Violentmonkey Userscript Sync

Violentmonkey's cloud sync folder holds the editable copy of every userscript. Editing the code there is only half the job.

vmscript.py locates the folder itself: --dir wins, then $VM_SYNC_DIR, then the known Dropbox / OneDrive / Google Drive layouts. Never hard-code the path — if detection fails the script says so and lists what it tried.

The failure mode

Violentmonkey decides what to pull by comparing timestamps, not content. If you change a script's code but leave the timestamps alone, the browser sees "no change", keeps its own copy, and pushes the old code back over your edit on the next sync. Nothing errors; the change just silently disappears.

A successful edit must bump all three:

scripts/vmscript.py put does all three. Use it rather than hand-editing JSON.

Folder layout

• Violentmonkey — index: {timestamp, info: {<key>: {modified, position, enabled, deleted}}}
• vm@2-<key> — one script: {version, custom, config, props, code}
• <key> encodes namespace\nname\n with -XX hex escapes (-20 space, -0a newline, -3a colon)

Both are compact JSON. Preserve that: json.dump(..., ensure_ascii=False, separators=(",", ":")).

Workflow

S=scripts/vmscript.py            # in this skill directory

$S list                          # find the script
$S get "Quick Actions" -o /tmp/s.js
# edit /tmp/s.js — bump @version, update @description if the UX changed
$S put "Quick Actions" /tmp/s.js # syntax-checks, writes, bumps timestamps

Then tell the user to sync: Violentmonkey → Settings → Sync → Sync now.

Common mistakes

Fallback

If sync still doesn't land (conflict, upload lag), paste directly: pbcopy < /tmp/s.js, then in Violentmonkey open the script editor, select all, paste, save. That writes the browser's copy directly and wins the next comparison.