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Skillskid-authoring

kid-authoring

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Updated 10-30 16:18

About this skill

KID Authoring

Overview

KID (Keyword Item Distributor, by powerofthree) is an SKSE plugin that adds keywords to items — weapons, armor, ammo, magic effects, potions, scrolls, books, soul gems, spells, enchantments, and more (19 item types) — at game startup, driven by plain-text _KID.ini files. It writes nothing to plugins or saves; it re-applies its keywords from scratch on each launch, so a KID mod is trace-free to add or remove. This skill composes correct KID lines and places the file, drawing every type, filter, trait, value, and example from the bundled grammar reference in references/.

It is a procedural skill with a reference-lookup core — the look-it-up-never-invent discipline that papyrus-reference, mutagen-reference, and the sibling spid-authoring / skypatcher-authoring use, because a fabricated KID token fails silently (see "Bundled-or-warn").

Scope boundary — the deciding question is what receives the keyword:

  • a keyword onto an item record (weapon/armor/potion/…) → KID (this skill).
  • a spell/perk/item/keyword onto an NPC → spid-authoring. (SPID also distributes keywords, but to NPCs — if the target is an NPC, it's SPID, not KID.)
  • an item into a container → CID.
  • changing a record's own fields (a weapon's damage, an NPC's stats) → skypatcher-authoring. SkyPatcher can also add keywords as part of editing a record; reach for KID when adding keywords by item-filter is the whole job.

First step — open the grammar reference

KID has one uniform line grammar, so there's no per-type resolution to do up front — open the reference and read the parts your task touches:

  1. references/grammar-core.md — read first. The 5-section line, file discovery (_KID.ini in Data\), startup timing, the keyword id (incl. dynamic creation), chance, and the ExclusiveGroup feature. Almost every task needs it.
  2. references/types.md — the 19 item types, their xEdit signatures, and which carry traits. Pick the one type your line targets.
  3. references/filters.md — section 2: String filters (name / archetype / actor value / nif path) and Form/EditorID filters, plus the + / - / * / match modifiers and evaluation order. This is where "which items" lives.
  4. references/traits.md — section 3: the per-type trait grammar (Armor AR(), Weapon animation types, Magic Effect D()/CT()/school, Soul Gem SOUL()/GEM(), …). Only the 12 trait-bearing types have these.
  5. references/value-tables.md — flat lookups: effect archetypes, spell types, schools, delivery/casting numbers, soul/furniture/bench sizes, body slots, resistances, actor values.
  6. references/index.jsonl — a grep-friendly router (one JSON entry per line) mapping a topic, type, filter, trait, or value to its file. Grep it to jump straight to the right section.

Read grammar-core plus the one or two topic files your task needs — don't bulk-load everything.

Workflow — compose a KID line

  1. Identify the keyword — what tag is being added. Reference it by EditorID (e.g. WeapMaterialDwarven) or FormID 0x12345~Plugin.esp. If the EditorID doesn't resolve, KID creates the keyword at runtime — so a custom tag like MyCursedGear is valid and KID makes it (grammar-core.md §5).

  2. Identify the item type — what gets the keyword. One of the 19 in types.md (Weapon, Armor, Magic Effect, Potion, Book, Soul Gem, …). Write the type string exactly as listed. One line targets one type — repeat the line per type to cover several.

  3. Choose the filters (filters.md) — which items of that type:

    • by name / archetype / actor value / nif path → a String filter.
    • by specific record / plugin / associated form (e.g. a weapon's enchantment) → a Form filter (0x123~Mod.esp, an EditorID, or a plugin name for all of a mod's items).
    • apply modifiers: + requires all, - excludes, * wildcard-substring (strings only), bare = match-any. Evaluate Requirements → Exclusions → Matches → Wildcards.

  4. Add traits if needed (traits.md) — narrow by type-specific properties (E/-E enchanted, AR(10/50) armor rating, OneHandSword, 20(0/25) novice destruction, BLACK soul gem, …). Only the 12 trait-bearing types accept these.

