Questions, answered plainly.

A mod manager for Windows with an assistant built in. The manager installs, orders and deploys mods with a backup and an exact rollback for every change. The assistant, Smith, diagnoses crashes, patches conflicts, translates mods and helps you build a load order.

The manager is free, all of it, for good: library, deploy, load order, profiles, Nexus Mods, FOMOD, tools, collections, imports. Smith's model-backed features are a subscription. Smith's local checks are free too.

It is meant to be. The same concepts are there: a library, a load order, profiles, external tools, Nexus links. The difference is that Modsmith places real, journaled links in the game folder instead of a virtual file system, and that it has Smith. There is a side-by-side of the terms on the features page.

No. An account is needed only for a Smith subscription. Everything else runs as a guest and stays on your machine.

The manager is in early access: the current build is 0.1.0-alpha.1, the installer is not code-signed yet, and Smith's model-backed features open with Smith's launch. Everything on this site that describes the manager describes the build you can download today.

It is the name we ship under today. If it changes, the app and this site change together, and your licence and subscription carry over.

Modsmith ships one game engine, verified with Skyrim Special Edition and Anniversary Edition: full load order, profiles with isolated saves, light plugins, crash diagnosis. Another game can be added by pointing the app at its folder: it will place mod files where you say and can undo it exactly, but it cannot tell whether that game loads them, and it says so instead of guessing.

Support is earned, not declared. Each level includes the ones below: found on disk; mods, deploy and rollback; profiles with separate saves; load order; crash diagnosis. The level for your game is shown in Smith's setup table and in the game picker.

No. Those copies ship as packaged applications whose files cannot be replaced, which also rules out script extenders. The app warns when the folder you pick looks like one.

Not supported. VR builds use a different runtime and are not matched by the engine module.

Steam, GOG and Epic. Anything else, or an unusual install location, you point at by hand.

It places links to the enabled mod files and backs up any original it would replace. Nothing else of its own goes in. Roll back removes every link and restores every backup, and reports files you changed by hand in between instead of deleting them.

The plan is written to a journal before the first file is touched. On the next start the app finds the unfinished deployment and offers to finish rolling it back, so the game folder returns to a known state and you deploy again.

Yes. Roll back does exactly that. If you uninstall without rolling back, a note in the data folder lists what is still deployed and how to undo it, and the backups stay where they are.

No. It reads them, to tell you which plugins a save needs and which your build no longer has. It never writes to a save.

The FOMOD wizard interprets the installer's configuration file: options, conditions, previews. Scripted installers are not executed, because that would run code shipped inside an archive.

Native files inside mods, DLLs and executables the app does not recognise, are held back until you decide, hashed and listed with the mod they came from. Restore puts the file back into its mod; it reaches the game folder on the next deploy. This is where script-extender plugins land the first time, and it is one click to let them through.

No. The app installs into your user profile, and hardlinks do not need elevation. If Windows ever asks for administrator rights on behalf of Modsmith, something else is going on.

Generate a personal API key in your Nexus account settings and paste it into Modsmith's settings. The key is encrypted with Windows DPAPI for your user account, sent only to Nexus, and never written to a log.

Because that is how Nexus wants it for free accounts, and the app does not automate anything Nexus asks you to do yourself. The click opens an nxm link in the app, which confirms the mod, the file and the size, then downloads.

Premium accounts get direct download links, so a whole collection can be fetched in one go without visiting each mod page.

Yes. The app can see who owns the association and asks once before taking it over. Switching back is the same in the other manager.

Yes. The app reads portable and global instances, takes the profile's mod list and order, and registers the mods by reference to where they already are. Separators become group captions. Your MO2 instance is not modified. Keep it around: if you delete it, the imported mods lose their files.

Not yet. Vortex keeps its live state in a database that only periodic snapshots make readable, so an import today could only be of a build that may be out of date. When it is added, it will say how old the snapshot is.

No. Modsmith carries collections as lists of Nexus links that you download through your own account. Installing a finished Wabbajack list in one go is not something it does.

Yes, but roll back first. Modsmith places real files in the game folder, and another manager would see them as part of the base game. Roll back, and the folder is exactly what it was.

Diagnose a crash, propose a patch for a conflict, translate a mod, pick mods for a description, and work through a build with you. Each ends in a proposal that Modsmith applies as an ordinary, reversible operation. The Smith page goes through each.

Smith's local checks work in every build: overlaps, missing masters, what the game will load, build drift, and crash signatures for common crashes. The model-backed features open with Smith's launch, together with the subscriptions.

The one you pick. Choose a role and let Smith route per task, or name a model from Anthropic, Google or OpenAI. Every plan can use every model; a heavier model uses the monthly allowance faster.

No. A model's answer is a proposal. Code validates it and runs an existing command, the same one you would click, with the same backup. The model never writes a plugin and never touches the game folder.

For a crash diagnosis: the parsed structure of the log, the game version, the exception, the module and call stack, the loaded modules, and the names and load-order indices of your plugins. Not sent: file paths, your Windows account name, the raw log, your saves, your Nexus key, the contents of mods. The exact body is shown before the first request and available any time after.

The local checks do. The model needs a connection, and an activated subscription keeps working for a grace period without one.

Lite, Pro and Max differ in monthly allowances: crash diagnoses, patches, picks, words of translation, and access to Build with Smith. All the numbers are on the pricing page. The manager itself is not part of any plan because it is free.

The feature waits for the next period, or you move to a larger plan. There are no overage charges: nothing is billed that you did not choose.

Your first Smith payment can be refunded within 14 days, for any reason. Renewals are refundable where the law requires it and otherwise at our discretion. The refund policy has the details.

From the account menu in the app or from the payment provider's customer portal linked in your receipt. Cancelling stops the next renewal and keeps Smith working until the end of the paid period.

Up to 3 devices signed in at the same time, sharing one allowance.

Xsolla, which handles payment methods, invoices and taxes for the subscription. Your card details go to them; we receive the status of the subscription.

If you subscribed at a founder price, no, for as long as the subscription stays continuously active. Otherwise a list-price change applies only to future periods, with at least 14 days' notice, and you can cancel before it takes effect.

No. No analytics, no crash reporting, no usage statistics, in the app or on this site.

Requests to Nexus Mods when you download; a download of the LOOT masterlist when you sort; a check of our update feed at start and when you ask for updates; and, if you use Smith's model-backed features, the requests you approve. Each is described in the privacy policy.

What the app did and any errors, with your home folder and Windows account name replaced before writing. Logs still contain drive letters, game folder names and mod names. They are never uploaded; sending one to support is your action.

Roll back if you want a vanilla game folder, uninstall the app, then delete the data folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Modsmith. It also holds your library and the backups that make rollback possible, so roll back before deleting it; after an uninstall, a note there lists anything still deployed. If you had an account, delete it from the account menu and your account data goes with it, apart from the purchase records accounting law makes us keep.

The installer is not code-signed yet, so Windows shows an unfamiliar-app notice. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Signing is on the way and the notice will go with it.

The button names the reason next to it. The usual ones: the game is running, or another program holds the game folder. Fix the reason and the button comes back.

Check Smith's setup table: it says whether the build is deployed and whether the deploy method is links or copies. If the library and the game are on different drives, files are copied and a change in the library needs a new deploy to reach the game. If your game copy comes from Game Pass, it cannot be modded this way.

Look under Left in game folder. Files a tool created after it exited are listed there and can be taken into a mod of their own.

About, then Open logs folder. Send the newest log to [email protected] with what you did and what you expected. The log carries mod names, so send it only if you are fine with that.