Development setup

Everything installed or configured to work on REDnode, in the order it was done. A fresh machine should be able to follow this top to bottom.

Reference machine: Windows 11 Home (build 26200), 16 GB RAM.

1. Base tools

gh (GitHub CLI) 2.102.0 is optional. It makes repository settings scriptable and shows Pages deploy runs:

winget install --id GitHub.cli -e --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements
gh auth login   # interactive: GitHub.com, HTTPS, sign in in the browser as CyberbuildsAI

Open a new terminal after installing so gh is on PATH.

2. C++ toolchain for the native plugin

The RED4ext SDK needs CMake 3.21 or later and C++20.

winget install --id Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools --source winget `
  --accept-package-agreements --accept-source-agreements `
  --override "--quiet --wait --norestart --nocache --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools --includeRecommended"

• Windows shows an admin (UAC) prompt. The download is several GB and takes 10 to 20 minutes.
• Low memory: on a 16 GB machine the install ran short of memory with Steam and Chrome open. Close them first.
• If the command that started the install is interrupted, the Visual Studio installer keeps running on its own. Wait for the setup and vs_setup_bootstrapper processes to exit instead of starting a second install.
• VS 2022 rather than 2026: its toolset (14.44) needs a Visual C++ runtime no newer than what players typically have. The reference machine’s runtime is 14.51.

Verify:

& "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -products * `
  -requires Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.Tools.x86.x64 -property installationPath

Verified on the reference machine: Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 17.14.37710.0, MSVC toolset 14.44.35207 (compiler 19.44.35229), CMake bundled with the Build Tools.

Build and deploy the plugin

.\tools\build-native.ps1           # configure, build, stage native\build\dist\red4ext\plugins\REDnode
.\tools\deploy-native.ps1          # copy into the game (close the game first)
.\tools\deploy-native.ps1 -Remove  # take it out again

The first configure clones RED4ext.SDK at the pinned commit, so it needs network access. The build needs no developer shell, because the script finds the Build Tools and their bundled CMake with vswhere.

3. Repository and GitHub

git clone https://github.com/Edgemodders/REDnode.git "$env:USERPROFILE\source\repos\REDnode"
cd "$env:USERPROFILE\source\repos\REDnode"

# Repo-local identity, so a different global identity is left alone
git config user.name  "CyberbuildsAI"
git config user.email "340969962+CyberbuildsAI@users.noreply.github.com"

npm install
npm run typecheck

Pushing needs Git Credential Manager signed in as CyberbuildsAI. If a push fails with Permission ... denied to <other account>, the machine has another GitHub account cached. Remove the github.com entry in Windows Credential Manager and push again to get a sign-in prompt.

GitHub Pages serves docs/ from main: https://edgemodders.github.io/REDnode/. It is configured in the repository settings, not in code.

4. Game install for testing

Default Steam path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Cyberpunk 2077. Mods on the reference machine are managed by Vortex.

On a new machine, install the two required mods before testing, through a mod manager or by hand from their official releases:

• RED4ext: https://github.com/WopsS/RED4ext/releases (also on Nexus Mods)
• redscript: https://github.com/jac3km4/redscript/releases (also on Nexus Mods)

Match their versions to the installed game version. Check that RED4ext works by launching the game once and looking for red4ext/logs/red4ext-*.log.

If the game is not at the default path, pass it to the deploy script: .\tools\deploy-native.ps1 -GameDir 'D:\Games\Cyberpunk 2077'.

The game needs about 12 to 16 GB of RAM. On a 16 GB machine, close other apps before testing.

5. Reference sources

Read-only clones used for research. They live outside the repo and are never committed.

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/WopsS/RED4ext.SDK.git

6. Docs site

The site at https://edgemodders.github.io/REDnode/ is built and deployed by .github/workflows/pages.yml on every push to main. In the repository settings, Settings > Pages > Source must be set to GitHub Actions.