  5. Compose the line (grammar-core.md §4):

    Keyword = KeywordOrFormID | Type | filters | traits | chance
    • Count the pipes — sections are positional. Keyword = MyKwd|Book|NONE|S,20 puts S,20 in traits; Keyword = MyKwd|Armor|||50 puts 50 in chance with empty filters and traits. Leave an unused middle section blank or NONE; drop a trailing unused section.
    • Set chance (0–100, default 100) only if you want less than guaranteed.

  6. Place the file at Data\<name>_KID.ini — the _KID substring in the filename is mandatory (a file without it is never read), and KID INIs have no [Section] headers — every line sits at the top level. Comment with ;.

  7. Confirm: the type matches the record kind; the filter reads the way the user intended; the pipe positions are right; trait tokens are valid for that type; and the filename contains _KID.

Bundled-or-warn — never invent KID grammar

The reference documents KID v3.5.0, the full published grammar. If a type, filter, trait, value, or behavior isn't in it, say so — don't fabricate a plausible token. KID failures are silent: an unparseable line or unknown token is logged to po3_KeywordItemDistributor.log and skipped, so a guessed token yields a _KID.ini that quietly adds nothing — and nothing in-game points at the cause. A clear "that isn't in the KID reference" beats a confident wrong line that costs a debugging session. If the user is on a KID newer than v3.5.0 and asks about a feature not in the reference, surface that the reference may be behind and offer to re-derive from the current KID source/description.

Common mistakes

  • Targeting NPCs. KID adds keywords to items. "Add a keyword to all bandits / female Nords" is NPCs → that's SPID. The keyword going onto an NPC, not an item, is the tell.
  • Miscounting pipe positions. Sections are positional; a chance written one pipe early lands in traits and is silently misread. Count the pipes; keep blank middles (||) when a later section is used.
  • Wrong type string. Use the exact name from types.md (Magic Effect, not MagicEffect; Soul Gem, not Soulgem). A wrong type string fails to match.
  • Traits on a trait-less type. Location, Misc Item, Key, Activator, Flora, Race, Talking Activator take no traits — filter them by name/form only (types.md).
  • Confusing the E trait with the Enchantment type. E filters items that carry an enchantment; Enchantment is the ENCH record type itself.
  • Forgetting _KID in the filename, or adding [Section] headers. The _KID substring is required; KID reads only the unnamed root section.
  • Inventing a trait or value. Look up the per-type trait list and the value tables — a wrong trait token (e.g. a casting-type number that doesn't exist) silently no-ops.

Notes

  • Provenance. The references/ corpus is reconstructed from the MIT KID source (powerof3/Keyword-Item-Distributor, v3.5.0) and the Nexus #55728 description, with forwarded enum values confirmed against powerof3/CommonLibSSE. On a KID version bump, re-derive before trusting it for new features.
  • Lookup without authoring. The same reference answers "what's the spell-type number for Ability", "which body slot is 33", or "what archetypes can I filter magic effects by" — open value-tables.md; no line needs writing.
  • ExclusiveGroup. A second key (ExclusiveGroup = Name|kwd1,kwd2) defines mutually-exclusive keywords so an item won't receive two from the same group (grammar-core.md §7) — source-documented, not on the Nexus page.
  • Cross-tool routing. KID is one of the Skyrim distributor frameworks (KID / SPID / CID) plus the record-editor SkyPatcher. When the target is ambiguous, ask what receives the change: an item (KID), an NPC (SPID), a container (CID), or a record's own fields (SkyPatcher).
  • Comment syntax is standard INI ; (KID reads configs via the CSimpleIniA library).

Validation

  • scripts/validate_kid.py — offline KID row validation against pinned grammar (merged from the former skyrim-kid-distribution skill).
  • references/KID-4.0.6-AUTHORITY.md — pinned KID 4.0.6 grammar authority (commit 895df224d4964dc9723460038eb533bfff06d860), re-verified unchanged in 4.1.0.
  • Cross-framework lint + runtime log checks: skyrim-distr-kid-validation.