Examine Game Data

Added in version 2026.4.0.

Returns statistics about game data: document and validation error counts per schema, metadata hash, and revision hash.

Command

# local game data (windows)
dnx dotnet-charon -- DATA EXAMINE \
  --dataBase "c:\my app\gamedata.json"

# remote game data
dnx dotnet-charon -- DATA EXAMINE \
  --dataBase "https://charon.live/view/data/My_Game/develop/" \
  --credentials "<API-Key>"

Use this command to verify that a file is valid game data and get a content overview - document counts per schema, a metadata hash, and a revision hash - before running a heavier command such as DATA LIST or DATA SEARCH.

Examine runs a full validation pass over the data and reports how many errors of each kind every collection has. This is the same pass that produces the error counts shown in the editor’s document lists and in the publication review, and it uses the same profile: all integrity checks plus checkTranslations. Use DATA VALIDATE instead when you need the individual errors rather than the counts, or when you need to choose which checks run.

Parameters

--dataBase

Absolute or relative path to game data. Use quotation marks if your path contains spaces.

# local file
--dataBase "c:\my app\gamedata.json"

# remote server
--dataBase "https://charon.live/view/data/My_Game/develop/"
--credentials

The API key used to access remote server in case of –dataBase being URL.

--output

Path to the statistics output file. If the file exists, it will be overwritten. The directory must already exist. Alternatively, you can output to Standard Error, Standard Output, /dev/null, or a URL.

# standard output (default)
--output out
--output con

# standard error
--output err

# null device
--output null

# absolute path (windows)
--output "c:\my app\stats.json"

# absolute path (unix)
--output /user/data/stats.json

# relative path (universal)
--output "./stats.json"

# remote location (HTTP)
--output "http://example.com/stats.json"

# remote location with authentication (FTP)
--output "ftp://user:password@example.com/stats.json"
--outputFormat

Format for serializing the output.

# JSON (default)
--outputFormat json

# BSON
--outputFormat bson

# Message Pack
--outputFormat msgpack
--outputFormattingOptions

Additional formatting options for the chosen output format.

This command supports universal parameters.

Output

{
  "metadataHash": "3f1c2a9e7b0d4c5e8a1f6d2b",
  "revisionHash": "678f998993a22d1f54b7fa80",
  "toolsVersion": "2025.1.1.0",
  "changeNumber": 42,
  "collections":
  [
    {
      "schemaName": "Character",
      "schemaId": "592fc86c983a36266c0912b1",
      "documentCount": 128,
      "rootDocumentCount": 128,
      "validationErrorCount": {}
    },
    {
      "schemaName": "Item",
      "schemaId": "592fc86c983a36266c0912a0",
      "documentCount": 340,
      "rootDocumentCount": 210,
      "validationErrorCount": {}
    }
    // ...
  ]
}

documentCount includes documents embedded inside other documents; rootDocumentCount counts only top-level documents in the collection. validationErrorCount maps validation error codes to their occurrence count and is empty when no errors were found during the examine pass.

See also