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What is KV Format?

KeyValues (KV) is Valve’s lightweight key–value text format used throughout Dota 2 for data-driven configuration. A KV file consists of nested blocks delimited by braces, where each entry is either a "key" "value" pair or a named sub-block. 
"RootBlock"
{
    "SimpleKey"    "SimpleValue"

    "NestedBlock"
    {
        "ChildKey"  "1"
    }
}
In Lua, KV files are loaded with the built-in LoadKeyValues function: 
local abilities = LoadKeyValues("scripts/kv/abilities.kv")

-- Walk the top-level "skills" table
for abilityName, value in pairs(abilities.skills.main) do
    print(abilityName, value)
end
KV files live under scripts/kv/ inside the game addon directory. They are loaded once at game start and cached for the lifetime of the match.

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File Reference

FilePurpose
abilities.kvMaster list of every ability that appears on the skill-select screen, divided into named brackets/categories.
abilityDeps.kvAbility dependencies — if a player picks the ability on the left, they automatically receive the ability on the right.
bans.kvAbility combination bans. Handles special-case bans such as grouped banned sets, spammable spell lists, and multicast/spell-echo exclusions.
bot_skills.kvPriority-ordered ability lists that bots draw from when selecting their extra skills.
bot_skills_imba_WIP.kvOP ability list for bots. Currently unused.
camps.kvDefines neutral camp creature groups used by camp-spawning abilities (e.g. spawn_small_camp).
consumable_items.kvList of items that can be consumed by the consumable item system.
contributors.kvCredits data for the in-game credits page and gold-name cosmetics.
hashes.kvInternal hash mappings.
hero_perks.kvMaps perk categories (or specific abilities) to heroes for the perk-filter checkbox in the skill-pick menu.
owners.kvInternal ownership mappings.
perks.kvDetermines which abilities Chen grants via his perk, and hero gender for QOP’s perk.
randompicker.kvUsed by the deprecated “True Random” ability. No longer active.
sounds.kvSounds that will be precached at game start.
statuploadersettings.kvWeb address used for uploading match statistics.
towers.kvClassifies tower abilities by power level to keep mirror-tower loadouts balanced.
ts_entities.kvEntities that must switch teams when a player switches teams.
unique_skills.kvAbilities a bot team will only pick once — prevents multiple bots from taking the same unique ability.
voting.kvVoting configuration.
wearables.kvWearable library data (currently only the Roshan MAGA hat).
whatsup.kvLegacy welcome messages from the original Ash47 version. Unused.

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Loading Pattern

Most KV files follow the same load-and-cache pattern in Lua: 
-- GameMode init (e.g. baselodmode.lua)
self.abilityList  = LoadKeyValues("scripts/kv/abilities.kv")
self.bans         = LoadKeyValues("scripts/kv/bans.kv")
self.abilityDeps  = LoadKeyValues("scripts/kv/abilityDeps.kv")
self.botSkills    = LoadKeyValues("scripts/kv/bot_skills.kv")
Values are plain strings in KV; cast them when needed: 
local flag = tonumber(abilities.skills.main["pudge_flesh_heap"]) -- 1

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