script¶
Primary console entry point for the draftsman command line tool.
Enter draftsman -h to get a list of all commands that the tool supports, with a plain-text description of their function:
> draftsman -h
usage: draftsman [-h] [-p GAME_PATH] [-m MODS_PATH] [-v] {list,mod-settings,enable,disable,version,factorio-version,update} ...
A command-line utility for reporting and manipulating Draftsman's environment.
positional arguments:
{list,mod-settings,enable,disable,version,factorio-version,update}
Operation:
list Lists information about all mods in the current environment.
mod-settings Displays all custom mod settings in `mod-settings.dat`, if present.
enable Enables a mod or mods.
disable Disables a mod or mods.
version Displays the current Draftsman version.
factorio-version Displays or sets the current version of Factorio's data.
update Updates Draftsman's environment by emulating Factorio's data lifecycle.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-p GAME_PATH, --game-path GAME_PATH
The path to the data folder of the game; defaults to:
`[python_install]/site-packages/draftsman/factorio-data`.
If you own the game, you can pass in the folder where Factorio is installed,
which will give you the ability to extract asset data in addition to prototype
data.
-m MODS_PATH, --mods-path MODS_PATH
The path to search for (user) mods; defaults to
`[python_install]/site-packages/draftsman/factorio-mods`.
-v, --verbose Report additional information to stdout when available.
All commands have the GAME_PATH and MODS_PATH arguments (which allow you to specify where Draftsman should look for it’s data) and the verbose argument for printing additional useful information.
Each command also has it’s own help command (-h), which allows you to inspect each one in more detail.
draftsman list¶
Lists all detected mods at the specified game and mod paths, sorted alphabetically by mod name.
> draftsman list
✓ (dir) base 2.0.61
✓ (dir) core -
✓ (dir) elevated-rails 2.0.61
✓ (dir) quality 2.0.61
✓ (dir) space-age 2.0.61
From left to right:
A check mark indicates that the mod is enabled, wheras an empty space would indicate that it’s disabled.
If the data is located in a directory it will print the string
(dir); if the file is compressed inside of an archive (typical for mods) it will print(zip).Following this is the internal name of the “mod” - although in this case the term “mod” also refers tp the game’s data itself; hence why the “mods”
baseandcoreare in this list. This is simply a peculiarity of how Factorio abstracts it’s internal data.Finally, the mod version is also printed. Only the
coremod is special and exempt from this requirement, instead printing a dash to indicate it has no value.
Sometimes, you can have multiples of the same mod with different versions. In this case, each mod version is displayed, with a horizontally-spanning arrow to indicate that it is a duplicate of the name above:
✓ (zip) Krastorio2Assets 2.0.0
(zip) ├──────────────> 1.2.3
(zip) └──────────────> 1.2.2
Here, there are three different versions of Krastorio2Assets, all of which are compressed zip archives.
Take note both that the sublist is sorted by descending version, and that the only mod in this list indicated as enabled is the latest version.
This is to indicate that the topmost mod listed will be the one Draftsman (and indeed Factorio) will pick when running the data lifecycle.
If there are two copies of the exact same mod with the exact same version, but one is a folder and the other is an archive, the folder will be preferred.
Using the verbose -v option will also display exactly where the mods are located on disk, alongside a more explicit table view:
> draftsman -v list
on? ┃ type ┃ name ┃ version ┃ location
----╋-------╋----------------╋---------╋-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
✓ ┃ (dir) ┃ base ┃ 2.0.61 ┃ D:/SourceCode/repos/Python/factorio-draftsman/draftsman/factorio-data/base
✓ ┃ (dir) ┃ core ┃ - ┃ D:/SourceCode/repos/Python/factorio-draftsman/draftsman/factorio-data/core
✓ ┃ (dir) ┃ elevated-rails ┃ 2.0.61 ┃ D:/SourceCode/repos/Python/factorio-draftsman/draftsman/factorio-data/elevated-rails
✓ ┃ (dir) ┃ quality ┃ 2.0.61 ┃ D:/SourceCode/repos/Python/factorio-draftsman/draftsman/factorio-data/quality
✓ ┃ (dir) ┃ space-age ┃ 2.0.61 ┃ D:/SourceCode/repos/Python/factorio-draftsman/draftsman/factorio-data/space-age
Here you can see that the script is pulling data from a local factorio-data installation (the default location).
