiler works, why it ships a fake renpy package, and where a missing node class goes: DEVELOP.md.

Testing

make test runs the unit tests and the end-to-end fixtures: each fixture in tests/fixtures/ is compiled with every Ren'Py SDK found under sdks/, decompiled, compiled again, and both ASTs are compared. Fixtures declare the version range they are written for with # min-renpy: / # max-renpy: headers, and combinations outside that range are skipped.

make test-corpus does the same for every game script the SDKs ship (~300 files, it takes a few minutes). Files that do not survive a round trip yet are listed in tests/corpus_baseline.json, each with the kind of failure and what differs first; a listed file that starts passing fails the test, so the list stays honest. Regenerate it with python3 -m tests.test_corpus --write-baseline.

The entries left there are the ones no decompiler can fix, because the value Ren'Py stored was made at compilation time rather than written in the source:

• say-identifier — Ren'Py hands out identifiers while generating translations; the script itself has no id clause to write back.
• init-offset — init offset is not in the AST at all, it is folded into the priorities of the statements around it.

Both need the SDKs, which are not in the repository; tests that need them skip when sdks/ is empty. Set RPYCDEC_SDKS to point at SDK roots elsewhere.

Community & Support

• GitHub Issues — Bug reports and feature requests
• Telegram Group — Community discussion and support

Alternatives

• unrpyc - The well-established and widely-used Ren'Py script decompiler