se-dev

SE Dev — Space Engineers Development Overview

Applies only to Space Engineers version 1.

Entry point and table of contents for se-dev-* skills. Read this first to get big picture, then open specific skill the task needs. Does not perform searches or builds itself — routes you to the skill that does.

The three ways to extend the game

Layer	What it is	Runs as	Language limit	Skill
In-game script	Code in Programmable Block (PB)	Sandboxed, compiled by game	C# 6.0, PB API whitelist	se-dev-script
Mod	World/server content & scripts, Steam Workshop	Sandboxed, compiled by game	C# 7.3, Mod API whitelist	se-dev-mod
Plugin	Native DLL patching game with Harmony	Unsandboxed, full .NET	No limit (latestMinor)	se-dev-plugin

Scripts and mods constrained by API whitelists and run inside game's sandbox. Plugins run native code with no sandbox — can do anything, which is why they are open source and reviewed before release.

Where plugins run: client vs server

A plugin targets the game client, the dedicated server, or both (sharing code).

	Game client	Dedicated server	Torch (legacy)
Loader	Pulsar	Magnetar	Torch
Registry	PluginHub	MagnetarHub	torchapi.net
Admin UI	in-game config dialog	Quasar (remote control plane)	Torch WPF UI
Skill	se-dev-plugin (ClientPlugin)	se-dev-plugin (ServerPlugin) + se-dev-plugin-sdk	se-dev-torch

• Pulsar — plugin & mod loader for game client. Lists and loads plugins from PluginHub. Compiles client plugins from source on player's machine.
• Magnetar — plugin loader for dedicated server (hard fork of Pulsar). Lists and loads server plugins from MagnetarHub. Server plugins declare their configuration through Magnetar's PluginSdk.
• Quasar — control plane with Web UI to manage Magnetar instances. Lists Magnetar-compatible server plugins from MagnetarHub and lets admins configure them remotely; configuration UI is the layout each plugin declares via PluginSdk.
• Torch — older, separate dedicated-server host with its own plugin model. Torch plugins not compatible with Magnetar and vice versa. Covered only by se-dev-torch / se-dev-torch-book skills, kept for maintaining existing Torch plugins.

Skill map

Authoring skills (write scripts, mods, plugins)

• se-dev-script — In-game (Programmable Block) script development. Search example PB scripts.
• se-dev-mod — Mod development. Search example mod code; Mod API whitelist.
• se-dev-plugin — Client and server plugin development (Harmony patching, transpilers, preloader). Search plugin source from PluginHub (client) and MagnetarHub (server).
• se-dev-plugin-guide — Developer guide around the code: which template, where to learn the game, local testing with Pulsar/Magnetar, how players' PCs differ, the hub manifest XML, submitting to the hubs, working with coding agents.
• se-dev-plugin-review — Review PluginHub, MagnetarHub, and QuasarHub PRs from their manifest pins; produces concise paste-ready findings while reserving approval for a human maintainer.
• se-dev-plugin-sdk — Handbook for Magnetar's PluginSdk: declaring server config variables, UI layout Quasar renders, server-side chat commands, server lifecycle (save/reload/quit/restart), path resolution and environment-agnostic logging. Use together with se-dev-plugin for server plugins. (Lives in Magnetar repo.)
• se-dev-torch — Torch plugin development (legacy server host). Torch-only; not Magnetar-compatible.

Graphify graphs (read on demand)

• GraphifyPrepare.md — how each subskill builds its own per-subskill graphify-out/. Prepare installs Graphify on Python 3.12 with the fast native Rust Leiden clustering backend and, when that backend is available (Linux/Windows with uv), builds the graph automatically — clustering then takes ~1-2 minutes even for the game/server corpora. Where the fast backend cannot be provisioned, Graphify stays optional and only builds on opt-in with SE_DEV_GRAPHIFY=1 (the slow single-core fallback adds ~10-30 minutes; prepare reports this). SE_DEV_GRAPHIFY=0 disables it entirely. Also covers the health check that detects an unusable (unclustered) graph and the clean-and-rebuild flow.
• GraphifyUsage.md — how to query an existing graph (query/explain/path/affected), the large-graph load cap, and the query test scripts.

These two docs are fetched on demand: skip them entirely unless the user specifically wants the Graphify graph, so the extra tooling never pollutes context during normal work.

Reference skills (read/search the game internals)

• se-dev-game-code — Search decompiled C# of game client: how it works inside and the exact code you call or patch. Recommended companion for client mod/plugin work.
• se-dev-game-book (private, if installed) — Handbook on how the game client works inside, by subsystem with a page per type. Read it before searching the code for questions about how the game does something or which types take part.
• se-dev-server-code — Search decompiled C# of dedicated server: how it works inside and the exact code you call or patch. Companion for server-side mod/plugin work.
• se-dev-server-book (private, if installed) — Handbook on how the dedicated server works inside, with the server-only parts called out. Read it before searching the code for questions about how the server does something.

The *-book handbooks (se-dev-game-book, se-dev-server-book, se-dev-torch-book) are private/internal and distributed separately, not part of this public repository. When installed, read them before searching code for any question about how the game works; without them, the *-code skills answer those questions too and are the only reference. The books are not authoritative: the decompiled source wins when the two disagree.

How to pick

• Programmable Block script? → se-dev-script + se-dev-game-code for API details (se-dev-game-book first, if installed).
• Steam Workshop mod? → se-dev-mod + se-dev-game-code / se-dev-server-code as needed (the matching *-book first, if installed).
• Client plugin? → se-dev-plugin + se-dev-game-code (se-dev-game-book first, if installed).
• Server plugin (Magnetar)? → se-dev-plugin + se-dev-plugin-sdk + se-dev-server-code (se-dev-server-book first, if installed).
• Starting, testing or publishing a plugin, or a developer's process question? → se-dev-plugin-guide.
• PluginHub / MagnetarHub / QuasarHub review? → se-dev-plugin-review + the applicable host/code reference.
• Maintaining a Torch plugin? → se-dev-torch + se-dev-torch-book (and se-dev-server-code).
• Need to understand how the game does X? → *-book first if installed, then *-code to confirm the specifics; *-code alone otherwise.

Most non-trivial tasks pair an authoring skill with a reference skill: write with one, look up game's internals with the other.

Plugin templates

• se-client-plugin-template — client-only plugin.
• se-server-plugin-template — client + Magnetar server plugin (ClientPlugin, ServerPlugin, Shared). For Torch plugin, base it on template's last-torch-compatible tag, not main.

Generic wisdom

• Stop and alert if the free disk space drops below 10GB on any partition you work on.
• Avoid using long timeouts. Be conscious on the wall clock time spent on completing tasks.
• To avoid wasting time, use monitoring scripts to poll for progress frequently, for example every few seconds.
• Do not use inference for monitoring, only read the output and react when relevant events happen.
• Always collect all evidence (logs, core dump, traceback) immediately, since log rotation and core dump cleanup may erase them.
• Operating system temporary folders (like /tmp or %TEMP%) may not be preserved over reboots, do not store anything important there which you may want to retrieve later
• On Linux the /tmp folder may consume memory (tmpfs), therefore do not store large files there.
• Consult a Fable or Astra sub-agent if you need deep planning or facing a difficult question/issue.

Remarks

• Original source of these skills: https://github.com/CometWorks/skills