NMS Mod Installer for macOS

A command-line tool for installing mods into No Man's Sky on macOS by patching HGPAK .pak archives.

On macOS, the game's built-in MODS folder does not work. This tool bridges that gap by extracting .pak archives, replacing files with mod contents, and repacking them with LZ4 compression — all automatically.

How It Works

graph LR
    A["📁 Mod Folder"] --> B["Scan & Match"]
    B --> C["Backup .pak"]
    C --> D["Extract .pak"]
    D --> E{"EXML mod?"}
    E -- Yes --> F["EXML → MBIN\n(MBINCompiler)"]
    E -- No --> G["Replace Files"]
    F --> G
    G --> H["Repack (LZ4)"]
    H --> I["MACOSBANKS/\n(game dir)"]

    classDef input fill:#3498db,stroke:#2980b9,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    classDef process fill:#2ecc71,stroke:#27ae60,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    classDef convert fill:#e67e22,stroke:#d35400,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    classDef output fill:#9b59b6,stroke:#8e44ad,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff
    classDef decision fill:#34495e,stroke:#2c3e50,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff

    class A input
    class B,C,D,G,H process
    class F convert
    class I output
    class E decision

1. Scan — Indexes all .pak archives in the game and maps each mod file to its target .pak
2. Backup — Copies original .pak files to _MOD_BACKUPS/ before any changes
3. Extract — Unpacks affected .pak archives using hgpaktool
4. Convert — If the mod contains .EXML patch files, converts them to .MBIN via the bundled MBINCompiler
5. Replace — Overwrites extracted files with mod versions (case-insensitive matching)
6. Repack — Rebuilds .pak archives with LZ4 compression
7. Register — Records installed mod metadata for clean uninstall later

Requirements

• macOS (tested on macOS 15+)
• Python 3.9+
• hgpaktool — installed automatically with pip
• .NET 8 Runtime — required for EXML-based mods

Installation

PyPI (recommended)

pip install nms-mod-installer-macos

Git clone (developers / contributors)

git clone https://github.com/Enki013/nms-mod-installer-macos.git
cd nms-mod-installer-macos
pip install hgpaktool

Usage

All commands are available as nms-mod-installer <command> after pip install, or python3 nms_mod_installer.py <command> from a git clone.

Set game path (first time only)

The tool auto-detects the game in common locations (/Applications, ~/Applications, Steam library). If auto-detection fails, set it manually:

nms-mod-installer set-game "/Applications/No Man's Sky.app"

The path is saved to ~/.local/share/nms-mod-installer/ and remembered for future runs. You can also use --game <path> with any command to override.

Scan a mod (preview, no changes)

nms-mod-installer scan ~/Downloads/MyMod

Shows which .pak files the mod will affect without modifying anything.

Interactive wizard (beginner mode)

nms-mod-installer wizard

Step-by-step guided CLI flow for scan/install/list/uninstall without remembering commands.

Install a mod

nms-mod-installer install ~/Downloads/MyMod

Full pipeline: scan, backup originals, extract, replace, repack, install.

To preview which paks a mod touches without installing, use scan (see above).

List installed mods

nms-mod-installer list

Uninstall a mod

nms-mod-installer uninstall 2
# or by name:
nms-mod-installer uninstall "MyMod"

Restores original .pak files from backup.

Options

Flag	Description
--game <path>	Path to No Man's Sky.app (auto-detected or saved via set-game)
--force-reindex	Rebuild the pak index cache (use after game updates)

Mod Folder Structure

Mods must mirror the game's internal directory structure. File and folder names are case-insensitive.

MyMod/
├── LANGUAGE/
│   └── NMS_LOC1_ENGLISH.MBIN
├── FONTS/
│   └── GAME/
│       └── CONSOLEFONT2.TTF
├── TEXTURES/
│   └── PLANETS/
│       └── ...
└── METADATA/
    └── REALITY/
        └── TABLES/
            └── SOME_TABLE.MBIN

The tool automatically determines which .pak archive each file belongs to.

Example: Turkish Language Patch

# Preview
nms-mod-installer scan ~/Downloads/Turkish\ Localisation

# Output:
# Mod would affect 3 pak(s):
#   NMSARC.Language.pak    (8 files)
#   NMSARC.Precache.pak    (1 file)
#   NMSARC.fonts.pak       (1 file)

# Install
nms-mod-installer install ~/Downloads/Turkish\ Localisation

# Verify
nms-mod-installer list

# Uninstall if needed
nms-mod-installer uninstall 1

Game File Structure (macOS)

On macOS, No Man's Sky stores assets differently from Windows:

	Windows	macOS
Archive directory	GAMEDATA/PCBANKS/	GAMEDATA/MACOSBANKS/
MODS folder	Supported	Not supported
Compression	ZSTD	LZ4
Archive format	HGPAK v2	HGPAK v2

No Man's Sky.app/
└── Contents/Resources/GAMEDATA/MACOSBANKS/
    ├── NMSARC.Language.pak      # Localization strings
    ├── NMSARC.fonts.pak         # Game fonts
    ├── NMSARC.Precache.pak      # Metadata, dialog tables, UI
    ├── NMSARC.globals.pak       # Global game settings
    ├── NMSARC.Materials.pak     # Material definitions
    ├── NMSARC.UI.pak            # UI definitions
    ├── NMSARC.TexPlanet*.pak    # Planet textures (per-biome)
    ├── NMSARC.MeshPlanet*.pak   # 3D models
    └── ...

