SMAPI is an open-source modding API for Stardew Valley. It takes care of loading mods into the game context, and exposes events they can use to interact with the game. It's safely installed alongside the game's executable, and doesn't change any of your game files.

For players

• How to install SMAPI & use mods
• Support forums
• Stardew Valley Discord (chat with players and developers)

If you need help, ask in this forum thread or come talk to us on Discord. Your question will be seen by more people who can help that way. (Please don't submit issues on GitHub for support questions.)

For mod developers

• How to develop mods
• Release notes
• SMAPI/Farmhand Discord (chat with SMAPI developers)

For SMAPI developers

This section is about compiling SMAPI itself from source. If you don't know what that means, this section isn't relevant to you; see the previous sections to use or create mods.

Compiling from source

Using an official SMAPI release is recommended for most users.

If you'd like to compile SMAPI from source, you can do that on any platform using Visual Studio or MonoDevelop. SMAPI uses build configuration derived from the crosswiki mod config to detect your current OS automatically and load the correct references. Compile output will be placed in a bin directory at the root of the git repository.

Debugging a local build

Rebuilding the solution in debug mode will copy the SMAPI files into your game directory. Starting the StardewModdingAPI project with debugging will launch SMAPI with the debugger attached, so you can intercept errors and step through the code being executed.

Preparing a release

To prepare a crossplatform SMAPI release, you'll need to compile it on two platforms. See crossplatforming a SMAPI mod for the first-time setup. For simplicity, all paths are relative to the root of the repository (the directory containing src).

1. Update the version number in AssemblyInfo.cs and Constants::Version. Make sure you use a semantic version. Recommended format:

   build type	format	example
   dev build	<version>-alpha-<timestamp>	1.0.0-alpha-201611300500
   beta	<version>-beta<incrementing ID>	1.0.0-beta2
   release	<version>	1.0.0

2. In Windows:

   1. Rebuild the solution in Release mode.
   2. Rename bin/Packaged to SMAPI-<version> (e.g. SMAPI-1.0).
   3. Transfer the SMAPI-<version> directory to Linux or Mac.
      This adds the installer executable and Windows files. We'll do the rest in Linux or Mac, since we need to set Unix file permissions that Windows won't save.

3. In Linux or Mac:

   1. Rebuild the solution in Release mode.

   2. Copy bin/Packaged/Mono into the SMAPI-<version> directory.

   3. If you did everything right so far, you should have a directory like this:

      SMAPI-1.0/
         Mono/
            Mods/*
            Newtonsoft.Json.dll
            StardewModdingAPI
            StardewModdingAPI.exe
            StardewModdingAPI.exe.mdb
            StardewModdingAPI-settings.json
            System.Numerics.dll
            steam_appid.txt
         Windows/
            Mods/*
            StardewModdingAPI.exe
            StardewModdingAPI.pdb
            StardewModdingAPI.xml
            StardewModdingAPI-settings.json
            steam_appid.txt
         install.exe
         readme.txt
      

   4. Open a terminal in the SMAPI-<version> directory and run chmod 755 Mono/StardewModdingAPI.

   5. Copy & paste the SMAPI-<version> directory as SMAPI-<version>-for-developers.

   6. In the SMAPI-<version> directory, delete the following files:

      • Mono/StardewModdingAPI-settings.json
      • Windows/StardewModdingAPI.xml
      • Windows/StardewModdingAPI-settings.json

   7. Compress the two folders into SMAPI-<version>.zip and SMAPI-<version>-for-developers.zip.