skyrimvr-claude-toolkit: Skill for Claude Code

DevBench — the live in-game test channel

The single biggest time sink in modding is the in-game test loop: change something, ask the user to launch the game, have them trigger it, wait, hear "it didn't work", guess again. DevBench breaks that loop. It is a dev-only SKSE plugin (alandtse, Nexus SE 181326 — same author as Engine Fixes VR) that runs a localhost REST + MCP server inside the running game, so the agent can inspect live state, run console commands and read their output, call Papyrus functions and get the return value, dismiss modals, and drive scripted scenarios — directly, while the user just keeps playing.

NOT bundled (GPL-3.0-or-later; the toolkit ships only the wrapper). It changes no gameplay and writes no save data.

It is a mod, not one of the tools/ dev utilities — so do NOT install it for the user. Every other optional tool lives in tools/ and never touches the game; DevBench is an SKSE plugin that ends up in Data/SKSE/Plugins/. Hand-copying a DLL there bypasses Vortex/MO2, leaves the file untracked, and on a managed install a later deploy or purge can clobber it. If the user wants DevBench, they install it through their own mod manager like any other SKSE plugin; the wrapper below works the moment it's present.

bash tools/devbench-cli.sh alive                       # is the GAME running, paused, hung, or not loaded?
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh health                      # raw off-thread liveness + instance identity
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh ping                        # server self-test only -- NOT proof of liveness
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh state                       # {plugin,version,vr,playerLoaded,frame,pid,port,exe}
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh inspect vm                  # Papyrus VM health — freeze diagnosis
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh exec "player.getav health"  # console exec + capture + read output
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh call Actor IsInCombat '[]' '{"form":"0x14"}'
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh notify "Test 3 of 5: swing now"   # HUD narration
bash tools/devbench-cli.sh tool menu '{"action":"accept"}'   # raw: any tool, any JSON

Hard requirement: the game must be running. The server only exists while the game is genuinely running with a save loaded. In VR that normally means the headset is on (Skyrim VR errors at VR-init without one) -- or headless mode, below. When the game is closed the port is dead — fall back to the offline tools (xelib, Spriggit, ReSaver, PyNifly).

Headless Skyrim VR (no headset): bash tools/vr-headless.sh on. It points the game at SteamVR's null driver (replacing an OpenComposite openvr_api.dll with SteamVR's own), so the game boots and DevBench is drivable with nobody in the headset. Close SteamVR first; then start SteamVR, let it settle (if room setup opens, wait for it to close: launching while it runs gets the game evicted), and launch the game. bash tools/vr-headless.sh off restores both files byte-exact and verifies them; it is safe to repeat and after a crash, so run it before the user plays again. Valid only for pose-independent tests -- scripts, records, console, frame rate. Anything that depends on where the head and hands are (HIGGS, VRIK, PLANCK, hand collision) needs the real headset. emu on|off swaps in a pose-emulating driver (its hands track) once the user has built it (tools/vr-emu-driver/README.md: fetched from a pinned upstream commit, never shipped). Skyrim VR only.

Port is deterministic per runtime: SE/AE 8920, VR 8921 (DevBench iterates if the port is busy and writes the bound port to Data/SKSE/Plugins/devbench/runtime.json, which the wrapper reads). Override with DEVBENCH_PORT. MCP clients can point at http://127.0.0.1:<port>/mcp; the REST path the wrapper uses works any time the server is up, with no reconnect.