Your first mods

This page takes you from a fresh install to a modded game. It uses the web interface. The terminal commands for each step are in the box at the end.

1. Start the web interface

In a terminal, run:

lmm serve

Your browser opens on lmm’s page. If it doesn’t, open http://127.0.0.1:7420/ yourself. The page only exists while that command is running, so leave the terminal open. Press Ctrl+C there to stop it. To keep it running without a terminal, see Run the web UI in the background.

The page lives on your own computer. Nothing else on your network can reach it, and nothing is installed or uploaded anywhere.

2. Add your games

The first time you open lmm, it offers to look through your Steam library for games it can mod. Games lmm already knows about, such as Skyrim, Fallout 4, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Valheim and Lethal Company, are marked Known. Tick the ones you want and add them, and lmm fills in where each game lives and where its mods go.

Your other Steam games are listed too, with an Add with details… button instead of a tick box. lmm doesn’t know where those games keep their mods, so it asks you. If your game isn’t on Steam at all, see Adding a game by hand.

3. Connect your mod sites

To download mods for you, some sites need you to sign in with an API key, a long code you copy from your account page on that site. lmm stores it encrypted on your computer and only ever sends it to that site.

Site Key needed? Where to get it
NexusMods Yes Your NexusMods API page, “Personal API Key”
CurseForge Yes The CurseForge console: create a project, then an API key
Thunderstore No Nothing to do
Steam Workshop Only to search the Workshop Steam’s API key page. Keep this key private.

You only need keys for the sites your games use. The setup screen asks for each one and shows you where to paste it.

NexusMods only allows its Premium members to download through apps like lmm. With a free NexusMods account, download the file on the NexusMods website instead and hand it to lmm: see Mods you downloaded yourself.

4. Bring in mods you already have

If you’ve modded this game before, lmm can scan the game’s mod folder and take over the mods it finds there. It matches each one against your mod sites by name, so it can tell you about updates later. Anything it can’t match is still managed, just without update checks.

You can skip this and do it later from Setup → Adopt.

5. Find and install a mod

You’re now on lmm’s main screen, Mission Control. Your installed mods are listed in the middle (the library), with the game and profile at the top.

  1. Type the name of a mod into the search box at the top and press Enter. lmm searches every site the game is connected to.
  2. Click Install on the mod you want.
  3. lmm shows you a preview: exactly which files it will add and where. Check it and confirm.

The install runs in the background. The bell icon at the top shows its progress, and you can keep working while it runs. If the mod needs other mods to work, lmm finds and installs those as well.

Installing puts the mod straight into the game. If the Deploy button at the top ever shows changes waiting, click it to bring the game folder up to date.

6. Play

Start the game the way you always do, through Steam or your launcher. lmm doesn’t need to be running while you play.

In the terminal

The same steps as commands. lmm init walks you through steps 2 to 4 with questions, and is safe to run again any time, for example after installing a new game.

lmm init
lmm search "sky ui"
lmm install "sky ui"
lmm list

If you mod more than one game, add --game <game-id> to choose which one (lmm game list shows the ids), or pick one to use by default:

lmm game set-default skyrim-se

What next?