ForgeKit

📖 Full documentation: ForgeKit wiki page

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.

What's in it

Installing (for players)

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.

Using it (for modders)

<!-- 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.

Configuration

ForgeKit has no configuration file of its own — it provides the command channel and config-table helpers that consuming mods use. The dev command loop reads a per-consumer file at BepInEx/config/<Mod>_cmd.txt (e.g. BepInEx/config/YourMod_cmd.txt), and TableLoader<T> lets a consumer ship an embedded default table overridable by a file the player drops in BepInEx/config/. Any settings live in the consuming mod's own cobalt.<name>.cfg, not here.

Compatibility

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).

License

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.

ForgeKit changelog

0.4.0 — 2026-07-30

• Cap all-status build-up resistance below the engine's refusal sentinel
• Review fixes: the shared kits must not enforce OUR id allocation
• Draw every custom id from the community-allocated pool (87000-87999)
• Wire the test-automation tooling wave: Containers+Resilience CommonVerbs domains, caravanreroll rows, ForgeKit 0.4.0, ledger/STATUS, limits survey
• Merge lane 3: container/caravan queue-unblocker verbs + review fixes (scavengesim reachability honesty, quest-event disclosure, reopen gate typing, pristine-state skip)
• Lane 3 review fixes: honesty gates on the container + scavenge-sim verbs
• Merge lane 2: session resilience (unstick/LoadGate/goto hardening) + review fixes (Done precedence, sawLoading acceptance, latch decoupling)
• Merge lane 1: ForgeKit command-script runner (script/scriptcancel/scriptstatus) + review fixes (waitloaded stale-flag acceptance rule, NaN rejection, pump-gap wording)
• Review fixes F2/F3/F4-F5/F6: watchdog pre-load window, granular refusal, comment truth, latch ownership
• Review fixes: waitloaded stale-TRUE trap, NaN waits, pump-gap misblame
• Concurrent-session work committed as-is: grantstatus [force] + StatusApplyGate (DoT thread) + 2026-07-29/30 live-session testplan results
• Session resilience: unstick verb, [LOADGATE] watchdog, hardened goto
• Lane 3: container + caravan queue-unblocker verbs
• Add script runner: one command line, several verbs, real time between steps
• Hyena/Pearlbird tuning wave: HAO taunt, gifts, bone relic, feed rule