Dependency-free dev-tooling library for people writing BepInEx 5 mods for Outward: Definitive Edition. It doesn't add anything a player sees on its own — it's the plumbing several other mods (CompanionKit, SpawnKit, and more) build on, and other modders are welcome to build on it too.
Requires: BepInEx 5 (Outward's Mono branch — see Compatibility below). No SideLoader, no Harmony, no other mod dependency.
| Piece | What it gives you |
|---|---|
CommandChannel + CommandRegistry |
A file-driven dev command loop: write a verb into BepInEx/config/<yourmod>_cmd.txt, it runs on the next poll (unscaled time, so it still fires while the game is paused). Unknown verb or help lists everything registered. It runs on unscaled time, so it still fires while the game is paused. |
SelfTestHarness |
The [SELFTEST] BEGIN / PASS: / FAIL: / DONE pass= fail= report shape — wire up a handful of Check(name, condition) calls and get one consistent, greppable self-test report. |
Notify |
An on-screen info toast for the player, mirrored to the log. |
Lifecycle |
WhenPlayerReady — a coroutine that waits past the game's void/staging coordinates before your mod starts touching the player, plus IsSanePosition for the same check inline. |
TableLoader<T> / EmbeddedRes |
Embedded-default-plus-config-override text/texture tables: ship a sane default inside your DLL, let players override it by dropping a file in BepInEx/config/. |
Drop the ForgeKit folder into BepInEx/plugins/. It has no effect by itself — install it
because another mod you're using declares it as a dependency.
<!-- your .csproj -->
<ProjectReference Include="path\to\ForgeKit\ForgeKit.csproj" Private="false" />
[BepInPlugin(GUID, NAME, VERSION)]
[BepInDependency(ForgeKit.Plugin.GUID)]
public class Plugin : BaseUnityPlugin
{
private CommandRegistry _commands;
private CommandChannel _channel;
void Awake()
{
_commands = new CommandRegistry(Logger);
_commands.Register("hello", "hello — logs a greeting.", args => Logger.LogMessage("Hi!"));
_channel = new CommandChannel("YourMod_cmd.txt", Logger, _commands);
}
void Update() => _channel.Tick();
}
Private="false" matters — it stops MSBuild from copying a second ForgeKit.dll into your
mod's own output folder. The kit ships from its own BepInEx/plugins/ForgeKit/ folder; your
mod just references it and declares the dependency so BepInEx loads it first.
Outward must be on its Mono Steam beta branch, not the default IL2CPP build — like every
BepInEx 5 mod for this game. If your game runs but no BepInEx mods load and there's no crash log,
this is almost always why (Properties → Betas → select mono in Steam).
Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE in the repository root. You may use, modify, and redistribute
this kit (including in commercial mods) provided you keep the copyright/license notice; see the
license text for the full terms.