MO2 parity & capability audit
modde does not try to be a clone of Mod Organizer 2. It targets a different platform story — Linux-first, declarative, reproducible — and ships some things MO2 has never had (git-backed save vaults, declarative FOMOD, native Wabbajack on Linux). This page is the honest accounting of how the two overlap.
It is intentionally conservative:
Donemeans the feature is shipped end to end and reachable by users.Partialmeans core logic exists, but the UX, integration, or production safety is still incomplete.Not shippedmeans the repository should not market it as available yet.
The canonical status baseline lives in docs/capability-matrix.toml.
The guardrail test crates/modde-core/tests/repo_truth_tests.rs fails the build if this page, the README, the
supported games table, and the landing-site comparison drift from that file.
Feature baseline
| Capability | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Core VFS deployment | Done | Symlink-farm deployment, per-file hiding, atomic rollback, and conflict resolution are shipped. See Deployment & VFS. |
| Profile switching & save vaults | Done | Profile activation, the experiment stack, git-backed save history, and save fingerprints ship for games with real save trackers. |
| Bethesda plugin management | Done | Plugin-order backup/restore, plugins.txt IO, LOOT parsing, Form 43 detection, and missing-master checks are shipped. |
| Nexus install pipeline | Done | API-key auth, browse/search (REST + GraphQL), update checks, nxm://, single-mod installs, and Collections are shipped. |
| FOMOD | Done | Interactive wizard plus declarative TOML/JSON/Nix config generation and non-interactive application are shipped. |
| Executable management | Done | Named executables with arguments, working directory, environment, Wine DLL overrides, and a configurable output (overwrite) mod, plus overwrite capture on run — in both the CLI (modde exec / modde tool add-executable) and the UI. See Executables & external tools. |
| Patcher pipelines | Partial | CLI and Home Manager can configure required deployment-time Synthesis/command stages, import generated output mods, and redeploy. GUI editing and Rust-native patchers are future work. See Patcher pipelines. |
| Hot-deploy | Partial | Experimental Cyberpunk-first path-level VFS patching for cosmetic-only mod toggles. It updates the live symlink deployment without promising that the running game reloads every touched asset immediately. |
| Starfield save tracking | Done | Starfield .sfs files are captured by the save tracker; the record-level save-contamination removal gate is not implemented. |
| Instance switching | Partial | CLI/runtime instance selection changes the active data root, but there is no MO2-style portable/global UX yet. |
| Diagnostics | Partial | The CLI and UI share a real diagnostics engine fed by resolved conflicts and plugin order, but there is no MO2-style “problems” button with guided fixes. |
| Data tab | Partial | The UI renders real conflict rows from the resolver/collision engine, but it is not yet a full merged-VFS browser with archive/hidden filters. |
| Downloads UI | Partial | The Downloads view is wired to real queue state, but pause/resume is UI-side state rather than a durable transport-level pipeline. |
| Tool management | Partial | The Tools view loads DB-backed tool configs and can apply/revert tracked file patches for MangoHud, vkBasalt, GameMode, ReShade, OptiScaler, and Proton, but the catalog is narrower than MO2’s plugin ecosystem. |
| Mod information dialog | Partial | A right-rail panel shows Nexus metadata, the image gallery, and endorse/track toggles, but there is no MO2-style file-tree / INI editor / conflict-tab dialog. |
| Non-Nexus download backends | Partial | GitHub, Direct, Google Drive, MEGA, and MediaFire backends exist and are exercised by Wabbajack/directive workflows, but they are not yet first-class install mod UX. |
| BAIN | Partial | Detection and execution scaffolding exist, but the interactive sub-package selection flow is unfinished. |
| Generic game support | Partial | User-defined games ship through modde game add / import-export of a GameSpec TOML and a generic loader, but without a polished UI or per-game scanner/save-tracker. See Generic & user-defined games. |
Supported games
Depth varies by game. Done titles are the strongest end-to-end paths; Partial titles deploy and track saves but have not been hardened to the same degree.
| Game | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Skyrim Special Edition / Anniversary Edition | Done | Plugins, LOOT, diagnostics, VFS, saves, and Wabbajack/Nexus workflows are the strongest path today. |
| Fallout 4 | Done | Plugins, diagnostics, VFS, and save tracking are shipped. |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | Done | REDmod / CET / TweakXL-aware install and launch flows are shipped. |
| Fallout 76 | Partial | VFS, plugin handling, and BA2 scanning exist; saves are effectively server-side and only lightly represented locally. |
| Starfield | Partial | Game plugin, plugin handling, VFS, diagnostics, and .sfs save capture exist; record-level save-contamination gating does not. |
| Stellar Blade | Partial | UE4/UE5-style deployment, scanning, conflicts, OptiScaler integration, and local save tracking are present, below the Bethesda/Cyberpunk depth. |
| Baldur’s Gate 3, Stardew Valley, Fallout: New Vegas, Oblivion, Oblivion Remastered, Bannerlord, The Witcher 3, Subnautica 2 | Partial | Engine-appropriate deployment, scanning, conflict classification, and save tracking ship; depth and game-specific polish are still maturing. |
See Supported games for the full per-game table, IDs, and per-game guides.
Where MO2 is still ahead
These are the gaps that matter most for a “drop-in MO2/Vortex replacement” claim:
- Mod information dialog — file tree, text/INI editing, image preview, conflict tabs, and optional per-mod plugin management.
- Durable download pipeline — transport-level pause/resume/cancel, ETA/speed, concurrency, update-all, and resumable metadata sidecars (modde has resumable sidecars for Wabbajack/direct downloads, but not yet a unified interactive queue).
- Full merged-VFS browser — archive visibility, overwrite actions, hidden-file filters, and “go to the conflicting mod” navigation in the Data tab.
- Breadth of tool/plugin ecosystem — MO2’s plugin surface (preview, checker, and integration plugins) is much wider than modde’s curated overlay set.
Where modde is ahead
Features with no MO2 equivalent: git-backed save vaults with full history and branching, SHA-256 save fingerprinting with pre-restore compatibility warnings, the non-destructive experiment stack, declarative FOMOD configs, native Wabbajack installation on Linux, Nexus Collections, declarative home-manager profiles, profile forking that clones save history, stock-game tree-hash verification, and unified Steam + Heroic (GOG/Epic/sideload) detection. See the landing-site comparison for the side-by-side.