RimStack

The RimWorld mod manager that is up in 0.2 seconds
and sorts by reading what is inside your mods.
Free, open source, native.

Download · Website and guide · Report a problem

Same machine, same install (1,853 mods, 101 active), launch to mod list on screen:

About 35 times faster to your mod list. RimSort's numbers are the average of three runs, from launch until it logs that its window started and that its lists are filled. RimStack's come from its own timer from process start (it prints mods_shown_ms). Every mod's About.xml is read in 0.12 s.

RimStack is a native app, and it never re-runs a check it already did, so filtering, scrolling, sorting and saving stay instant with thousands of mods. Run both on your own install and see.

You never press Refresh. While the window is open, RimStack looks at your mods, saves and the game every two seconds and updates by itself:

• Steam downloads and updates. Subscribe, unsubscribe or let Steam update a mod, and it appears, goes, or shows its new version.
• Mods changed by hand. A folder copied into Mods, an About.xml edited, a Git checkout pulled.
• The game's own list. If the game or another tool rewrites ModsConfig.xml, you're offered that list, never forced onto it.
• Saves and logs. A new save shows up in Saves; when the game closes, its log is read and its errors grouped.
• Every setting. Theme, language, text size, font, your own colours and translations apply the moment you change them.

Most managers sort with the rules mod authors wrote down. Plenty of mods never wrote any, so you end up sorting by hand and guessing.

RimStack opens the mods' compiled DLLs and reads them. It never runs anything. It sees which game methods each mod patches with Harmony (prefix, postfix, transpiler, finalizer) and uses that to find load order rules nobody declared. It reads XML patches the same way. Every move Sort makes is shown with the reason first, and nothing is applied until you say so.

It also sorts your mods into categories on its own (loaders, game and DLC, libraries, content, patches, textures, interface, performance), again from what is in the mod and never from its name. You can override any of them.

Moving, activating, sorting and loading a list only change the list inside RimStack, and every step can be undone. Save writes one file, the game's ModsConfig.xml, after copying the old one beside it.

Everything else that writes happens only when you ask: converting textures, hiding a texture that loses to another mod's, downloading, unsubscribing, or setting mod settings aside. Every file RimStack makes or hides is recorded so it can be undone. Play also copies your newest save into RimStack's own folder first, just in case.

• Explains every problem. Missing requirements, mods that clash, the wrong game version, duplicates, a mod placed above the game, each with its fix beside it.
• Texture conflicts. Two mods ship the same texture? See them side by side, as a slider or as their difference, and keep the one you want.
• PNG to DDS built in. The game loads faster, with no extra tool, and only the files RimStack made are ever removed.
• Find the broken mod. It switches half your mods off, you play and say whether it still breaks, until one mod is left. Your list comes back after.
• Reads the game's errors. Thousands of log lines become a few errors, each with the mod its stack trace points at and a report to copy.
• Saves. Which mods each save was played with, what is missing, and its list as your load order in one click.
• Downloads and updates. Paste Workshop, collection or Git links to subscribe, fetch with SteamCMD, or clone. See which mods are behind, and what changed since the game last started.
• Filters, saved lists, tags and notes, Undo and Redo, and every action from one search box (Ctrl + K).
• Coming from RimSort? The first run imports your rules, tags and notes.
• Seven languages: English, Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Polski and Português.

Every panel is explained, with pictures, in the guide.

Grab the file for your system from the Releases page.

RimStack finds RimWorld through Steam. If it can't, it asks you for the folder.

Signing costs money, so for now Windows and macOS will warn you. The files are fine, here is how to get past it once.

Windows. SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway. For the zip, right-click it, choose Properties, tick Unblock, then extract. If Smart App Control is on (Windows 11), it blocks unsigned programs with no way past it except turning Smart App Control off.

macOS. It says Apple could not verify the app is free of malware.

1. Drag RimStack to Applications and open it once.
2. Open System Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to RimStack.
3. If macOS says the app is damaged, run this in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/RimStack.app

Linux. Make the AppImage executable and run it: chmod +x RimStack-*.AppImage.

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

Additional permission under GNU GPL version 3 section 7: if you modify this program, or any covered work, by linking or combining it with the Steamworks SDK (or a modified version of that library), containing parts covered by the terms of the Steamworks SDK licence, the licensors of this program grant you additional permission to convey the resulting work.