Story Forge

A modern desktop manager for Vintage Story: install and switch game versions, manage profiles (isolated data folders with their own mods, worlds and settings), browse and update mods, join servers, host dedicated servers, and edit mod configs.

Warning

macOS Users: Story Forge is not notarized yet, so macOS Gatekeeper may block it from launching. After installing, run the following in your terminal to allow the app:

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Story\ Forge.app

The core domain concept is the profile:

• a profile is a full Vintage Story data directory (Mods/, Saves/, Maps/, ModConfig/, Logs/, clientsettings.json) pinned to a game version,
• game binaries live once per version in a shared versions folder — profiles only reference them,
• profiles can be created, switched, renamed, cloned, exported/imported (file or SF1. share code), and soft-deleted with undo.

Features

• Profiles — a Default profile is created automatically on first run (pinned to the newest installed version, or the newest release), the active profile can't be deleted, and at least one profile always remains. Create/switch/clone/rename, soft delete with undo, export to file or copy a share code, import from file/code with automatic mod downloads. Installations from the previous Story Forge release are detected and can be imported in one click (move or copy — same data, converted manifest).
• Profile backups — zip snapshots of a profile's mods, worlds and configs, taken manually or automatically before each launch (per-profile switch, retention keeps the newest N). Restoring rolls the folder back to that moment.
• Adopt existing game data — if Vintage Story data already exists in the game's default location (VintagestoryData), Story Forge offers to use it as a profile in one click. Nothing is copied or moved; removing the profile only unregisters the folder.
• Import from other launchers — installations from VS Launcher and its continuation RiftLauncher, instances from Rustory, GruntLauncher, Lithic, Yelloowstone and Waxlight Launcher, modpacks from MVL and packs from Cairn are detected and imported as profiles (move or copy), preserving the game version, mods and worlds. Launch parameters, environment variables, pin state and playtime are carried over where the source stores them.
• Link existing game versions — builds already installed by those launchers (or any folder picked manually) are detected and linked in place, so profiles can launch without re-downloading. Unlinking never touches the files.
• Versions — browse all Vintage Story releases, download with a resumable, pausable queue.
• Optimum client — install the Optimum performance fork for an installed version in one click: Story Forge downloads the official overlay from Optimum's releases, verifies the archive and every file against its SHA-256 manifest, copies the version to 1.22.7+optimum and patches the copy — the original stays vanilla, and profiles pick either build. Updates are offered when a newer overlay still supports the game version. Linux and Windows (x64) only; Optimum publishes no macOS or arm64 overlay.
• VulkanStory client — install the VulkanStory renderer fork for an installed version in one click: Story Forge reads the release package's file inventory straight from the remote archive over HTTP range requests, downloads and hash-checks the package, verifies every extracted file, and copies the version to 1.22.7+vulkanstory — the original stays vanilla, and profiles pick either build. Updates are offered when a newer release still supports the game version, and an edited VulkanStory/loader.ini survives them. Windows (x64) only for now: VulkanStory publishes no macOS package, and its Linux package is a development package that is not part of a release.
• Mods — search the mod database, filter by version/side/tags/author, install, update, downgrade, remove, and update everything at once. Installs read each mod's modinfo.json and queue its missing dependencies (recursively) in the downloads sheet; installed mods are also checked for missing dependencies, with a one-click "Install missing" banner. Pin a mod to keep its installed version — pinned mods are left out of the update check, so "Update All" skips them (unpin to see updates again). Copy all installed mods, or just the selected rows, into another profile without re-downloading them — version differences and the source's enabled/disabled state come along.
• Modpacks — browse/install community modpacks (optional cloud login via Better Auth), create and publish your own.
• Deep links & 1-click install — storyforge://install?mod=<id> opens a ModDB mod in the app (&version=<release> pins one), storyforge://install?pack=<slug> opens a cloud modpack's detail sheet, and ModDB's 1-click install button (vintagestorymodinstall://<id>@<release>) opens the install sheet for that exact release. By default the active profile is used; with Settings → Behaviour → Always ask where to install the destination picker opens every time instead. sf: is accepted as an alias.
• Pack locks — pin a profile's mods to exact versions and SHA-256 hashes (storyforge.lock.json beside profile.json), see drift at a glance, and run an explicit Sync / repair that downloads missing or mismatched mods through ModDB and verifies every file against the lock. Exports, share codes and structured cloud modpacks carry the lock, imports enforce it immediately, and mods the lock does not name are reported as extras rather than removed.
• Worlds — list saves across profiles, edit/delete, launch straight into a world, and view the in-game map with markers and prospecting data.
• Servers — save servers, probe them (version/password/whitelist checks), connect, and browse the public server list.
• Server hosting — run dedicated Vintage Story servers with console, config editor, whitelist management and port checks.
• Mod configs — live JSON editor and Monaco code editor for ModConfig/*.json.
• Accounts — multiple Vintage Story accounts with TOTP support.
• Localized UI — English, German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese. Follows the system language by default and switches live from Settings.
• Light & dark theme, command palette (⌘K / Ctrl+K), keyboard shortcuts, auto-updater.

