SKYPLUG(1) General Commands Manual SKYPLUG(1)

skyplug — inspect and toggle Skyrim Special Edition plugins on Linux/Steam

skyplug [--game-dir dir] [--appid appid] command [args]

skyplug reads and edits the Plugins.txt load order of a Skyrim Special Edition install running under Proton, without a mod manager. It scans the game's Data directory for .esp, .esm and .esl files, cross-references them with Plugins.txt and Skyrim.ccc, and reports what the engine will actually load.

It can also read .ess save files directly, to show which characters exist, which saves belong to each, and which plugins were active when a save was made.

Only two kinds of plugin load regardless of Plugins.txt:

  • the base game and DLC masters: Skyrim.esm, Update.esm, Dawnguard.esm, HearthFires.esm and Dragonborn.esm;
  • Creation Club content listed in Skyrim.ccc.

Every other plugin, including mod .esm files and .esp files carrying the master flag, loads only when it is prefixed with ‘*’ in Plugins.txt. The master flag in a plugin's header only affects where it loads: masters load ahead of regular plugins.

The load order skyplug shows is an approximation: base game masters in their fixed order, then Creation Club content in Skyrim.ccc order, then active masters, then active regular plugins, each group in Plugins.txt order. The engine additionally sorts masters by their dependencies, which skyplug does not parse.

List every plugin in Data, plus any listed in Plugins.txt that no longer exist, each with a status marker:

enabled in Plugins.txt
present in Data but not enabled
listed in Plugins.txt but missing from Data
base game/DLC master, always loaded
Creation Club content, always loaded
plugin
Enable plugin by setting its ‘*’ prefix in Plugins.txt, adding it to the end of the file if it is not listed yet.
plugin
Disable plugin by removing its ‘*’ prefix. A plugin not listed in Plugins.txt is left alone.
Open the interactive editor; see EDITOR.
Print the resolved Data, Plugins.txt, Skyrim.ccc and saves paths, then exit. Useful for checking that auto-detection found the right install.
List every character across all saves, with the number of saves each has and details of the most recent one.
character
List every save belonging to character.
save
List the plugins that were active when save was made, each marked against the current setup with the same markers as list.
[--install]
Print this manual page to standard output. With --install, write it to ../share/man/man1/skyplug.1 relative to the directory holding the skyplug binary instead, and print the path written.

plugin may be the exact filename, the filename in a different case, or the name without its extension. character matches a player name exactly or by case-insensitive substring. save matches a save's filename with or without .ess, or an unambiguous substring of it. An ambiguous match fails and lists the candidates.

dir
Use the Skyrim Special Edition install in dir (the directory containing SkyrimSE.exe) instead of searching the Steam libraries. The Proton prefix is looked up in the Steam library that contains dir.
appid
Steam AppID used to locate the game and its Proton prefix. Defaults to 489830, Skyrim Special Edition.
, --help
Print a short usage summary.
, --version
Print the version.

edit has two tabs, and , switched with tab.

In both tabs:

, k, up, down
move the selection
, G
jump to the top or bottom
switch tab
save plugin changes and quit
, esc
quit, asking again first if there are unsaved changes

In the Plugins tab:

, enter
toggle the selected plugin
filter by substring as you type; enter keeps the filter, esc restores the previous one
cycle the sort order: load order, name, type, enabled

Toggles are held in memory and marked with a trailing ‘*’ until saved with s. Always-loaded and missing plugins cannot be toggled.

In the Saves tab, which goes from characters to their saves to a save's plugins:

, right, enter
open the selected character or save
, left, backspace
go back up a level
go back up a level, or quit at the top

A save's plugins are marked against the current setup, including unsaved toggles, so you can enable what a save needs in the Plugins tab and check it in the Saves tab before saving.

Paths are shown relative to the Steam library holding the game, lib, and to the Proton user directory inside it, user, which is lib/steamapps/compatdata/489830/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser for the default AppID. paths prints the resolved ones.

lib/steamapps/common/Skyrim Special Edition/Data/
Installed plugins.
lib/steamapps/common/Skyrim Special Edition/Skyrim.ccc
Creation Club plugins the engine always loads.
user/AppData/Local/Skyrim Special Edition/Plugins.txt
The load order. skyplug writes Plugins.txt.bak beside it before every change.
user/Documents/My Games/Skyrim Special Edition/Saves/
Save files.
~/.local/share/Steam, ~/.steam/steam, ~/.steam/root
Steam installs searched for libraryfolders.vdf, along with the Flatpak install under ~/.var/app/com.valvesoftware.Steam.

The skyplug utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

List the plugins that are installed but switched off:

$ skyplug list | grep '^\[ \]'

Enable a plugin by name, ignoring case and extension:

$ skyplug enable "paarthurnax dilemma"
enabled Paarthurnax Dilemma.esp

Before loading an old save, find which of its mods are missing or disabled:

$ skyplug characters
$ skyplug saves tessta
$ skyplug save-plugins Quicksave0 | grep -v '\[x\]'

Use Skyrim VR, or an install the Steam search does not find:

$ skyplug --appid 611670 list
$ skyplug --game-dir "/mnt/games/Skyrim Special Edition" paths

Install this page after ‘cargo install skyplug’, or read it without installing:

$ skyplug man --install
$ skyplug man | man -l -

man(1)

Divan Visagie <me@divanv.com>

October 4, 2026 Ubuntu