Collection reference

Your Collection (default ~/Emulation) is the central location for all your emulation data. This page documents its structure and how synchronization works.

Folder structure

~/Emulation/
├── roms/                 # ROM files, organized by system
│   ├── snes/
│   ├── psx/
│   └── ...
├── bios/                 # BIOS and firmware files, organized by system
│   ├── psx/
│   └── ...
├── saves/                # Save files (memory cards, battery saves), by system
│   ├── psx/
│   ├── gba/
│   └── ...
├── states/               # Emulator save states, by emulator
│   ├── duckstation/
│   ├── dolphin/
│   └── ...
├── screenshots/          # Captured screenshots, by emulator
│   ├── retroarch/
│   ├── duckstation/
│   └── ...
└── frontends/            # Frontend metadata and media
    └── esde/
        ├── gamelists/    # Game lists per system
        └── media/        # Scraped artwork per system

Saves are organized by system so that different emulators for the same system can share save files. States and screenshots are organized by emulator because their formats are emulator-specific. Kyaraben never reads, modifies, or deletes your ROMs, saves, or BIOS files.

Symlink strategy

Kyaraben uses symlinks to redirect emulator data directories to your Collection . For example, Dolphin normally stores GameCube saves in ~/.local/share/dolphin-emu/GC/. Kyaraben creates a symlink from that location to ~/Emulation/saves/gamecube/. The emulator runs with its default settings; the symlink transparently redirects data to your managed location.

What syncs

When synchronization is enabled, these folders synchronize between devices:

Content	Sync behavior
roms/	Bidirectional
bios/	Bidirectional
saves/	Bidirectional
states/	Bidirectional
screenshots/	Bidirectional
frontends/esde/gamelists/	Bidirectional
frontends/esde/media/	Bidirectional

All folders use standard bidirectional sync. Deletions propagate to all devices.

EmulationStation DE gamelists and media

When using EmulationStation DE, scraped metadata (game descriptions, ratings, etc.) and media (screenshots, videos, box art) synchronize between devices. Kyaraben strips play statistics (playcount, playtime, last played) before syncing to avoid conflicts, then merges local stats back when importing. This means each device tracks its own play history while sharing metadata and artwork.

Scraped videos can be large. See CLI reference to exclude them from synchronization.

File versioning

Syncthing keeps old versions of save and state files for 30 days. ROM and BIOS folders do not use versioning.

Resolving conflicts

When the same file is modified on two devices before they sync, Syncthing creates a conflict file instead of overwriting either version. Conflict files have names like game.sync-conflict-ABCD123-20260307-120000.srm.

To check for conflicts:

• UI: conflict counts appear in the sync status for each folder
• CLI: run kyaraben sync status to see per-folder conflict counts

To resolve a conflict:

1. Find the conflict file in the affected folder (look for .sync-conflict- in the filename)
2. Compare it with the original file and decide which version to keep
3. Delete the version you do not want

Conflict files sync between devices, so you only need to resolve them once.