Screenshots

Profiles	Mod browser	Add a mod

Versions	Worlds	Public servers

Servers	Hosting	Mod configs

News	Settings

The window chrome adapts per platform — native traffic lights on macOS, controls drawn by the app in the frameless Windows build, and native decorations on Linux (traffic lights simulated in the render):

All screenshots are 1200×800 captures of the app UI, split light/dark along the diagonal; they are refreshed headlessly on every published release. See screenshots/README.md for the pipeline, including the platform chrome preview (bun run screenshots:platforms).

Translations

All UI strings live in per-area catalogs under src/lib/i18n/locales/ — English is the source of truth and every other locale mirrors it (missing keys fall back to English). To add or update a language, see src/lib/i18n/README.md and run the parity check:

bun run check:i18n        # keys, {{placeholders}} and <Trans> tags across all locales

Nix

A flake is available for x86_64-linux, aarch64-linux and Apple Silicon macOS:

nix build github:LovelessCodes/StoryForge   # build (./result)
nix run github:LovelessCodes/StoryForge     # Linux: build and launch
nix develop                                 # dev shell with Bun, Rust and the Tauri prerequisites

On macOS the bundle is at ./result/Applications/Story Forge.app. The flake resolves the frontend dependencies with bun2nix — after changing bun.lock, regenerate bun.nix from the dev shell with bun2nix -o bun.nix. Intel Macs are not supported (nixpkgs dropped x86_64-darwin in 26.11).

Development

bun install
bun tauri dev     # run the desktop app
bun run build     # typecheck + frontend build
bun tauri build   # bundle the app

Requires Bun, Rust (1.90+) and the Tauri prerequisites.

Layout

src/                  React 19 + TanStack Router/Query + Zustand frontend
  components/ui/      Base UI primitives (Macheim design system)
  components/layout/  titlebar, sidebar, header, main layout
  components/<area>/  feature pages and sheets
  hooks/ stores/      data layer (ported from the original app, renamed to profiles)
  lib/                helpers, types, notify, query client
src-tauri/            Rust backend (Tauri v2)
  src/modules/        profiles, versions, mods, servers, hosting, saves, maps, auth, dotnet…

App data lives in the platform app-data directory (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/StoryForge), with profiles/, versions/, hosted-servers/, logs and settings inside. Both the profiles and versions folders can be relocated in Settings.

Notes

• The updater endpoint still points at the original project's release feed; the version is ahead of it so no downgrade is offered.
• STORYFORGE_OPTIMUM_ORIGIN (http://127.0.0.1:<port>) and STORYFORGE_OPTIMUM_RID (linux-x64/win-x64) point the Optimum install flow at a local origin so it can be exercised on a machine Optimum publishes no overlay for. The origin is honoured only for loopback addresses, and nothing in a shipped build sets either variable.
• STORYFORGE_VULKANSTORY_ORIGIN (http://127.0.0.1:<port>) and STORYFORGE_VULKANSTORY_RID (win-x64) point the VulkanStory install flow at a local origin so it can be exercised on a machine VulkanStory publishes no package for. The origin is honoured only for loopback addresses, and nothing in a shipped build sets either variable.