High level overview of Space Engineers (version 1) related development. Start here to understand the ecosystem (game client, dedicated server, Pulsar, Magnetar, Torch, PluginHub, MagnetarHub, Quasar) and to route to the right se-dev-* skill for in-game scripts, mods, plugins, the Magnetar PluginSdk, and decompiled code/handbook reference.

2026-07-058

name	se-dev-plugin
description	Plugin development for Space Engineers version 1. Search plugin code from PluginHub (client) and MagnetarHub (server) for examples and patterns.
license	MIT
allowed-tools	Read, Bash(Prepare.bat), Bash(prepare.sh), Bash(Clean.bat), Bash(clean.sh), Bash(dotnet build), Bash(dotnet clean), Bash(uv run search_plugins.py ), Bash(uv run index_plugins.py), Bash(uv run list_plugins.py), Bash(uv run download_plugin_source.py ), Bash(uv run download_pluginhub.py), Bash(uv run download_magnetarhub.py), Bash(command -v graphify), Bash(graphify), Bash(busybox grep ), Bash(busybox* find ), Bash(busybox* cat ), Bash(busybox* head ), Bash(busybox* tail ), Bash(busybox* ls), Bash(busybox* wc ), Bash(busybox* sort ), Bash(busybox* uniq ), Bash(busybox* tree*)

SE Dev Plugin Skill

Plugin development for Space Engineers version 1.

⚠️ CRITICAL: Commands run in UNIX shell. Use bash syntax. On Windows this is BusyBox; on Linux use native shell.

Examples:

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

Actions:

prepare: Run one-time preparation (Prepare.bat on Windows, prepare.sh on Linux)
bash: Run UNIX shell commands via busybox
search: Search plugin code using search_plugins.py

Routing Decision

Check these patterns in order - first match wins:

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

Getting Started

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

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

Essential Documentation

CommandExecution.md - ⚠️ READ THIS FIRST - Windows command execution details; on Linux keep bash syntax and use prepare.sh

Plugin Development Documentation

Read 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)
ServerPlugin.md Server plugin development (relevant on server side)
Guide.md Use this to answer questions about plugin development process in general.
Review.md How to review a plugin for inclusion on PluginHub / MagnetarHub (manifest conformance, commit pin, security audit, from-source build).
Publicizer.md How to use Krafs publicizer to access internal, protected or private members in original game code (optional).
OtherPluginsAsExamples.md How to look into 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 to find 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)

Targets: Client and Server

Plugins target one or both of:

Client — runs inside game client, loaded by Pulsar, released on PluginHub.
Server — runs inside dedicated server, loaded by Magnetar, released on MagnetarHub. Server plugins declare their configuration through Magnetar's PluginSdk; use se-dev-plugin-sdk skill for that. Admins configure server plugins remotely via Quasar, the Magnetar control plane.

A client-only plugin uses client plugin template. A plugin that also needs server side companion (or is server-only) uses server plugin template, which has ClientPlugin target, ServerPlugin target and Shared project. See ServerPlugin.md.

Plugin Distribution

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

Use se-dev-game-code skill to search game's decompiled code. Need this to understand how game's internals work and how to interface with it and patch it properly.

Graphify Graph

Preparation builds a separate Graphify graph for downloaded plugin sources under Data/Sources (or SE_DEV_PLUGIN_PROJECT_ROOT). 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 SE_DEV_GRAPHIFY=1; SE_DEV_GRAPHIFY=0 disables it. Read on demand — skip for normal search work: build via GraphifyPrepare.md, query via GraphifyUsage.md.

References

Pulsar Plugin loader for Space Engineers game client
Pulsar Installer Installer for Pulsar on Windows
PluginHub Public plugin registry for Pulsar
Magnetar Plugin loader for Space Engineers dedicated server
MagnetarHub Public plugin registry for Magnetar

Plugin Registries

Two registries are searched together, both using the same GitHub-plugin XML schema:

PluginHub — client plugins (Pulsar). <Id> is Owner/Repo.
MagnetarHub — server plugins (Magnetar). <Id> is a GUID; the GitHub repo is in <RepoId>.

Preparation clones both into Data/PluginHub and Data/MagnetarHub. Refresh them with uv run download_pluginhub.py and uv run download_magnetarhub.py. To point at a local registry checkout instead of (or in addition to) the cloned ones, set SE_PLUGIN_REGISTRY_DIR to a registry root (a folder containing Plugins/*.xml). list_plugins.py, download_plugin_source.py and the indexer all read every configured registry; list_plugins.py tags each entry with [PluginHub] or [MagnetarHub].

Plugin Code Search

Search source code of plugins from either registry for examples and patterns:

# List available plugins (tagged by registry), or search them
uv run list_plugins.py
uv run list_plugins.py --search "camera"

# Download a plugin's source (use the EXACT name, GUID/Id, or Owner/Repo from the list)
uv run download_plugin_source.py "Tool Switcher"
uv run download_plugin_source.py CometWorks/essentials

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

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

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

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

The registries contain descriptions of all available plugins. Download sources for plugins that may help with your task, then index and search them.

See search action for complete documentation.

Action References

Follow detailed instructions in:

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

Remarks

Original source of this skill: https://github.com/CometWorks/skills