Technical Details

HGPAK Format

• Magic: HGPAK\x00\x00\x00 (8 bytes)
• Version: 2 (uint64 LE)
• Compression: LZ4 (macOS), ZSTD (Windows/Linux), Oodle (Switch)
• Introduced in NMS 5.50 (Worlds Part II), replacing the older PSARC format

Tool Chain

hgpaktool -L <pak>                          # List contents (outputs filenames.json)
hgpaktool -U -M <pak> -O <dir>             # Extract + generate manifest
hgpaktool -R -Z <manifest> -O <output.pak>  # Repack with compression

Caching

On first run, the tool scans all .pak files and builds an index cache (_pak_index_cache.json). This cache is valid for 24 hours. After a game update, use --force-reindex to rebuild it.

Troubleshooting

pip install fails / Command Not Found

macOS includes a protection mechanism (PEP 668) that prevents pip from installing packages system-wide. If pip install nms-mod-installer-macos fails, or if you get a zsh: command not found: nms-mod-installer error, you have two options:

Option 1: Use pipx (Recommended)

# 1. Install pipx via Homebrew
brew install pipx
pipx ensurepath

# 2. Restart your terminal (close and reopen)

# 3. Install the app globally in a safe environment
pipx install nms-mod-installer-macos

Option 2: Bypass system protection (Alternative)

If you prefer using standard pip, you can bypass the restriction by installing it for your user only:

pip3 install --break-system-packages --user nms-mod-installer-macos

Permission denied (do not use sudo)

The installer must write inside No Man's Sky.app/.../MACOSBANKS/. If you see Permission denied, do not run it with sudo (that runs the script as root and can confuse file ownership).

Preferred: install or copy the game under your user, e.g. ~/Applications/No Man's Sky.app, so you already own the files.

If the game is in /Applications and owned by root, fix ownership once:

sudo chown -R "$(whoami)" "/Applications/No Man's Sky.app"

hgpaktool not found

pip install hgpaktool

# If not on PATH after pip install:
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/Library/Python/3.9/bin"

MBINCompiler not found (EXML mods)

If you see MBINCompiler not found, it means the native MBINCompiler binary bundled with this package is missing or corrupted. Simply reinstall the package:

pip install --force-reinstall nms-mod-installer-macos

.NET is installed but dotnet is not found

If you've already installed the .NET SDK but the installer still reports that dotnet is missing, try the following:

1. Close and reopen Terminal.

2. Verify that .NET is available:

   dotnet --info
   

3. If the command is still not found, ensure the .NET installation directory is in your PATH.

On macOS (Apple Silicon), add this to your shell profile if necessary:

export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/share/dotnet"

or, if using Homebrew:

export PATH="$PATH:/opt/homebrew/share/dotnet"

After updating your PATH, restart your terminal and run:

dotnet --info

Mod stopped working after game update

Game updates overwrite .pak files. Reinstall the mod:

nms-mod-installer install ~/Downloads/MyMod --force-reindex

Game won't launch / crashes

Remove mods and restore originals:

nms-mod-installer uninstall "MyMod"

Or manually:

cd "No Man's Sky.app/Contents/Resources/GAMEDATA/MACOSBANKS"
cp _MOD_BACKUPS/MyMod/*.pak ./

macOS "damaged app" warning

Modifying .pak files may break the app's code signature:

xattr -cr ~/Applications/No\ Man\'s\ Sky.app
codesign --force --deep --sign - ~/Applications/No\ Man\'s\ Sky.app

🛠 MBINCompiler & Troubleshooting

This package bundles a native macOS build of MBINCompiler, which handles the conversion of .EXML mod patch files to .MBIN. Please keep the following in mind:

• Game Updates: Every major No Man's Sky update typically breaks several .MBIN formats. Because MBINCompiler is tied to specific game versions, .EXML mods might fail to install shortly after a game update until the mod author updates their mod and we bundle the newest MBINCompiler release.
• Conversion Errors: If you encounter an error like [ERR] MBINCompiler failed or Skipping ... (conversion failed), it usually means:
  1. The .EXML mod has syntax errors or is made for an older version of the game.
  2. You haven't installed the .NET 8 Runtime required to run the bundled MBINCompiler.
  3. The current version of MBINCompiler hasn't been updated for the latest game patch yet.

To verify if an .EXML mod is broken, you can try running MBINCompiler manually on the vanilla .MBIN file. If vanilla files unpack correctly but the mod fails to patch, the mod is likely outdated.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Credits

• hgpaktool by monkeyman192 — HGPAK extraction and repacking
• Hello Games — No Man's Sky