Installing and Managing Mods

The v1 Launcher installs and verifies the official Anomaly core automatically. Install third-party mods manually into a loadout and choose code you trust with full game-process access.

Planned feature

The public third-party repository UI and anomaly-launcher:// deep-link installation are planned and disabled for v1. A catalog listing, filename, publisher label, or custom platform endpoint is not a signature and never grants trust.

Manual MelonLoader mods

Place a trusted mod in the selected loadout:

GameRoot/loadouts/<name>/local/
+-- Mods/YourMod.dll
+-- UserLibs/YourDependency.dll
+-- Plugins/NativeOrLoaderPlugin.dll
+-- UserData/

Use Mods for MelonLoader mods and UserLibs for shared libraries. Only use Plugins when the author explicitly requires that loader surface.

Managed Anomaly modules

Anomaly-managed modules live beneath the loadout’s UserData/Anomaly/Modules/ directory as a DLL plus a matching .anomaly.json sidecar. They use the IAnomalyMod lifecycle and an owner-scoped IModContext. See Managed Modules.

Trust review

The development Launcher applies an audit policy to client mods, dependencies, loader plugins, and managed modules. New or rebuilt DLLs remain in place and do not require individual hash approval. Official package signature and file-integrity checks still apply.

For files listed in the quarantine panel, review the path, size, hash, and source before restoring. Restoration verifies the selected file; subsequent local rebuilds do not need another approval.

Installed code is full trust

An in-process mod can access files, the network, game memory, and runtime secrets. Review the source and release provenance. Antivirus scanning is useful defense in depth, not proof of safety.

Compatibility

Third-party Melon mods should declare Anomaly’s SupportedGameVersion attribute so the Launcher can display their compatibility. Managed modules declare SupportedGameVersions in their sidecar manifest and are rejected before assembly loading when the declaration is missing, invalid, or incompatible. The signed official core is also rejected before materialization when it does not support the selected game build.

Continue to Troubleshooting and Logs.