SKSE Plugin Development/Resources

As of 2024-11-16, there is no definitive resource on SKSE plugin modding.

Please note that instructions may differ from one source to another and that some might simply be completely wrong/outdated.

• Ryan-rsm-McKenzie's Tutorial on GitHub. Most notably, includes documentation for debugging setup and CommonLibSSE's Papyrus API.
• The original SKSE64 source code on GitHub, which, in contrast to CommonLibSSE, has comments! You should definitely check this out as it is probably the best documentation you will find. I recommend cloning (downloading) this repository and checking it out in your IDE so you can search it more easily.
• Skyrim.dev - SKSE
• Unofficial auto-generated documentation for CommonLibSSE, CommonLibVR and CommonLibSSE-NG
• MrowrPurr's Discord. You can ask SKSE- or Papyrus-related questions here.
• Zartar's "noob tutorial" on Bethesda's old forum. The whole discussion may contain other helpful information too.
• This Reddit discussion on weird errors while trying to set up a plugin template

Generally, SKSE plugin development heavily depends on a good IDE that allows you to browse the SKSE and CommonLibSSE sources, and on reading other people's source code on GitHub.

If you chose to use CLion, navigate to <Project Directory>\build\debug-msvc\vcpkg_install\vcpkg\pkgs\commonlibsse-ng_x64-windows-skse, right-click it and select Mark directory as→ Library Files. Now, when you hit shift twice to invoke Search Everywhere, all the CommonLibSSE symbols will show up in your search!