Tongs

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Status

Released

Latest version

0.11.019 Oct 2026

Requires

Anvil>=0.2.0

Game builds

eu4-1.37.5-steam-win64

Changes gameplay

Yes: may affect multiplayer and ironman

Source

happy-dwarf-team/tongs

Download Tongs 0.11.0

Windows 64-bit · 359 KB · released 19 Oct 2026 · All releases

SHA-256 checksum

8200080c569bdf10804ced650ab586b38270a2849a8f091a9dba05bfc712f98c

Compare it with Get-FileHash .\tongs-windows-x64.zip in PowerShell, or with SHA256SUMS.txt of the release.

Tongs lets test agents and scripts talk to a running game through a local named pipe, instead of reading pixels from screenshots. Every command answers with the state read from the game, so a script can check that its action took effect. Like a smith’s tongs, it holds the work from outside the forge.

What it does

• Reads the game state: whether a game is loaded, the date, the speed and the pause.
• Times the game between two dates (run_until, wait_until), for measuring how fast the game runs, and reports whether and when the game was paused while waiting.
• Reports the game window, the game’s worker threads and CPU masks, and writes screenshots of the window, also while it is covered.
• When you allow it, presses keys, types text, moves the pointer, clicks and scrolls through the game’s own SDL input, as a player would. The game window does not need focus.

It never writes game state.

Safety

• Off by default. The pipe opens only with enabled = true in anvil/data/tongs/config.toml, which the plugin creates on its first start. The keyboard and mouse commands also need input = true.
• Local only. Only programs of the Windows user running the game can connect; remote clients are rejected and there is no network listener.
• One hook, only with input. Keys, text and mouse buttons go into the game’s SDL event queue. With input = true the plugin hooks one function, the interface’s cursor query, so the game sees the pointer at the point set by the mouse commands; the real cursor does not move, and moving the real mouse hands the pointer back. Without input = true, no game code is patched.
• Screenshots are written only to anvil/data/tongs/screenshots/ (the newest 100 are kept).

Commands

The pipe is \\.\pipe\tongs. A request is one line of text; the answer is one JSON object on one line. Up to 4 clients can be connected at once, so one can wait in run_until while another reads state or sends cancel.

Command	Answer
ping	plugin version and game process id
state	whether a game is loaded; then the date, speed (1–5 as in the interface) and pause
window	size and position of the game window, focus, DPI
threads	worker threads in the game’s two pools, CPU masks and priority of the main thread
screenshot [NAME]	writes a PNG of the game window and answers with its path
wait_until DATE [timeout=S] [max_pause=S]	waits, without touching the game, until the date is reached; answers with the timing
cancel	ends every wait_until / run_until in progress
help	the commands and whether input commands are enabled

With input = true, also:

Command	What it does
pause, resume	press Space when needed and wait until the game is paused or running
speed N	presses keypad + / - until the speed is N (1–5); works while paused
run_until DATE [speed=N] [timeout=S] [max_pause=S]	sets the speed, resumes, waits for the date and pauses again
key NAME	presses one key (letters, digits, F-keys, arrows, Space, Esc, the console key, …)
text STRING	types into the focused text field
move X Y, click X Y, scroll STEPS	point, click (left, right, middle, double) and turn the wheel at window coordinates
release	hands the pointer back to the real mouse

wait_until and run_until wait at most 1 hour by default; timeout=S sets the limit, up to 14 400 s. With max_pause=S (since 0.3.0) the wait ends with an error once the game has stayed paused for S seconds, for example on an event with a choice, instead of running into the timeout. Answers report paused_ms and, after a pause, paused_date, so a measurement with a pause in it can be rejected.

Input commands answer once the game has reacted, or with an error after 10 s, and always include the state. The full list of keys and answer fields is in the README.

.\tongs.ps1 state
# {"ok":true,"in_game":true,"date":"1719.3.17","speed":2,"paused":true,...}
.\tongs.ps1 'run_until 1719.6.1 speed=5'
# {"ok":true,"command":"run_until","reached":true,"game_days":76.000,"days_per_second":12.352,"wall_ms":6153,...}

Clients

The repository has two small clients in scripts/:

• tongs.ps1 (PowerShell): sends one or more commands over one connection and prints one answer line per command.

• tongs.py (Python 3, standard library only): the same from the command line, or as a module:

  from tongs import Tongs
  with Tongs() as game:
      result = game.call("run_until 1720.1.1 speed=5", check=True)
      print(result["days_per_second"])

Any program that can open a named pipe can be a client.

Install

1. Install Anvil 0.2.0 or newer.
2. Download tongs-windows-x64.zip from the latest release and extract it into <EU4>/anvil/plugins/; it contains the tongs folder. SHA256SUMS.txt next to the archive holds its checksum.
3. Start the game once, so the plugin creates anvil/data/tongs/config.toml. Set enabled = true, and input = true if scripts should use the keyboard and mouse, then start the game again.

Delete the tongs folder to uninstall.

Tested

Checked in the game on EU4 1.37.5 (Steam) with Anvil 0.2.0, on one development machine with a loaded save. max_pause was checked in a lab measurement series: a run that an event paused ended after 5 s of pause instead of waiting for its 300 s timeout. Not verified yet: input in the main menu and in event pop-ups, keyboard layouts other than US, clicks on the map (only interface buttons were tried) and dragging, for which there is no command yet. Details are in the design notes.

Supported game builds

• EU4 1.37.5 (Steam, Windows 64-bit), eu4-1.37.5-steam-win64

On any other build Anvil skips the plugin and the game starts normally.