Crate.tf item URL codec

The official, dependency-free reference implementation for converting TF2 SKUs to canonical Crate.tf item links and parsing supported item URL segments back to API SKUs.

This repository is the public integration contract for websites, bots, browser extensions, and other tools linking to Crate.tf item pages. Crate.tf backend APIs continue to use authoritative semicolon-delimited TF2 SKUs; public item URLs use a readable hyphenated representation.

Why this exists

A naive replacement works in the forward direction when the input is already a canonical TF2 SKU, but it cannot safely parse URLs in reverse. Some valid SKU attributes contain native hyphens:

9258;5;uncraftable;td-31154

The corresponding public path is:

/item/9258-5-uncraftable-td-31154

The codec recognizes the TF2 SKU grammar and preserves attributes such as td-31154, kt-2, and od-456.

Installation

Install the package from npm:

npm install @cratetf/item-url-codec

Non-JavaScript integrations can implement the language-neutral contract from CONTRACT.md and verify their implementation against test-vectors.json.

Usage

import {
  toApiSkuFromItemPathSegment,
  toCrateTfItemUrl,
  toItemPathFromSku,
} from '@cratetf/item-url-codec'

toItemPathFromSku('5978;6;c151')
// '/item/5978-6-c151'

toCrateTfItemUrl('9258;5;uncraftable;td-31154')
// 'https://crate.tf/item/9258-5-uncraftable-td-31154'

toApiSkuFromItemPathSegment('9258-5-uncraftable-td-31154')
// '9258;5;uncraftable;td-31154'

For outbound links, integrations normally need only toCrateTfItemUrl() or toItemPathFromSku(). Reverse parsing is primarily useful to Crate.tf itself.

Public API

normalizeTf2Sku(rawSku)

Normalizes case, whitespace, untradeable, and known tolerant numeric attribute spellings while preserving the semicolon-delimited API representation.

toCanonicalItemPathSegment(rawSku)

Returns the canonical hyphenated item path segment.

toItemPathFromSku(rawSku)

Returns the canonical site-relative /item/<segment> path.

toCrateTfItemUrl(rawSku, baseUrl?)

Returns an absolute item URL. It defaults to https://crate.tf and rejects an empty SKU or non-HTTP(S) base URL.

toApiSkuFromItemPathSegment(pathSegment)

Returns the normalized API SKU for a canonical or supported legacy segment. Returns an empty string for ambiguous or unsupported segments.

isCanonicalItemPathSegment(value)

Returns whether the input is already the exact canonical path representation.

Canonical examples

API SKU	Canonical path
5021;6	/item/5021-6
5978;6;c151	/item/5978-6-c151
30911;5;u144	/item/30911-5-u144
9258;5;uncraftable;td-31154	/item/9258-5-uncraftable-td-31154
123;6;kt-2	/item/123-6-kt-2
123;6;od-456;oq6	/item/123-6-od-456-oq6

Requirements and compatibility

• Zero runtime dependencies.
• ESM package with bundled TypeScript declarations.
• Browser and Node.js compatible.
• Node.js 20 or newer for package tooling and automated tests.
• Semantic Versioning for public API and contract changes.

The package does not check whether an SKU currently exists in the Crate.tf catalog. It only normalizes and converts identifiers. A correctly formed link may still return 404 when the item is not present in the live catalog.

Development

npm ci
npm run check
npm pack --dry-run

npm run check performs strict TypeScript validation, builds declarations and source maps, and executes the conformance tests.

Security

This package processes public identifiers and does not access credentials, network services, or the filesystem. Report security concerns according to SECURITY.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Changes to parsing behavior must include portable contract vectors and tests.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.