# cavs — packaging CLI
The `cavs` binary turns files and game builds into deduplicated, verifiable
`.cavs` files, inspects and verifies them, reconstructs them byte-for-byte, and
manages the global content-addressable store.
## How it works
`cavs pack --raw` splits inputs into FastCDC chunks (~64 KiB), deduplicates
them, compresses each with zstd, and writes a `.cavs` container with a chunk
table, a Merkle root over the content, per-file SHA-256, and an optional
Ed25519 signature. Reconstruction (`unpack`) verifies every chunk and produces
the original files exactly. The video mode (without `--raw`) segments inputs
with ffmpeg first, then packages the segments.
## Commands
```sh
# Package (game assets / arbitrary files)
cavs pack --raw build_v42.pck -o v42.cavs
cavs pack --raw --sign-key publisher.key data/* -o release.cavs # signed
cavs pack --raw --mode screen capture.bin -o capture.cavs # aggressive CDC
# Package video (needs ffmpeg on PATH)
cavs pack movie.mp4 -o movie.cavs --segment-time 4
# Inspect / verify / reconstruct
cavs info v42.cavs # structure, dedupe, compression
cavs verify v42.cavs --pubkey key.pub # chunk hashes + Merkle + signature
cavs unpack v42.cavs -o restored/ # exact reconstruction
cavs play movie.cavs # reconstruct to temp and play (ffplay)
# Signing keys (Ed25519)
cavs keygen -o publisher.key # → publisher.key (+ .pub)
# Global store (dedup at rest across versions/titles)
cavs store ./store add game_v1 game_v1.cavs
cavs store ./store add game_v2 game_v2.cavs # shared chunks stored once
cavs store ./store stat # storage savings
cavs store ./store rm game_v1 # unpublish
cavs store ./store gc --grace 0 # reclaim unreferenced chunks
```
Run `cavs --help` or `cavs <command> --help` for all options.
## Requirements
Nothing extra for `--raw` (game asset) mode. `ffmpeg`/`ffplay` on `PATH` only
for the video mode.