Generate the API reference locally:

npm run docs:api   # writes docs/api (ignored by git), open docs/api/index.html

Previewing the Jekyll pages locally needs Ruby and Jekyll, which are not installed on the reference machine. Push to main and check the deployed site instead.

7. Brand images

The README banner, the GitHub social preview and the README badges are generated, then committed.

.\tools\brand\render.ps1   # needs Chrome or Edge, Python, and network access for the web fonts

Edit tools/brand/brand.html to change the banner. Re-run the script after changing version numbers in the badges.

8. VS Code theme

The REDnode HUD color theme for VS Code lives in the REDcode repository, at extensions/rednode-hud-theme, because REDcode is the VS Code environment REDnode mods are built in. Build or install it from there (npm run theme:package in REDcode). This repository no longer carries a copy.

9. Game API reference

The game API reference at https://edgemodders.github.io/REDnode/game/ is generated from a base-game RTTI dump, committed as gameapi/<game version>/rtti.json, plus REDnode’s notes in gameapi/notes/.

Build it locally:

npm run docs:game   # writes docs/game (ignored by git), about a minute, ~100 MB

Open docs/game/index.html in a browser. Search needs a web server, because browsers block fetch on file:// pages.

New dump after a game patch

Do this once per game patch. The dump must contain only the base game, so every other mod has to be off.

1. In Vortex, create a profile named vanilla with only RED4ext enabled, switch to it and click Deploy. Mods installed outside Vortex stay behind. Check red4ext/plugins/ for other plugin DLLs.
2. If another RED4ext plugin is still in red4ext/plugins/, add its folder name to ignored in red4ext/config.ini, for example ignored = ["cet_mod_manager"]. Script mods in r6/scripts do not matter, because redscript is not deployed in this profile.

3. Build and deploy REDnode, then create an empty dump.request file next to REDnode.dll:

   .\tools\build-native.ps1
   .\tools\deploy-native.ps1 -GameDir '<game folder>'
   New-Item -ItemType File '<game folder>\red4ext\plugins\REDnode\dump.request'
   

4. Launch the game, wait for the main menu and quit. The REDnode log shows RTTI dump written to ..., and the plugin deletes dump.request.
5. Check red4ext/logs/red4ext-*.log: REDnode must be the only plugin that says has been loaded.

6. Import the dump, giving the game’s product version from the RED4ext log:

   npm run gameapi:import -- '<game folder>\red4ext\plugins\REDnode\rtti-dump.json' --game 2.31
   

7. Set ignored = [] back in red4ext/config.ini, and switch Vortex back to your normal profile.

10. HTML overlay host

packages/overlay is the overlay host from the overlay design: an Electron app that renders overlay apps off-screen and streams them to the REDnode plugin in the game. packages/ui is the UI kit apps use.

On the reference machine npm install did not run Electron’s install script, so the Electron binary was missing. Download it by hand once:

node node_modules/electron/install.js   # puts electron.exe in node_modules/electron/dist (about 370 MB)

Run the host:

npm run overlay          # off-screen, waits for the game on \.\pipe\rednode-overlay
npm run overlay:window   # the demo app in a normal window, without the game

Package the host the way players get it, then deploy it with the plugin:

.\tools\build-native.ps1
npm run overlay:package    # host\REDnode-overlay.exe and apps\ next to the staged plugin (about 320 MB)
.\tools\deploy-native.ps1 -GameDir '<game folder>'

With the packaged host deployed, the plugin starts it with the game, so npm run overlay is not needed. Only one host runs at a time: one started by hand before the game keeps the pipe, and the packaged one exits. The packaged host logs to red4ext/logs/rednode-overlay.log.

The host clears ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE before starting Electron, because VS Code sets it for processes it starts and it turns Electron into plain Node.

CI skips the Electron download with ELECTRON_SKIP_BINARY_DOWNLOAD=1, because the docs build does not need it.