skills

Space Engineers Developer Skills

skill library for Space Engineers plugin, mod, in-game script development.

This library applies only to version 1 of the game.

How to use

Need "skills" compatible agentic coding environment. See agentskills.io or skills.sh for details.

After installing skills, verify they work and agent can access files.

Permission issues: grant access to folder where skills stored. Happens if skills linked (mklink) into coding agent's skills folder.

Installation

npx skills add CometWorks/skills

Follow wizard.

Later update them by: npx skills update

Don't want to use skills.sh? See "Manual installation" section below.

Preparation

Skills auto-prepare on first use. Means downloading some tools and indexing code. To prepare ahead of time, run Prepare.bat on Windows or prepare.sh on Linux in respective skill folder. If any dependency missing, you get failure message, so run preparation script from terminal where you can see its output.

Note: Preparing se-dev-game-code skill may take 5–15 minutes, as it fully decompiles game and builds code indexes for rapid code search later. Fully prepared repository takes about 1.5 GB disk space due to code index. To save space, delete all *.il files (approx. 660 MB), only required for working on transpiler or preloader patches.

On Windows skills install BusyBox (busybox.exe) into their folder for use by agentic coding tools for UNIX like commands, because AI models are bad at Windows commands and often fall back to UNIX CLI tools even if told otherwise. Improved efficiency a lot, so currently a requirement there.

On Linux skills use native shell tools instead. Decompiler skills (se-dev-game-code, se-dev-server-code) install ilspycmd with official ILSpy dotnet tool frontend, so PowerShell not required to prepare and run skills.

To use BusyBox in your other projects, also available as separate skill: npx skills add https://github.com/viktor-ferenczi/skills --skill busybox-on-windows

Skills

• se-dev – Big-picture overview and table of contents for all skills below (start here)
• se-dev-script – In-game script development
• se-dev-mod – Mod development
• se-dev-plugin – Plugin development (client via Pulsar, server via Magnetar)
• se-dev-plugin-review – Concise security and quality review for PluginHub, MagnetarHub, and QuasarHub PRs
• se-dev-game-code – Searchable decompiled C# game code (recommended companion for all other skills)
• se-dev-server-code – Searchable decompiled C# Dedicated Server code (for server side mod and plugin development)
• se-dev-torch – Torch plugin development and Torch source search (legacy; Torch-only)

Enjoy!

Want to know more?

• SE Mods Discord FAQ, Troubleshooting, Support, Bug Reports, Discussion
• Pulsar Discord Everything about plugins

Manual installation

Install skills manually:

1. Clone this repository
2. Run one of installation scripts from install folder:

Scripts create junction points / symlinks from target skill folders to skill folders in this repository.

They install all skills listed in Skills section above.

FAQ

How well does this work for plugin development?

Currently testing it myself. Looks promising, but may have rough edges. Try it out and report back or submit a PR!

Why do the mod development skills lack details about non-scripting parts?

Haven't developed many mods involving custom art or definitions, so lack personal experience to add those yet. Contributions via PR welcome.

Does Claude Code know about the mod and script API whitelists?

Exported current whitelists (as of game version 1.208.015) using MDK2. May need future updates or automation during preparation phase.

If you use suggested mod or script template projects and ScriptMerge tool, no formal whitelist validation during build time. May fail when loading into game, but if you provide relevant game logs to Claude Code, it can usually identify and fix the issue.

How does Claude Code load this much information into the context?

It doesn't! Skills work on principle of progressive disclosure. Claude Code initially sees only top-level skill names and descriptions. Then gradually "discovers" more information as needed for the task. Given specific instructions on how to search SE codebase efficiently so it doesn't get overwhelmed.

Ideally, performs research using sub-agents and clears irrelevant data before passing results back to parent agent. Agent hierarchies are fascinating and fast-evolving topic, worth looking into!

How much of this was "vibe-coded"?

Code indexing and search scripts written entirely by Claude Code with zero human intervention, other than repeated prompting and some extra testing and review. Indexing logic based on my previous work using Tree-sitter's C# parser, originally developed for (now defunct) Ask Your Code ChatGPT plugin and GPT.

Troubleshooting

If you suspect something not working in these skills, issue the following test prompt in empty project:

Add se-dev-server-code to the list if you plan to develop server side plugins.

Check whether you can see these skills:
- `se-dev-script`
- `se-dev-mod`
- `se-dev-plugin`
- `se-dev-game-code`

If you see them, then make sure they're prepared for first use.

Once they are prepared, conduct some smoke testing on their features to make sure they work.

If something is missing or not working properly, then list those in a final summary.

Permission issues: grant access to folder where skills stored. Happens if skills linked (mklink) into coding agent's skills folder.

Credits

Developers

• OwendB

Patreon Supporters

in alphabetical order

Admiral level

• BetaMark
• Casinost
• Mordith - Guardians SE
• Robot10
• wafoxxx

Captain level

• Diggz
• jiringgot
• Jimbo
• Kam Solastor
• lazul
• Linux123123
• Lotan
• Lurking StarCpt
• NeonDrip
• NeVaR
• opesoorry

Testers

• Avaness
• mkaito

Creators

• Space - Pulsar
• avaness - Plugin Loader (legacy)
• Fred XVI - Racing maps
• Kamikaze - M&M mod
• LTP
• Mordith - Guardians SE
• Mike Dude - Guardians SE
• SwiftyTech - Stargate Dimensions

Thank you very much for all your support!

Legal

Space Engineers is trademark of Keen Software House s.r.o.