sco-core documentation

Curated guides by audience, not an exhaustive inventory of historical records. For the project overview, start with the root README.

New plugin author — Start a plugin

Start your first plugin: choose language/archive, prerequisites, published download/checksum, copy/rename/build/check, Windows deployment and diagnostics in one path.
SDK archive reference, plugin.ini and plugin rules: packaging, manifests and trust.
Your language: C ABI, C++, C#, Lua or data packs.

Plugin API consumer — Use the API safely

Plugin API v1: exports/root table, ABI compatibility, whole-member and non-null checks, capabilities, commands, events, raw handlers and threads.
Public contract catalogue and reading rules, backed by machine-readable records: per-method semantics, buffers, failures, ownership, callback/service lifetime and unspecified guarantees. Declarations come from sco_api.h; the signature-row page game/contracts.md is not this contract authority.
Plugin lifetime/fault/reload rules and native trust rules: quiescence, Stop/unload and restart boundaries. C++, C# and Lua explain language-specific exposure and limits.
Neutral services: storage, UI, IPC, network messages and network wire.
Optional extension: DataCore, game services and current evidence/status. Availability is not gameplay proof.

SDK integrator / host — Embed a host

Kernel source kit versus checkout build: platform/toolchain and neutral/game boundaries.
Host/internal C++ API: include/sco/, Platform, Start/Tick/Stop; this is not the plugin C++ wrapper reference.
Architecture: layers, startup, scheduling and limits.
Plugin loader and Lua runtime host: dependency ordering, discovery, reload and native trust.
Host controls: storage, UI, IPC, network, DataCore, game-pack opt-in.
Host simulator and focused tests in building/testing; host lessons.

Game-pack contributor — Check or update a game build

Game pack and service/capability evidence: pack/version, checked signatures, pending runtime diagnostics and game acceptance.
Sigcheck: setup, output, exit codes and patch-day workflow.
Adding signatures: row ownership, uniqueness and guards.
Feature inventories: ASOP/hangar/ATC, world, contracts, actors, entities, events, creative, mining, product features, offline patches.
Game service integration: product opt-in and runtime limits. Signature resolution, service presence and in-game correctness are separate evidence.

Agent / IDE user — Discover the SDK via MCP

Agent and IDE integration: compiler/catalogue prerequisites, stdio launcher, client configuration and troubleshooting.
MCP server authority: six read-only tools, allowlist, provenance, limits and separate administrator-owned runner settings.
Reference snapshots: bind discovery/examples to exact source/archive inputs; development previews are not approved releases.

MCP is static discovery, not a host/game connection, compiler or SDK executor. Client-specific instructions live in the integration guide, not in this index.

Maintainer — Build, contribute, release

Contributing and building/testing: source policy, named tests, CI and product adoption.
Changelog, SDK 2.1.0 notes, SDK 2.0.0 notes and published releases: keep SDK/package, plugin ABI and game-pack version coordinates distinct.
Release checklist and release decisions: candidate versus signed approval versus actual publication; releases are maintainer acts.
Documentation site: curated public inputs, generation, checks and existing Pages publication workflow.
IP policy, third-party notices and dependency inventory.
Design: opt-in runtime MCP: owner-approved decisions (2026-10-12), not implemented; metadata-only runtime group and security/fixture acceptance.

Historical designs and evidence

These are dated plans/audits, not substitutes for current contracts: framework plan, service safety, service-table lifetime audit, game services, game-world spikes, multiplayer/bridges, VFS/DataCore, release-hardening baseline and plugin-licensing options.