OpenRemap Docs

openremap validate

Three sub-commands for checking a binary against a recipe — before and after tuning. In most cases you do not need to run these individually: openremap tune runs validate before and validate after automatically as Phase 1 and Phase 3.

Use these commands when you need to inspect a specific step in isolation, save an individual report, or diagnose a failure that tune reported.

New here? Read the plain-English introduction first.

Sub-commands at a glance

Sub-command When to run What it checks
before When you need Phase 1 in isolation Are the original bytes at the exact expected offsets?
check When before fails (or Phase 1 of tune fails) Are the original bytes anywhere in the binary at all?
after When you need Phase 3 in isolation Are the new bytes now at the correct offsets?

Deprecated names — validate strict, validate exists, and validate tuned still work (hidden from --help) but print a rename notice. Use the new names going forward.

before

The pre-flight safety check. Checks that the exact original bytes (ob) from every recipe instruction are present at their expected offsets in the target binary. Every instruction is checked before reporting — you see the full picture, not just the first failure.

A result of Safe to tune means every instruction matched. openremap tune runs this automatically as Phase 1 before writing anything.

Usage

openremap validate before <TARGET> <RECIPE> [OPTIONS]

Arguments & options

Argument Required Description
TARGET Yes The untuned ECU binary to check (.bin, .ori, .hex, .s19, .srec, or .mot).
RECIPE Yes The recipe file (.remap, .openremap, or .json).
Option Short Description
--json Output the full report as JSON instead of a table.
--output PATH -o Save the report to a file.
--help Show help and exit.

Examples

# Run the check and print the result
openremap validate before target.bin recipe.remap

# Save the full JSON report to a file
openremap validate before target.bin recipe.remap --json --output before_report.json

Example output

All instructions passed

  Validating target.bin against recipe.remap …

  ✅ Safe to tune

  Target               target.bin
  MD5                  abc2e7d4610bfda5619951e015566e8d
  Instructions         277
  Passed               277

Some instructions failed

  Validating target.bin against recipe.remap …

  ⚠  match_key mismatch
     recipe : EDC17C66::1037541778126241V0
     target : EDC17C66::1037541778999999V0

  ❌ NOT safe to tune

  Target               target.bin
  MD5                  ff3a91b2...
  Instructions         277
  Passed               261
  Failed                16

  Failed instructions:
     #  12  offset 0x0012A4F0  — ob not found at offset
     #  13  offset 0x0012A510  — ob not found at offset
     …

  Tip: run  openremap validate check  to find out why.

What to look for

Result What to do
Safe to tune — all passed Run openremap tune (or proceed to Phase 2 manually).
Any failures Stop. Run validate check to find out whether the bytes are shifted or missing.
match_key mismatch warning The target is a different software version from the recipe source. Run validate check before deciding whether to continue.

check

The diagnostic tool — run this when before (or Phase 1 of tune) fails. Searches the entire binary for the original bytes (ob) of every instruction — not just at the expected offset. This tells you whether the bytes exist somewhere else in the file (the maps have shifted, likely a different software revision) or are absent entirely (this is the wrong ECU).

This command never modifies any file — it is purely diagnostic.

Usage

openremap validate check <TARGET> <RECIPE> [OPTIONS]

Arguments & options

Same as before: TARGET (.bin, .ori, .hex, .s19, .srec, .mot), RECIPE (.remap/.openremap/.json), --json, --output/-o, --help.

Verdicts

Verdict What it means What to do
SAFE EXACT All ob bytes found at their exact expected offsets. Re-examine why validate before failed — this is unusual.
SHIFTED RECOVERABLE All ob bytes found, but at different offsets than the recipe expects. The target is a different software revision. openremap tune's ±2 KB anchor search may still recover these — proceed with caution and verify carefully.
MISSING UNRECOVERABLE Some ob bytes are not found anywhere in the binary. This is the wrong ECU. Do not tune.

Example output

  Searching target.bin for all recipe instructions …

  Verdict: SHIFTED RECOVERABLE

  Target               target.bin
  MD5                  ff3a91b2...
  Instructions         277
  Exact                261
  Shifted               16
  Missing                0

  Shifted instructions:
     # 12  expected 0x0012A4F0  →  found at shift +4096
     # 13  expected 0x0012A510  →  found at shift +4096

after

The post-tune confirmation. Confirms every instruction's new bytes (mb) are present at the correct offset in the tuned binary. It is the mirror image of validate before: before checks the original bytes (ob) before tuning; after checks the modified bytes (mb) after.

openremap tune runs this automatically as Phase 3. Run it manually for an independent confirmation report, or to verify a binary that was tuned outside openremap tune.

Usage

openremap validate after <TUNED> <RECIPE> [OPTIONS]

Arguments & options

Argument Required Description
TUNED Yes The tuned ECU binary to verify (.bin, .ori, .hex, .s19, .srec, or .mot).
RECIPE Yes The recipe file (.remap, .openremap, or .json) used when tuning.

Options are the same as the other sub-commands: --json, --output/-o, --help.

Examples

# Verify the tuned binary
openremap validate after target_tuned.bin recipe.remap

# Save the verification report for your records
openremap validate after target_tuned.bin recipe.remap --json --output verify.json

Example output

All instructions confirmed

  Verifying tuned binary target_tuned.bin against recipe.remap …

  ✅ Tune confirmed — all mb bytes verified

  Tuned File           target_tuned.bin
  MD5                  f3c1a9b2d8e7041256ff34c2ab987d31
  Instructions         277
  Confirmed            277

Some instructions failed

  Verifying tuned binary target_tuned.bin against recipe.remap …

  ❌ Tune NOT confirmed — some instructions failed

  Tuned File           target_tuned.bin
  MD5                  ...
  Instructions         277
  Confirmed            274
  Failed                 3

  Failed instructions:
     #  45  offset 0x00FF1200  size 4 bytes  — mb not found at offset

What to look for

Result What to do
Tune confirmed — all passed The tune was written correctly. Proceed to checksum correction before flashing.
Any failures Do not flash. Re-run openremap tune or investigate with validate check.

When to use each command

# Normal workflow — tune does all three phases automatically
openremap tune target.bin recipe.remap

# Diagnose a Phase 1 failure reported by tune
openremap validate check target.bin recipe.remap

# Run phases individually with saved reports
openremap validate before target.bin recipe.remap --json --output p1.json
openremap validate after  target_tuned.bin recipe.remap --json --output p3.json

Deprecated aliases

The old sub-command names still work but print a yellow deprecation notice (they are hidden from --help):

Old name New name
validate strict validate before
validate exists validate check
validate tuned validate after

Notes

  • All three validate commands are read-only — they never modify any file.
  • --json outputs the raw report including every instruction result individually — useful for scripting, CI, or archiving.
  • validate before runs automatically inside openremap tune as Phase 1 before any bytes are written; validate after runs as Phase 3 after the recipe is applied. tune --skip-validation bypasses both — only in scripted pipelines that validated separately.
  • Exit codes: 0 when the check passes, 1 when it fails.

See also

  • validate — API — the three checks as methods
  • tune — the one-shot apply that runs these steps
  • audit — the receipt check afterwards
Previousvalidate — APINext validate
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