← README
This file provides more technical documentation about SMAPI. If you only want to use or create mods, this section isn't relevant to you; see the main README to use or create mods.
Using an official SMAPI release is recommended for most users.
SMAPI uses some C# 7 code, so you'll need at least
Visual Studio 2017 on Windows,
MonoDevelop 7.0 on Linux,
Visual Studio 2017 for Mac, or an equivalent
IDE to compile it. It uses build configuration derived from the
crossplatform mod config to detect
your current OS automatically and load the correct references. Compile output will be placed in a
bin folder at the root of the git repository.
Rebuilding the solution in debug mode will copy the SMAPI files into your game folder. Starting
the StardewModdingAPI project with debugging from Visual Studio (on Mac or Windows) will launch
SMAPI with the debugger attached, so you can intercept errors and step through the code being
executed. This doesn't work in MonoDevelop on Linux, unfortunately.
To prepare a crossplatform SMAPI release, you'll need to compile it on two platforms. See crossplatforming info on the wiki for the first-time setup.
-
Update the version number in
GlobalAssemblyInfo.csandConstants::Version. Make sure you use a semantic version. Recommended format:build type format example dev build <version>-alpha.<date>3.0-alpha.20171230prerelease <version>-beta.<count>3.0-beta.2release <version>3.0 -
In Windows:
- Rebuild the solution in Release mode.
- Rename
bin/PackagedtoSMAPI <version>(e.g.SMAPI 3.0). - Transfer the
SMAPI <version>folder to Linux or Mac.
This adds the installer executable and Windows files. We'll do the rest in Linux or Mac, since we need to set Unix file permissions that Windows won't save.
-
In Linux or Mac:
-
Rebuild the solution in Release mode.
-
Copy
bin/internal/Packaged/Monointo theSMAPI <version>folder. -
If you did everything right so far, you should have a folder like this:
SMAPI 3.0 installer/ install on Linux.sh install on Mac.command install on Windows.exe README.txt internal/ Mono/ Mods/* smapi-internal/* StardewModdingAPI StardewModdingAPI.exe StardewModdingAPI.pdb StardewModdingAPI.xml steam_appid.txt Windows/ Mods/* smapi-internal/* StardewModdingAPI.exe StardewModdingAPI.pdb StardewModdingAPI.xml steam_appid.txt -
Open a terminal in the
SMAPI <version>folder and runchmod 755 internal/Mono/StardewModdingAPI. -
Copy & paste the
SMAPI <version>folder asSMAPI <version> for developers. -
In the
SMAPI <version>folder...- edit
internal/Mono/StardewModdingAPI.config.jsonandinternal/Windows/StardewModdingAPI.config.jsonto disable developer mode; - delete
internal/Windows/StardewModdingAPI.xml.
- edit
-
Compress the two folders into
SMAPI <version>.zipandSMAPI <version> for developers.zip.
-
You can customise the SMAPI behaviour by editing the StardewModdingAPI.config.json file in your
game folder.
Basic fields:
| field | purpose |
|---|---|
DeveloperMode |
Default false (except in SMAPI for developers releases). Whether to enable features intended for mod developers (mainly more detailed console logging). |
CheckForUpdates |
Default true. Whether SMAPI should check for a newer version when you load the game. If a new version is available, a small message will appear in the console. This doesn't affect the load time even if your connection is offline or slow, because it happens in the background. |
VerboseLogging |
Default false. Whether SMAPI should log more information about the game context. |
ModData |
Internal metadata about SMAPI mods. Changing this isn't recommended and may destabilise your game. See documentation in the file. |
The SMAPI installer recognises three command-line arguments:
| argument | purpose |
|---|---|
--install |
Preselects the install action, skipping the prompt asking what the user wants to do. |
--uninstall |
Preselects the uninstall action, skipping the prompt asking what the user wants to do. |
--game-path "path" |
Specifies the full path to the folder containing the Stardew Valley executable, skipping automatic detection and any prompt to choose a path. If the path is not valid, the installer displays an error. |
SMAPI itself recognises two arguments, but these are intended for internal use or testing and may change without warning.
| argument | purpose |
|---|---|
--no-terminal |
SMAPI won't write anything to the console window. (Messages will still be written to the log file.) |
--mods-path |
The path to search for mods, if not the standard Mods folder. This can be a path relative to the game folder (like --mods-path "Mods (test)") or an absolute path. |
SMAPI uses a small number of conditional compilation constants, which you can set by editing the
<DefineConstants> element in StardewModdingAPI.csproj. Supported constants:
| flag | purpose |
|---|---|
SMAPI_FOR_WINDOWS |
Indicates that SMAPI is being compiled on Windows for players on Windows. Set automatically in crossplatform.targets. |
The StardewModdingAPI.Web project provides an API and web UI hosted at *.smapi.io.
