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Game version pin and transport bridge survey

Three independently-researched reports answer the same question, fired in response to the 1.7.99 patch (shipped 2026-08-20) breaking the SKSE plugin ecosystem — an event docs/research/01-skyrim-modding-substrate.md had already flagged as a live risk before it happened. Merged into one filed reference since the overlap is very high; disagreements are called out explicitly. Resolves ADR-0008.

Findings

  • [DESIGN-INPUT, decisive, unanimous] Pin to game 1.6.1170 + SKSE64 2.2.6. All three reports independently reach the same recommendation, for the same reason: it's been the ecosystem's de-facto standard for 2.5 years (since January 2024), every dependency Chronicle needs (Address Library, powerofthree's Extender, PapyrusUtil, SSE Engine Fixes) targets it, and — decisively — all three AI-NPC frameworks (Mantella, CHIM, SkyrimNet) are built against it today, with none documenting 1.7.99 support as of this writing.
  • [RISK, confirmed same-day] The 1.7.99 patch is real, shipped 2026-08-20, and broke the native-plugin ecosystem — confirmed via Bethesda's own Steam notice, the SKSE64 Nexus changelog, and mainstream press. Bethesda's own claim ("should not affect load orders") refers to data formats (FormIDs, ESM/ESP records, save format — all unchanged), not binary compatibility: the executable was recompiled, so every native DLL plugin needs a rebuild against updated CommonLib headers.
  • [RISK, resolved by the freshest report] Address Library alone does NOT save plugins this time — a real disagreement across the three reports, resolved by the most recent one. Report 1 (day-of) suggested CommonLibSSE-NG-based plugins like po3's Extender "become usable as soon as the versionlib is installed." Report 2 rated po3's Extender, PapyrusUtil, and SSE Engine Fixes as flatly "Broken" pending recompile. Report 3 (one day later, with the clarifying meh321 quote) has the authoritative answer: even Address-Library-based plugins need a recompile, because RE class layouts (struct offsets, vtable order) are compiled into the plugin binary, not looked up at runtime — Address Library only handles function addresses, not class layout. This doesn't change Chronicle's own recommendation (we're not targeting 1.7.99 regardless), but it's the correct technical model going forward: Address Library is necessary but not sufficient after a patch that changes class layouts, only after one that just shifts addresses.
  • [DESIGN-INPUT] Community consensus is unanimous and vocal: don't update. r/skyrimmods sentiment in the first 24 hours (report 3, freshest) is overwhelmingly "freeze the install" — practical advice converges on Steam's "only update when I launch it" plus a read-only/immutable appmanifest_489830.acf. Maintainer time estimates for the ecosystem to catch up: "a week to a month" (report 3's most-quoted estimate); report 2 says "two weeks to several months." Revisit trigger, adopted from report 3: when PapyrusUtil ships a 1.7.99 build, SSE Engine Fixes updates, and the chosen AI framework (if any) posts a 1.7.99 build — realistically late September to October 2026.
  • [BUILD-ON] Depot/manifest values for the 1.6.1170 pin are corroborated across all three independently-researched reports — real cross-validation, not just three copies of one source: depot 489831: 8442952117333549665, depot 489832: 8042843504692938467, depot 489833 (exe): 1914580699073641964. Lock procedure: download_depot 489830 <depot> <manifest> via the Steam console for each, copy over the install, then freeze appmanifest_489830.acf (read-only on Windows; chmod a-w / chattr +i on Linux) and set "only update when I launch it."
  • [RISK] Manifest IDs are community-sourced, not Valve-official — all three reports flag this caveat independently; verify against SteamDB before relying on them for anything beyond development use.
  • [BUILD-ON] Transport bridge survey, unanimous across reports: Mantella uses Leidtier's SKSE_HTTP (game-as-HTTP-client, POSTing to Mantella.exe on port 4999) — last commit January 2025, stale but CommonLibSSE-NG-based so a rebuild is the expected 1.7.99 path, not a rewrite. SkyrimNet inverts the architecture entirely — it is the server, hosting its own web UI/API on localhost:8080, no external bridge needed. CHIM's AIAgent.dll polls a WSL2-hosted PHP server on port 8081. No widely-adopted, currently-maintained, general-purpose WebSocket plugin exists — realistic choices for a new bridge are SKSE_HTTP-style request/response, a custom native plugin on the CommonLibSSE-NG + Address Library template (SkyrimScripting/SKSE_Template_WebSockets), or pinning to SkyrimNet's API. This confirms ADR-0003's standalone-bridge-as-reference-implementation choice is buildable today.
  • [DESIGN-INPUT] Building your own bridge on CommonLibSSE-NG + Address Library minimizes future patch-day exposure — report 3's framing, and directly relevant to ADR-0003's SAL: "your recompile cost on patch day is minutes, not a wait on a third-party maintainer," specifically because Chronicle controls its own bridge rather than depending on someone else's update cadence. This is an argument in favor of the standalone-reference-implementation choice ADR-0003 already made, independent of the SkyrimNet-specific risk factors report 10 raised.
  • [BUILD-ON] Linux/Proton specifics, consistent across reports that covered it (1 and 3): GE-Proton or Proton Experimental both work; SKSE plugin DLL load failures with error 0000007E are almost always missing MSVC redistributables inside the Proton prefix — fix via protontricks-launch --appid 489830 installing vcrun2022 (x86+x64). The SKSE co-save isn't covered by Steam Cloud on Linux — back it up separately (Syncthing or cron). Version pinning works identically to Windows via the same download_depot/manifest-freeze mechanism, just with POSIX paths and chmod/chattr instead of the Windows read-only checkbox.
  • [BUILD-ON] Data tooling is unaffected regardless of pin. xEdit/SSEEdit and Mutagen/Synthesis both parse file formats directly with no runtime coupling to the game executable — 1.7.99 changed no record/header format, so both already handle it and neither cares which version the game is pinned to. The Creation Kit is a separate Steam app (1946180) with its own depots if an older CK build is ever needed to match an older plugin header, but nothing in 1.7.99 forces that.
  • [DEFER] Steam Deck relevance: 1.7.99 fixes the on-screen-keyboard crash that had Skyrim rated "Unsupported" on Deck (report 3) — irrelevant to Chronicle's desktop-Linux deployment target but worth knowing if Deck support is ever a goal.

Flagged uncertainties

  • This is a fast-developing situation (all three reports say so explicitly) — plugin-by-plugin 1.7.99 status will change quickly over the following days/weeks. Anything marked "not yet updated" or "pending" in these reports is time-sensitive; re-check before acting if this document is read more than a few weeks after 2026-08-21.
  • SKSE_HTTP's exact license was not confirmed from the repo directly in any of the three reports (one notes a GitHub fetch was blocked) — verify on github.com/Leidtier/SKSE_HTTP before depending on it.
  • The 1.5.97 exe manifest hash has a minor discrepancy between reports (report 2's value has a stray trailing digit vs. reports 1/3) — irrelevant to the adopted 1.6.1170 pin, whose manifest values are consistent across all three reports.