Installing Mods

Installing Mods

Supported formats

Format	Handling
A plain folder	Recursed into and installed as-is (loose-file replacer mods)
.asi	Installed to the game root (or wherever the active mode's provider says .asi files go)
.dll	Classified by the active --mode (e.g. SHVDN scripts\ for plain SP, RAGE Plugin Hook's Plugins\ for LSPDFR)
.xml (Menyoo)	Recognized by root tag (<SpoonerPlacements> for spooner saves, <OutfitPedData> for outfits) and routed to the right Menyoo subfolder
.zip	Extracted to a temp folder, then classified the same way a folder would be
.7z	Same as .zip
.oiv	Not installed directly. Every real .oiv package we've tested modifies RPF archive contents internally, which this tool doesn't do. inspect/install will tell you to use OpenIV instead.
.rar	Not supported. There's no mature pure-Rust RAR decoder, and the format is patent-encumbered enough that bundling a native unrar isn't a clean fit for an AGPL project either. Extract it yourself first (7-Zip, WinRAR, etc.) and point the tool at the extracted folder.
Anything else	Reported as an unrecognized format — nothing is silently skipped or partially installed

Add-on content (vehicle/weapon/EUP packs shipped as dlcpacks\ folders) is detected inside .zip/.7z/plain-folder inputs and gets a dlclist.xml entry, same as the community convention.

Previewing before you install

gtavmm inspect path/to/mod

Read-only. Shows the classified format, target paths, and any conflicts — without writing a single file or touching the database. This is the "Install Helper" from the design spec: use it whenever you're unsure what a mod will actually do.

Scanning before you install

gtavmm scan path/to/mod

Runs the file through your OS's native antivirus (Windows Defender on Windows, clamscan if present on Linux) before you commit to installing it. There's no bundled scan engine — the tool reports plainly if nothing is available on your system rather than pretending to have scanned something it didn't.

Installing

gtavmm install path/to/mod

• Backs up anything the install would overwrite, by default (see Backup and Restore).
• Refuses to overwrite protected files outright.
• If installing would overwrite another installed mod's files, you'll be asked to confirm the override explicitly — this is never silent.
• Pass --mode lspdfr for an LSPDFR install, or --mode fivem-client for a FiveM client asset mod (which requires --game-path pointing at the FiveM client, since there's no auto-detection for it). See Game Setup and Launch.

After installing

• gtavmm list-mods to see what's installed and its status
• gtavmm history to see everything that's happened
• If something looks wrong, gtavmm uninstall <id> or restore from the recycle bin