The log parser provides a web UI for uploading, parsing, and sharing SMAPI logs. The logs are persisted in a compressed form to Pastebin.
The log parser lives at https://log.smapi.io.
SMAPI provides a web API at api.smapi.io for use by SMAPI and external tools. The URL includes a
{version} token, which is the SMAPI version for backwards compatibility. This API is publicly
accessible but not officially released; it may change at any time.
The API has one /mods endpoint. This provides mod info, including official versions and URLs
(from Chucklefish, GitHub, or Nexus), unofficial versions from the wiki, and optional mod metadata
from the wiki and SMAPI's internal data. This is used by SMAPI to perform update checks, and by
external tools to fetch mod data.
The API accepts a POST request with the mods to match, each of which must specify an ID and
may optionally specify update keys.
The API will automatically try to fetch known update keys from the wiki and internal data based on
the given ID.
POST https://api.smapi.io/v2.0/mods
{
"mods": [
{
"id": "Pathoschild.LookupAnything",
"updateKeys": [ "nexus:541", "chucklefish:4250" ]
}
],
"includeExtendedMetadata": true
}
The API will automatically aggregate versions and errors. Each mod will include...
- an
id(matching what you passed in); - up to three versions:
main(e.g. 'latest version' field on Nexus),optionalif newer (e.g. optional files on Nexus), andunofficialif newer (from the wiki); metadatawith mod info crossreferenced from the wiki and internal data (only if you specifiedincludeExtendedMetadata: true);- and
errorscontaining any error messages that occurred while fetching data.
For example:
[
{
"id": "Pathoschild.LookupAnything",
"main": {
"version": "1.19",
"url": "https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/541"
},
"metadata": {
"id": [
"Pathoschild.LookupAnything",
"LookupAnything"
],
"name": "Lookup Anything",
"nexusID": 541,
"gitHubRepo": "Pathoschild/StardewMods",
"compatibilityStatus": "Ok",
"compatibilitySummary": "✓ use latest version."
},
"errors": []
}
]
StardewModdingAPI.Web is a regular ASP.NET MVC Core app, so you can just launch it from within
Visual Studio to run a local version.
There are two differences when it's run locally: all endpoints use HTTP instead of HTTPS, and the
subdomain portion becomes a route (e.g. log.smapi.io → localhost:59482/log).
Before running it locally, you need to enter your credentials in the appsettings.Development.json
file. See the next section for a description of each setting. This file is listed in .gitignore
to prevent accidentally committing credentials.
The app can be deployed to a standard Amazon Beanstalk IIS environment. When creating the environment, make sure to specify the following environment properties:
| property name | description |
|---|---|
LogParser:PastebinDevKey |
The Pastebin developer key used to authenticate with the Pastebin API. |
LogParser:PastebinUserKey |
The Pastebin user key used to authenticate with the Pastebin API. Can be left blank to post anonymously. |
LogParser:SectionUrl |
The root URL of the log page, like https://log.smapi.io/. |
ModUpdateCheck:GitHubPassword |
The password with which to authenticate to GitHub when fetching release info. |
ModUpdateCheck:GitHubUsername |
The username with which to authenticate to GitHub when fetching release info. |
The mod build config package is a NuGet package that mods reference to automatically set up references, configure the build, and add analyzers specific to Stardew Valley mods.
This involves three projects:
| project | purpose |
|---|---|
StardewModdingAPI.ModBuildConfig |
Configures the build (references, deploying the mod files, setting up debugging, etc). |
StardewModdingAPI.ModBuildConfig.Analyzer |
Adds C# analyzers which show code warnings in Visual Studio. |
StardewModdingAPI.ModBuildConfig.Analyzer.Tests |
Unit tests for the C# analyzers. |
When the projects are built, the relevant files are copied into bin/Pathoschild.Stardew.ModBuildConfig.
To prepare a build of the NuGet package:
- Install the NuGet CLI.
- Change the version and release notes in
package.nuspec. - Rebuild the solution in Release mode.
- Open a terminal in the
bin/Pathoschild.Stardew.ModBuildConfigpackage and run this command:nuget.exe pack
That will create a Pathoschild.Stardew.ModBuildConfig-<version>.nupkg file in the same directory
which can be uploaded to NuGet or referenced directly.