Skyrim Creation Kit Agent

Safety-first research and engineering for AI-assisted Skyrim Special Edition / Anniversary Edition authoring.

Current status: research + validated synthetic proof of concept. This repository is not yet a general-purpose mod authoring agent and does not currently automate Creation Kit.

Core principle

AI decides WHAT.
Deterministic software decides HOW.
Validators decide WHETHER IT WORKED.
A human decides WHETHER TO ACCEPT.

The project converts high-level modding intent into typed, reversible, evidence-backed operations. The target product is a hybrid orchestrator whose primary path is headless and deterministic; Creation Kit is treated as a narrow capability, not the spine of the system.

Status vocabulary

Canonical status identifiers (do not invent new ones without an ADR or an explicit migration):

Status	Meaning
VERIFICADO	Supported by direct evidence or a reproducible test
PASS	Experiment executed and its defined gate passed
NO VERIFICADO	Plausible or documented elsewhere, but not reproduced here
HIPOTESIS	Proposed experiment or design claim
EXPERIMENTAL	Implemented only as an experiment
BLOQUEADO	Cannot currently proceed in the available environment
DESCARTADO	Explicitly rejected for the intended architecture
LEGAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED	Technical path exists, but licensing/EULA implications are unresolved

Status and evidence are different dimensions: a status of PASS (experiment outcome) is not itself an evidence level (E0–E5). POC-002 is PASS with evidence E2_REOPENED_ASSERTIONS_PASS.

Repository map

docs/
  adr/                     Architecture decisions
  research/                Gate-1 research archive
research/
  poc_002/                 Validated synthetic TES4 inspection POC
src/                       Discovery Desk research UI (Next.js) — see below; NOT the agent runtime
.github/workflows/          Reproducible validation

Discovery Desk research UI

This repository originated as a "Discovery Desk" research snapshot and still contains a small Next.js + Drizzle/PostgreSQL research app. It is preserved, with clear boundaries:

• src/app/, src/db/, and src/lib/research/ belong to the Discovery Desk / research UI.
• They are not the runtime of the future authoring agent and must not be promoted into product code.

Development requires DATABASE_URL (see .env.example; the checked-in value is a loopback development fixture, not a secret). Note that next build needs the variable to exist, because src/db/index.ts fails fast at import time while Next.js collects page data; the build itself never opens a database connection (the pg pool is lazy), so no live PostgreSQL server is required for CI. drizzle.config.json intentionally carries the same loopback fixture for the drizzle-kit CLI.

Current architecture decision

The recommended product shape is hybrid orchestrator + headless-first primary path:

User intent
   ↓
Intent normalizer
   ↓
Planner / LLM
   ↓
Typed ModPlan
   ↓
Policy / safety engine
   ↓
Capability router
   ├─ Headless plugin worker
   ├─ Papyrus worker
   ├─ xEdit validator
   └─ Creation Kit worker [disabled until independently verified]
   ↓
Candidate workspace
   ↓
Validator
   ↓
Human approval

The planner may decide what operation is desired. It must not receive an arbitrary shell, click, or generic command primitive.

See docs/adr/ADR-001-hybrid-headless-first-architecture.md.

Validated implementation: POC-002

research/poc_002/ is the first executable proof:

• synthetic TES4 fixture only;
• strict parser;
• HEDR 1.70 fixture and FormVersion 44;
• closed operation enum;
• truthful capability registry (INSPECT_HEADER only);
• candidate-only workspace with path containment;
• fail-closed orchestration;
• no-overwrite receipts;
• SHA-256 invariant for the original;
• 44 automated tests (initial validated baseline: 43; +1 adversarial regression covering policy-rejection evidence semantics).

Run it:

cd research/poc_002
python -m compileall .
python -m unittest test_suite.py -v

Expected result:

Ran 44 tests
OK

POC-002 does not prove compatibility with arbitrary real Skyrim plugins, Creation Kit runtime behavior, xEdit, PapyrusCompiler, Mutagen, or in-game correctness.

Research verdict

Current Gate-1 verdict:

VIABLE WITH LIMITATIONS

Most record-level operations can plausibly avoid Creation Kit, but several CK-exclusive or high-risk areas remain unresolved: FaceGen, navmesh, Render Window placement, lip generation, some complex quest/alias semantics, and runtime semantic correctness.

The research archive is under docs/research/.

Experiment roadmap

Unit	Purpose	Current status
POC-001	Read-only Creation Kit UIA/MSAA inspection on Windows	BLOQUEADO here; designed, not executed
POC-002	Synthetic TES4 header parse + safety pipeline	PASS
POC-003	PapyrusCompiler dry-invoke	NO VERIFICADO / not started
POC-004	Allowlisted xEdit -script -autoexit validation	NO VERIFICADO / not started
EXP-CK-CLI	Verify actual Creation Kit command-line behavior	NO VERIFICADO
EXP-ESPER-LICENSE	Confirm C# esper licensing	LEGAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED
EXP-CKPE-QIFACE	Inspect CKPE interfaces after legal clearance	HIPOTESIS

Important: subprocess IPC hardening is architectural work, but it is not canonical POC-003. Use an ADR or a separate POC-IPC identifier if continued. Previously reviewed exploratory IPC prototypes remain CHANGES_REQUIRED — not accepted, and intentionally not imported as passing implementation.

Safety rules

• Never modify a user's only copy of a plugin.
• Originals are immutable inputs; writes go to candidates.
• No arbitrary shell command in an AI-generated plan.
• No coordinate-click GUI automation as the primary path.
• Missing completion evidence is failure, not success.
• Never commit Bethesda game/editor binaries, vanilla plugins, or vanilla Papyrus sources.
• Process isolation is a technical boundary, not an automatic licensing conclusion.

Licensing

Repository-authored core code is MIT licensed. That MIT grant covers original repository code only; it does not relicence external components, which retain their own licenses and obligations:

• Mutagen / Synthesis / Spriggit — GPL-3.0-only. Distributing a combined work requires GPL compliance; MIT code may be combined with GPL code, but the combined work cannot be distributed under MIT alone.
• xEdit — MPL-2.0 upstream; intended for external execution of a user install, never vendored or bundled.
• CKPE — LGPLv3 code plus a Creation Kit EULA/legal overlay; remains LEGAL_REVIEW_REQUIRED.
• Creation Kit, PapyrusCompiler, vanilla .psc, Skyrim assets — proprietary user-installed components; never redistributed or committed.

Process isolation is an architectural boundary, not an automatic licensing conclusion.

See docs/research/licensing.md.

The Discovery Desk also uses third-party npm packages and OFL fonts. See the third-party notices, the npm license inventory, and the bundled font license texts. These are separate from the MIT grant. The imported research ZIPs have unresolved provenance: the maintainer reports probable AI generation, not verified authorship or third-party permissions.

Relationship to Sky-Claw

This is a separate repository and research track. It may later integrate with Sky-Claw through a documented protocol, but it must remain independently testable and must not assume Sky-Claw internals as its safety boundary.

Disclaimer

This project is unaffiliated with Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax Media, Valve, Nexus Mods, or the authors of the third-party tools discussed in the research archive.