Guides

Practical guides for using gem's public Python API, CLI, and lower-level parser hooks. Each guide assumes gem is installed and you have a decompressed Dota 2 .dem replay.

You can download replays from OpenDota or from the Dota 2 client under Watch -> Recent Games.

Start here

Guide	Use it when you want to
Quickstart	Install gem, parse one replay, and export data
Full Match Data	Understand the ParsedMatch and ParsedPlayer fields
Time-Series & DataFrames	Work with pandas tables, positions, and advantage curves

Analyze replay events

Guide	Use it when you want to
Combat Log	Filter damage, healing, kills, item uses, and modifiers
Teamfight Detection	Use Gem and OpenDota-compatible fight windows
Laning Analysis	Read lane roles, lane efficiency, and 10-minute advantages
Entity State	Subscribe to raw entity lifecycle and field updates

Export and extend

Guide	Use it when you want to
CLI Reference	Run parse, batch, and report asset-cache commands
JSON Output Shape	Understand the nested JSON structure returned by to_json()
Custom Extractors	Register parser callbacks and collect custom outputs

Internals

Parser internals live in dedicated pages:

1. Bits & Bytes Primer
2. Parser Internals