Manifest Reference

manifest.json is the creator-facing description of a Vifu game. It should read like a game manifest, not an internal permission graph.

Minimal Game

{
  "name": "door-quest"
}

Only name is required. Vifu fills deployable defaults for manifestVersion, type, version, main.url, main.type, main.engine, main.sdk, and build.output. Add those fields only when the detected/default value is wrong for the project.

id is not required for deploy. Vifu resolves the deploy target from the signed-in owner and name, then updates the same game on repeated deploys from the same project.

AI-native Game

{
  "name": "AIventure",
  "title": "AIventure",
  "engine": "phaser",
  "description": "A Phaser adventure game with AI-driven NPC dialogue.",
  "tags": ["ai-native", "adventure", "phaser"],
  "category": "story"
}

Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Stable ASCII deploy name, such as door-quest.
manifestVersion	No	Defaults to 1.
type	No	Defaults to game.
title	No	Player-facing display title. Defaults from name.
version	No	Defaults to 1.0.0.
engine	No	Compact runtime engine hint such as phaser, three, or vanilla. Compiles to main.engine; explicit main.engine still wins.
description	No	Short player-facing description.
tags	No	Search, taxonomy, and discovery tags.
main	No	Browser entry and engine metadata. Defaults to index.html, static-web, vanilla, and sdk: auto.
build	No	Local build command and output directory.
ai	No	Vifu AI is available through the SDK by default. Omit this field unless you intentionally need to disable AI or use a platform-specific override.
companion	No	Enables/configures the companion bridge. Companion features are on by default; set a feature to false only to turn it off.
save	No	Game state persistence scope.
dictionary	No	Dictionary language pairs and fields.
voice	No	Speech input/output settings.
camera	No	Camera mode requested by the game.
review	No	Review or grading subject and mode.
data	No	Named runtime data files readable through vifu.resources.
media	No	Named runtime media files.
bundle	No	Additional files included in the shipped game bundle.
links	No	External links the runtime may open.
category	No	Public product family: language, knowledge, story, music, creative, wellbeing, or arcade. More specific words such as adventure belong in tags.
remix	No	Remix access policy.

main

{
  "main": {
    "url": "index.html",
    "type": "static-web",
    "engine": "vanilla",
    "sdk": "auto"
  }
}

Field	Description
url	Entry HTML file inside build.output.
type	Usually static-web.
engine	Informational engine label such as vanilla, phaser, pixi, or three.
sdk	Use auto when the runtime should inject/connect the Vifu SDK.

build

{
  "build": {
    "command": "npm run build",
    "output": "dist"
  }
}

vifu deploy runs build.command unless --no-build is passed, then uploads build.output after validation.

What Not To Put In V1 Game Manifests

These are internal or obsolete public concepts:

• id
• entry
• play
• runtime
• services
• devices
• resources
• permissions
• capabilities
• browser
• security
• schema

Use product nouns such as ai, data, media, bundle, links, save, dictionary, voice, camera, and review. The host compiles those into runtime policy internally.

Validate And Explain

vifu manifest check
vifu manifest explain
vifu manifest explain --debug

Use --debug only when you need to inspect the compiled internal runtime policy.