draftsman mod-settings¶
Decodes the mod-settings.dat file and allows you to view it’s key-value pairs, organized by setting category:
> draftsman --mods-path %APPDATA%/Factorio/mods mod-settings
STARTUP:
nixie-tube-slashed-zero: True
bobmods-inserters-long1: True
bobmods-inserters-long2: True
bobmods-inserters-more2: True
RUNTIME-GLOBAL:
helmod_debug_solver: False
helmod_user_cache_step: 100
helmod_display_all_sheet: False
helmod_filter_translated_string_active: True
helmod_filter_on_text_changed: False
helmod_model_filter_factory: True
helmod_model_filter_beacon: True
helmod_model_filter_factory_module: True
helmod_model_filter_beacon_module: True
helmod_hidden_panels: False
helmod_display_hidden_column: 'None'
nixie-tube-update-speed-alpha: 10
nixie-tube-update-speed-numeric: 5
recursive-blueprints-area: 'corner'
recursive-blueprints-deployer-deploy-signal: 'zero'
recursive-blueprints-logging: 'never'
RUNTIME-PER-USER:
helmod_display_ratio_horizontal: 0.85
helmod_display_ratio_vertical: 0.8
helmod_display_main_icon: True
helmod_display_cell_mod: 'default'
helmod_row_move_step: 5
bobmods-inserters-button-enable: True
bobmods-inserters-gui-position: 'right'
bobmods-inserters-show-window: 'off'
If no file is found, the script early-exits, specifying where it couldn’t find the desired file:
> draftsman mod-settings
No `mod-settings.dat` file found at 'D:\SourceCode\repos\Python\factorio-draftsman\draftsman\factorio-mods'
Currently, there are no faculties to modify these values externally via this script, although adding this functionality would be trivial; see write_mod_settings().
draftsman enable|disable¶
Enables or disables a mod or mods. For example, if you wanted to disable the Factorio 2.0 DLC mods, simply specify the name of each one separated by spaces:
> draftsman disable space-age quality elevated-rails
> draftsman list
✓ (dir) base 2.0.61
✓ (dir) core -
(dir) elevated-rails 2.0.61
(dir) quality 2.0.61
(dir) space-age 2.0.61
Enabling is obviously the converse of this.
Both enable and disable also support the special keyword all, which enables/disables every mod except for base and core:
> draftsman --mods-path %APPDATA%/Factorio/mods enable all
> draftsman --mods-path %APPDATA%/Factorio/mods list
✓ (dir) base 2.0.61
✓ (dir) core -
✓ (dir) elevated-rails 2.0.61
✓ (dir) quality 2.0.61
✓ (dir) space-age 2.0.61
✓ (zip) 0FactorioExtended-Plus-Layout 1.1.5
✓ (zip) aai-containers 0.3.1
✓ (zip) aai-industry 0.6.5
✓ (zip) aai-loaders 0.2.5
✓ (zip) aai-signal-transmission 0.5.0
...
etc
...
✓ (zip) Squeak Through 1.8.2
✓ (zip) StatsGui 1.6.1
✓ (zip) subspace_storage 1.99.20
✓ (zip) textplates 0.7.2
(zip) └────────> 0.6.10
✓ (zip) Todo-List 19.9.0
✓ (zip) TrainGroups 1.4.3
✓ (zip) Ultracube 0.6.4
(zip) ├───────> 0.5.6
(zip) └───────> 0.3.11
Mods base and core can still be enabled/disabled using these commands, as long as you do so explicitly:
> draftsman disable base core
> draftsman list
(dir) base 2.0.61
(dir) core -
✓ (dir) elevated-rails 2.0.61
✓ (dir) quality 2.0.61
✓ (dir) space-age 2.0.61
If you need a to specify a mod’s name that includes whitespace, use quotes:
> draftsman enable "Squeak Through"
draftsman version¶
Simply prints the current Draftsman version. Useful for logging/pretty printing.
> draftsman version
Draftsman 3.0.0
draftsman factorio-version¶
Reads or writes the version of the Draftsman-installed Factorio version.
> draftsman factorio-version
Factorio 2.0.60
Note
The version that this command outputs is the git tag of the factorio-data repository.
The value that is internally stored and extracted is usually one minor version ahead of this tag:
> draftsman factorio-version
Factorio 2.0.60
> python
Python 3.12.10 (tags/v3.12.10:0cc8128, Apr 8 2025, 12:21:36) [MSC v.1943 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from draftsman.data import mods
>>> mods.versions["base"]
(2, 0, 61, 0)
Keep this in mind when versioning your scripts.
