Workspace layout

A Nodos workspace is a directory marked by a .nosman folder. Everything a Nodos installation needs lives inside it, so workspaces are self-contained and several can coexist at different versions.

MyNodos/
├── .nosman/          # workspace index and remote metadata
├── Engine/           # engine installs
├── Module/           # plugins and subsystems
├── Package/          # downloaded SDKs and generic packages
├── Project/          # generated build tree
├── Toolchain/        # CMake entry point and nosman sources
└── nodos             # the package manager binary (nodos.exe on Windows)

Create one with nodos init.

.nosman/

Workspace state.

Path	Contents
.nosman/index	Local package index. Rebuilt by nodos rescan.
.nosman/remote/<name>/index	Cached remote index.
.nosman/remote/<name>/releases/	Release metadata per bundle, e.g. nodos.bundle.standard.json.
.nosman/remote/<name>/presets/	Bundle presets.

Commands that resolve packages or node classes read the index, so run nodos rescan after editing modules on disk by hand.

Engine/

One folder per installed engine version. Inside an engine install:

Path	Contents
Binaries/	nosEngine, nosEditor, nosLauncher, libnosControl, Vulkan loader.
Config/	EngineSettings.json and other engine configuration.
Logs/	Runtime logs.
SDK/	Built SDKs: Plugin/, Process/, Types/, CMake/, and info.json.
Cache/	Engine caches.
EULA_CONFIRMED.json	EULA acceptance state.

SDK/info.json records the three version numbers that matter:

{
    "version": "1.4.0",
    "plugin_sdk_version": "41.0.0",
    "process_sdk_version": "21.0.0"
}

List installed engines with nodos engine list.

Module/

Plugins and subsystems — both the ones you write and, under Module/Downloaded/, the ones fetched from the store.

The toolchain scans this tree recursively (or MODULE_DIRS, if set). A folder containing exactly one .nosplugin becomes a plugin target.

A module folder looks like:

mycorp.myplugin/
├── mycorp.myplugin.nosplugin
├── Binaries/        # build output
├── Include/         # public headers
├── Nodes/           # *.nosnode definitions, auto-discovered
├── Source/          # C++ implementation, globbed recursively
├── Types/           # *.fbs schemas
├── Tests/           # graph files for `nodos test`
└── CMakeLists.txt   # optional, additive

See Plugin manifest.

Package/

Downloaded SDKs and generic packages, under Package/Downloaded/:

Package/Downloaded/nodos.sdk.plugin/41.0.0.bXXXX/
├── Binaries/     # flatc
├── CMake/        # FindnosPluginSDK.cmake
├── Include/      # SDK headers, including Nodos/
├── Libraries/
├── Template/     # scaffolding used by `nodos create`
└── Types/        # Builtins.fbs and the rest

Fetched automatically to satisfy the sdk_version declared in your manifests.

Toolchain/

Path	Contents
Toolchain/CMake	Workspace CMake entry point and helper scripts.
Toolchain/nosman	Sources for the nodos binary. Rust; only needed if you build it yourself.

Project/

The generated CMake build tree, produced by nodos dev gen.

Warning

Disposable. Regenerate it; never hand-edit it. nodos dev gen --clean deletes and recreates it, which is the right move after changing anything structural.

Generate several side by side with -p:

nodos dev gen   -p Project14
nodos dev build -p Project14 --target nosMyPlugin

Project/compile_commands.json is generated too, so clangd and similar tools work without extra setup.

Workspaces spanning several repositories

When your modules live in more than one git repository under Module/, nodos dev operates across all of them at once:

nodos dev status   # git status for every repository in the workspace
nodos dev pull     # pull current branches

nodos dev setup clones Nodos repositories from the nodos-dev organisation into the workspace, skipping any already present. It can only clone repositories your account can access, so what it fetches depends on your permissions.

To build a module that lives outside the workspace entirely, point the generator at it rather than moving it:

nodos dev gen --plugin-dirs "/path/to/my/repo"
nodos dev build

.nospub

Optional, at a package root. Restricts what nodos publish uploads:

{
    "globs": [
        "/Binaries/**/*.{dll,so,dylib}",
        "/Nodes/**",
        "/Include/**",
        "/*.nosplugin"
    ]
}

Without it, every file under the package path is published. See Publish a package.