This article is for those who have created an extension for Vortex and want to upload it for others to enjoy. Extensions can come in three types - games, translations and themes.

The easiest way for users to find and install extensions is through Vortex's built-in Extensions dialog. For your extension to be listed there are a few steps that need to be followed:

• It has to be packaged in an archive in the correct way (important, see below)
• It has to be uploaded to https://www.nexusmods.com/site
• It has to be added to the correct category
• It can only have a single file under 'Main Files'
• It must use semantic versioning (0.1.2). See SemVer for more information.
• It has to be reviwed by us and pass our verification process (important, see below)

The last step means that even after uploading your extension, it may still take some time before it will be seen within Vortex. Our current timescales for the verification are:

• Up to 7 days for game extensions
• Up to 4 days for translations and themes

There are different packaging rules depending on what type of extension you have created.

For development help, please see How to create a game extension.

Extensions (including game extensions) need to contain at least an index.js and an info.json file but we highly encourage the addition of a gameart.jpg image file too.

For the game image, we recommend using an image similar to the game art used by the Nexus Mods website. Please ensure it has an aspect ratio of 16:9 as they will be displayed at 256x144 in the default theme. To avoid confusion, please use the same image that you are using as the gameart for the mod page on Nexus Mods.

These files need to be placed in the root of the archive. If you include further assets or libraries (libraries that aren’t baked/webpacked into the index.js), they can be arranged into subdirectories as necessary.

For example:

/
|- readme.txt
|- index.js
|- info.json
|- assets
  |- fancy.jpg
  |- icon.svg

Important points for the info.json file:

• During upload, please make sure the exact same version number is entered on the site as well as in the info file
• Avoid changing the name of the extension inside of the info file
• Don’t add the version number as part of the extension name

All files need to be inside of a subfolder named as the 2- or 4- letter ISO Language Tag for the language. See here for details of what the language tag should be.

You can have additional files like readmes and license files in the base directory but we advise against including additional directories. Vortex will ignore any directory which isn’t named like an ISO Language Tag and there has to be exactly one of those.

For German, it could look like this:

/
|- readme.txt
|- de
    |- common.json    

For Swiss German, it could look like this:

/
|- readme.txt
|- de-CH
    |- common.json

The ISO Language Tag will determine the language name as the user selects it and will also control things like date and number formats and lexical ordering.

For development help, please see How to create a theme.

Themes should contain a single subdirectory containing your scss files. The name of that directory will be used in the dropdown where users choose the theme.

You can have additional files like readmes and license files in the base directory

You can include multiple subdirectories, each of which will appear as a separate theme for the user to pick from.

For example, a theme called Xmas Theme would look like:

/
|- readme.txt
|- Xmas Theme
    |- variables.scss
    |- style.scss

We verify extensions so that we can maintain the level of quality that are users expect and also so that we can provide basic support if needed. We will endevour to help and make recommendations where we can so we can get your creation added to our ever growing list of community-made extensions.

Everything you need to pass is covered above and check the rest of the wiki for support regarding the actual creation of extensions.

This is a list of what we will be checking for all extensions (and updates):

• Is it named correctly? (see above)
• Is it packaged correctly? (see above)
• Is artwork correct? (see above)
• Is the changelog accurate? As you update your extension with fixes and improvements, please maintain an accurate changelog on the site so users know what's changed

Game extensions are alot more complicated than translations and themes and so require more time for us to check that they do what they are supposed to do.

Before these checks are performed, we will be installing the game and running once as usual. We will also look at any extra information you may have added on the extension page that we need to be aware of.

These are the extra checks for extensions that provide game support:

• Does it install into Vortex? This is mostly taken care of if the extension is packaged correctly (see above) and that it finds and manages the game correctly.

• Does it successfully install a mod? We will look to install a minimum of 1 but some factors might add more mods such as:

  • How popular the game is and how many mods are currently available
  • Are there obvious most popular mods? If so, we will test some of these
  • Are there types of mods that install and deploy in different ways? If so, we will test these

• Does it successfully install a collection? Similar to installing a mod, there are different factors that will decide if we test collection installation.

• Does the game run correctly with the mods installed? When we are installing mods and collections, we will regular run the game and test to make sure the mods are working and modify what they are supposed to (where possible).