In addition to viewing the current version, you can also update it to a different version:
> draftsman -v factorio-version 1.0.0
Current Factorio version: 2.0.60
Different Factorio version requested:
(2.0.60) -> (1.0.0)
Changed to Factorio version 1.0.0
Note
This command sets the git submodule version to the specified tag and checks it out, updating the data internal to that specific folder.
This does not actually update Draftsman’s data - that is taken care of by draftsman update.
If trying to update Draftsman’s data to correspond with a new Factorio version, use these two commands sequentially.
You can also use the keyword latest to specify the most recent git tag:
> draftsman -v factorio-version latest
Current Factorio version: 1.0.0
Different Factorio version requested:
(1.0.0) -> (2.0.60)
Changed to Factorio version 2.0.60
This command is only intended to be used for managing the version of Factorio data which comes shipped alongside Draftsman. That is, it will be unable to read or modify the version of your regular installation:
> draftsman --game-path D:/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data factorio-version
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
git.exc.InvalidGitRepositoryError: D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\data
This functionality may be possible in the future, but currently is not supported.
draftsman update¶
Runs the Factorio data lifecycle and extracts the data into a number of pickle files located in the draftsman/data directory.
Use this to update Draftsman’s metadata any time the Factorio or mod configuration has been altered.
> draftsman update -h
usage: draftsman update [-h] [--owns OWNS [OWNS ...]] [--no-mods] [--no-dlc] [-l]
Runs the Factorio data lifecycle using the data pointed to by `game_path`. All information that
Draftsman needs will be extracted into pickle files located in the `/draftsman/data` folder in the
installation directory.
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--owns OWNS [OWNS ...]
Emulates that Draftsman has ownership of the list of these DLC when running the
data lifecycle. Certain modlists require DLC access in order to function correctly.
Currently, the only valid argument is `space-age`. Space Age is owned by default.
--no-mods Prevents user mods from loading even if they are enabled. Official mods made by Wube
(`quality`, `elevated-rails`, `space-age`) are NOT affected by this flag; those should
be manually configured with `draftsman enable|disable [official-mod]`
--no-dlc Runs the data lifecycle as if Draftsman has no access to Wube's DLC content. Superceeds
the `owns` argument; equivalent to setting `--owns` to an empty list.
-l, --log Display any `log()` messages to stdout; any logged messages will be ignored if this
argument is not set.
In addition to the universal GAME_PATH, MODS_PATH, and verbose, update supports a --no-mods flag which allows you to quickly ignore any non-official mod, if you quickly want to reduce your configuration to a vanilla state:
> draftsman -v update --no-mods
Discovering mods...
✓ (dir) base 2.0.64
✓ (dir) core -
✓ (dir) elevated-rails 2.0.64
✓ (dir) quality 2.0.64
✓ (dir) space-age 2.0.64
Determining dependency tree...
elevated-rails
base >= 2.0.0
quality
base >= 2.0.0
space-age
base >= 2.0.0
elevated-rails >= 2.0.0
quality >= 2.0.0
Load order:
['core', 'base', 'elevated-rails', 'quality', 'space-age']
Owned DLC:
['space-age']
SETTINGS.LUA:
SETTINGS-UPDATES.LUA:
SETTINGS-FINAL-FIXES.LUA:
DATA.LUA:
mod: core
mod: base
mod: elevated-rails
mod: quality
mod: space-age
DATA-UPDATES.LUA:
mod: base
mod: quality
mod: space-age
DATA-FINAL-FIXES.LUA:
Extracting data...
Extracted mods...
Extracted entities...
Extracted equipment...
Extracted fluids...
Extracted instruments...
Extracted items...
Extracted modules...
Extracted planets...
Extracted qualities...
Extracted recipes...
Extracted signals...
Extracted tiles...
Update finished.
hella slick; nothing broke!
Similarly, there is a --no-dlc flag if you want to run the data lifecycle emulating someone who does not own the Space Age DLC:
> draftsman -v update --no-dlc
Discovering mods...
...
Owned DLC:
[]
...
Update finished.
hella slick; nothing broke!
If you want to enable specific DLC, use the --owns argument followed by a list of their names:
> draftsman update --owns space-age
Of course, there’s currently only one valid option here (space-age), but multiple can be specified if Wube ever makes another official DLC:
> draftsman update --owns space-age some-mythical-dlc
—
All of the individual functionality of the above commands are abstracted out into Python methods, which can be imported from their corresponding files in draftsman.environment.