Extract text from KV3 files
To convert your KV3 file to another format, you need Valve Source 2 SDK or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Engine Data Asset" file type, you need software like Valve Source 2 SDK or a similar tool.
KeyValues3 (.KV3) is the primary data serialization format used by Valve's Source 2 engine, powering games like Dota 2, Half-Life: Alyx, and Counter-Strike 2. It stores everything from particle system definitions and AI behavior trees to material properties and model metadata. While the text-based version visually resembles JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), it is a proprietary superset that supports comments, multiline strings, and binary encoding, making it incompatible with standard data parsers.
The main challenge for modders and developers is that .KV3 files often exist in a compiled binary state intended for engine performance, rendering them unreadable in standard text editors like Notepad++. Even when in text format, the relaxed syntax (unquoted keys, trailing commas) breaks standard JSON linters, creating friction when trying to integrate game data into external web tools or Python scripts. Furthermore, legacy files from the Componentace K2 Database system also share this extension, adding potential confusion.
To edit or analyze these assets outside the official Source 2 Workbench, users should convert the file to JSON. This normalizes the syntax for use with standard libraries. For archiving or manual review, converting to XML or plain TXT is recommended. If dealing with binary encoded files, a specialized conversion workflow is necessary to reconstruct the human-readable hierarchy.
Convert.Guru analyzes your KV3 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted URD, LCE and ITW files.
If you want to convert KV3 file to EXE, ISO, BIN, CUE, PAK, WAD, PK3, PK4, BSP, MAP, SAV or DAT, you can use Valve Source 2 SDK or similar software from the "Source 2 Game Data" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MOD, BIN, CFG, SCX, DAT, MPQ, LOG, CUE, INI, EXE, SCM or ISO files to KV3, try Valve Source 2 SDK or another comparable tool in the "Source 2 Game Data" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our KV3 converter.