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

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).

• 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.
• 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. Recommended companion for client mod/plugin work.
• se-dev-server-code — Search decompiled C# of dedicated server. Companion for server-side mod/plugin work.

The *-book skills mentioned below (se-dev-game-book, se-dev-server-book, se-dev-torch-book) are private/internal handbooks distributed separately, not part of this public repository. Use them if they are installed; otherwise fall back to the corresponding *-code search skill.

How to pick

• Programmable Block script? → se-dev-script (+ se-dev-game-code / se-dev-game-book for API details).
• Steam Workshop mod? → se-dev-mod (+ se-dev-game-code / se-dev-server-code as needed).
• Client plugin? → se-dev-plugin + se-dev-game-code (and se-dev-game-book for orientation).
• Server plugin (Magnetar)? → se-dev-plugin + se-dev-plugin-sdk + se-dev-server-code (and se-dev-server-book).
• Maintaining a Torch plugin? → se-dev-torch + se-dev-torch-book (and se-dev-server-code).
• Need to understand how the game does X? → *-code skills to search source, *-book skills for orientation.

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