se2-dev-plugin

SE2 Plugin Development Skill

Plugin development for Space Engineers 2.

⚠️ CRITICAL: Commands run in a UNIX shell. Use bash syntax! On Windows this is BusyBox (busybox.exe <cmd>); on Linux use the native shell directly.

Examples:

✅ test -f file.txt && echo exists
✅ ls -la | head -10
❌ if exist file.txt (echo exists) - This will NOT work

Actions:

prepare: Run the one-time preparation (Prepare.bat on Windows, prepare.sh on Linux)
bash: Run UNIX shell commands (BusyBox on Windows, native shell on Linux)
search: Search plugin code using search_plugin_code.py

Routing Decision

Check these patterns in order - first match wins:

Priority	Pattern	Example	Route
1	Empty or bare invocation	`se2-dev-plugin`	Show this help
2	Prepare keywords	`se2-dev-plugin prepare`, `se2-dev-plugin setup`, `se2-dev-plugin init`	prepare
3	Bash/shell keywords	`se2-dev-plugin bash`, `se2-dev-plugin grep`, `se2-dev-plugin cat`	bash
4	Search keywords	`se2-dev-plugin search`, `se2-dev-plugin find class`, `se2-dev-plugin lookup`	search

Getting Started

⚠️ CRITICAL: Before running ANY commands, read CommandExecution.md to avoid common mistakes that cause command failures.

If the Prepare.DONE file is missing in this folder, you MUST run the one-time preparation steps first. See the prepare action.

Essential Documentation

CommandExecution.md - ⚠️ READ THIS FIRST - How to run commands correctly on Windows and Linux

Plugin Development Documentation

Read the appropriate documents for further details:

Plugin.md Plugin development (shared skills for both client and server)
ClientPlugin.md Client plugin development (relevant on client side)
Guide.md Use this to answer questions about the plugin development process in general.
Review.md How to review a plugin for inclusion on PluginHub-SE2 (manifest conformance, commit pin, security audit, from-source build).
Publicizer.md How to use the Krafs publicizer to access internal, protected or private members in the original game code (optional).
OtherPluginsAsExamples.md How to look into the source code of other plugins as examples.

Harmony Patching Documentation

Progressive documentation for Harmony patching (start with basics, then read advanced topics as needed):

Patching.md - Start here: patch types, prefix/postfix basics, common patterns
PatchInjections.md - Special parameters: __instance, __result, ___fields, __state
AccessTools.md - Reflection utilities for finding methods, fields, and types
TranspilerPatching.md - IL-level patching for complex modifications
PatchingSpecialCases.md - Finalizers, reverse patches, auxiliary methods, priority
PreloaderPatching.md - Pre-JIT patching (Mono.Cecil, client only)

Plugin Distribution

Plugins are released exclusively on the PluginHub-SE2. All plugins must be open source, since they are compiled on the player's machine from the GitHub source revision identified by its PluginHub-SE2 registration. Plugins are reviewed for safety and security on submission, but only on a best effort basis, without any legal guarantees. Plugins are running native code and can do anything. When reviewing a submission (or update) to PluginHub-SE2, follow Review.md.

Use se2-dev-game-code to read the exact code you call or patch. If the se2-dev-game-book skill is installed, read it first to learn how a game system works and which types take part; without it, search the game code for that too.

References

Pulsar Plugin loader for Space Engineers
Pulsar Installer Installer for Pulsar on Windows
PluginHub-SE2 Public plugin registry for Pulsar

Plugin Code Search

Search the source code of plugins from PluginHub-SE2 for examples and patterns:

# List available plugins
uv run list_plugins.py
uv run list_plugins.py --search "camera"

# Download a plugin's source code (use EXACT name from list); skip the ones listed as [LOCAL]
uv run download_plugin_source.py "Plugin Name"

# Index downloaded plugins (automatic after download)
uv run index_plugin_code.py

# Search plugin code
uv run search_plugin_code.py class declaration Plugin
uv run search_plugin_code.py method signature Patch

# Count results before viewing (useful for large result sets)
uv run search_plugin_code.py class usage Plugin --count

# Limit number of results
uv run search_plugin_code.py class usage IPlugin --limit 20

The PluginHub-SE2 contains descriptions of all available plugins. Download sources for plugins that may help with your task, then index and search them.

Storage layout

Data/ inside this skill folder is a junction (Windows) or symlink (Linux) created by the preparation script. It points to the per-user data folder — %USERPROFILE%\.se2-dev\plugin\ on Windows, ~/.se2-dev/plugin/ on Linux. Everything downloaded by the skill is stored there so it survives across re-installs and Clean.bat/clean.sh runs.

Data/PluginHub-SE2/ — git clone of the PluginHub-SE2 registry (refreshed in place by download_pluginhub.py / git pull)
Data/Sources/ — pre-created by the preparation script; contains a per-plugin subfolder for every downloaded plugin
Data/Sources/<PluginName>/ — git clone of the plugin's GitHub repository (overridable via SE_PLUGIN_DOWNLOAD_FOLDER or plugin_download_folder: in CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md)
Data/CodeIndex/ — CSV indexes produced by index_plugin_code.py and consumed by search_plugin_code.py
Data/plugins.json — registry: records the upstream commit of the PluginHub clone, the per-plugin download state (downloaded_plugins — registered_commit vs downloaded_commit, so you can tell when a local copy is out of date), the plugins that have been indexed (indexed_plugins), and the full PluginHub-SE2 catalog (available_plugins).

download_plugin_source.py requires git on PATH and clones each plugin into its own Data/Sources/<PluginName>/ directory. Re-running it does git fetch + git checkout so local copies can be updated incrementally with a git pull. The commit hashes above are recorded in plugins.json.

See search action for complete documentation.

Graphify Graph (optional)

Preparation can build a separate Graphify graph for the downloaded plugin sources under Data/Sources (or SE2_DEV_PLUGIN_PROJECT_ROOT). It is a navigable map of call/inherit/reference edges plus clustered communities that answers structural questions the CSV code index cannot. With the fast Rust clustering backend (Python 3.12 via uv, provisioned automatically) prepare builds it automatically; this corpus is small so it is quick either way. Where the fast backend is unavailable it stays opt-in with SE2_DEV_GRAPHIFY=1; SE2_DEV_GRAPHIFY=0 disables it. The Graphify tooling is shared by all se2-dev-* skills and lives in the se2-dev skill. Read on demand — skip for normal search work: build via GraphifyPrepare.md, query via GraphifyUsage.md. Check a built graph with bash ../se2-dev/graphify_check.sh Data/Sources --deep.

Action References

Follow the detailed instructions in:

prepare action - One-time preparation
bash action - Running UNIX shell commands via busybox
search action - Search plugin code for examples

Remarks

The original source of this skill: https://github.com/CometWorks/skills2