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How to get the Portal SteamTools manifest

Step-by-step: download Portal (AppID 400) manifest and Lua files for SteamTools in under a minute. No signup, no key required.

Jul 3, 2026SteamTools TeamSteamTools Team

Quick answer

  1. Open /app/400 — the dedicated Portal entity page.
  2. Click Download ZIP. You get a single archive containing 400_public.lua, key.vdf, and a short README.txt.
  3. Drop both files into your SteamTools installation directory.
  4. Restart SteamTools. Portal appears in your library.

That's it. The whole flow is under a minute once SteamTools is installed.

Why the dedicated /app/400 page

The home page generator works for any Steam App ID, but for popular games we maintain a dedicated entity page with:

  • VideoGame JSON-LD so search engines and AI assistants know exactly what Portal is (Valve, single-player puzzle, released October 10 2007).
  • A direct download link that's stable — the URL stays the same regardless of UI changes, so you can bookmark it.
  • Cross-references to /how-it-works and /manifest-files if you want to understand what each file actually does.

If you already know Portal's App ID is 400, you can also type 400 directly into the home page generator — both paths produce the same files.

What you need

  • SteamTools installed. If you don't have it yet, see /manifest-files for the upstream download.
  • About 30 seconds and a working internet connection.

Where the files come from

The .lua script and key.vdf depot decryption keys for Portal are generated and maintained by the SteamAutoCracks/ManifestHub2 community archive. We proxy those files from a fork so they remain available even if the upstream account is renamed or removed.

The ZIP we return contains both files plus a localised README with the exact drop-in instructions for your operating system.

Common mistakes

Q: I dropped the files in but Portal doesn't show up in SteamTools.

A: Check that SteamTools is configured (look for a green "ready" indicator in the system tray). If you installed SteamTools recently, you may need to enable "Allow third-party manifest files" in its settings.

Q: The Lua file shows "manifest not found" when SteamTools starts.

A: This usually means the key.vdf and the Lua file are in different directories. Both files must sit at the SteamTools installation root — not in a subfolder. The README inside the ZIP shows the exact path.

Q: Can I use this for online play?

A: No. SteamTools is an offline-library tool. Portal will appear in your library and you can launch it offline, but multiplayer features and Steam Cloud sync are disabled. This is a SteamTools limitation, not ours.

See also

  • /app/400 — Portal's dedicated entity page with download links and full game metadata.
  • /how-it-works — what happens behind the scenes when you press Generate.
  • /manifest-files — what the .lua and key.vdf files actually contain.
  • /how-to-find-app-id — how to find the App ID for any Steam game.
  • Discord — fastest path to a real human if anything in this guide goes wrong.