Your first mod, no code
You describe a small mod in your own words. Claude picks how to build it, writes it, and checks it in the running game with you. The example here is a line on screen showing V’s money, but any small idea works the same way. Allow 15 minutes.
Before you start
- Install and connect done:
/edge:setupshows all four connected. - The game running at a loaded save, with Hot reload on in REDnode’s Settings drawer (F10, REDNODE tab, the gear by Theme).
- Claude Code open in any folder. In VS Code, a folder for your mods, such as
Documents\Cyberpunk Mods, is a good place.
Step 1: Start with /edge:new-mod
Type /edge:new-mod. Claude asks what the mod should do, a question or two at a time. Answer in your own words:
I want to see how much money V has, in a corner of the screen, all the time.
It may ask more, such as when it should show, or whether it’s just for you or to share on Nexus. Then it says the mod back in one sentence, such as “A small widget in the top right corner that always shows V’s money”, and waits for your yes. If that’s not what you meant, say so: nothing is built until you agree.
Step 2: Claude picks the kind of mod
Claude checks the game, REDbridge and EDGEdeck, then tells you which kind of mod it will make and why. Something on screen becomes a REDnode package: a small web page REDnode draws over the game, here a HUD widget.
| Your idea | The kind Claude picks |
|---|---|
| Something on screen, a window, a tool to use while playing | A REDnode package |
| Change numbers: prices, damage, stats | A TweakXL tweak, one .yaml file |
| Change how an item looks: color, texture | A WolvenKit project that replaces game files (Recolor a jacket) |
| Change a sound | A WolvenKit project with the new sound |
| A brand new item | ArchiveXL and TweakXL in a project, the hardest kind. Claude suggests starting by changing an existing look |
| Change how a game system behaves | redscript or a RED4ext plugin. EDGEchat’s knowledge doesn’t cover these yet, and Claude says so |
Step 3: Claude makes the package
Claude says where it will put the package, and you can choose:
| Where | When |
|---|---|
REDnode’s apps folder in the game, red4ext\plugins\REDnode\apps\<id>\ |
The simple choice. REDnode picks it up at once |
| A folder of your own outside the game, added to REDnode as a development folder | To keep your work out of the game folder. Switch Developer mode on in REDnode’s Settings drawer and add the folder |
Then it writes two files, and Claude Code asks before writing each:
| File | Is |
|---|---|
rednode-app.json |
The package’s description: its id (such as money-hud), its name, that it’s a HUD widget, where it sits |
A page, such as index.html |
What the widget shows, and the code that reads V’s money from the game |
Before writing the code, Claude looks up the game functions it needs, so it uses the right names. You don’t have to read the files, but you can: ask “what does each part do?”.
Step 4: Claude tests it in the game, with you
With Hot reload on, REDnode loads the package as soon as its files are written. Claude checks its own work: that the package runs, that it logged no errors, and often a screenshot of the game. Then it tells you what to look at, such as “the top right corner should show your money”.
Look, and say what you see. If something’s off, say it plainly:
It shows, but it’s too small and hard to read.
It says 0, but I have money.
Claude fixes it, the widget reloads, and you look again, until it’s right.
Step 5: Grow it, one piece at a time
Add one thing at a time, and check each in the game before the next:
Make the text yellow, like the game’s own HUD.
Put the word “Eddies” before the number.
Show how much I earned in the last minute below it.
Small steps are the point: when something breaks, you know which change did it.
Step 6: When it works
Claude offers to write a CLAUDE.md for the mod, so a later session knows it at once (Keep a project easy to work on). To share the mod, zip the package’s folder: players install it like any mod, with EDGEdeck or by hand, and they need REDnode. To remove it, ask Claude, or delete the package’s folder.
What just happened
| Who | Did |
|---|---|
| You | Said what you wanted, and checked the result in the game |
| Claude | Picked the kind of mod, wrote the files, looked up the game functions, and tested it through the rednode connection |
| Claude Code | Asked before writing each file. Reading the game, such as V’s money, never asks; changing it does (Safety) |
Other first mods to try
| Say | Kind |
|---|---|
| “Show V’s position on screen, so I can share places” | A REDnode HUD widget |
| “Make every jacket in the game cost half as much” | A TweakXL tweak. Claude checks the jacket’s record in the game’s data first, and the mod reaches the game through EDGEdeck, with the game closed |
| “A small window listing the quests in V’s journal” | A REDnode overlay window |
Check
- Claude said the mod back in one sentence before building it.
- The widget shows in the game and updates as your money changes.
- You changed something about it by asking, and saw the change without restarting the game.
Next: Recolor a jacket. EDGEchat’s lesson 2 covers the same steps.