UEPM — Unreal Engine Plugin Manager

A standalone CLI for managing Unreal Engine plugins via the npm registry. No Node.js required.

Install

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://github.com/adamschlesinger/uepm/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://github.com/adamschlesinger/uepm/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

Or grab a binary directly from Releases.

Quick Start

Plugin consumer:

cd YourUnrealProject    # directory containing a .uproject file
uepm init               # creates Config/UEPM.ini, UEPMPlugins/, modifies .uproject
uepm install @acme/cool-plugin

Plugin author:

cd YourPlugin           # directory containing a .uplugin file
uepm init               # detects .uplugin, prompts for plugin metadata, writes [Plugin]
uepm publish            # builds .tgz, PUTs to registry — no npm required

Commands

Command	Description
uepm init [--yes]	Project context (.uproject present): creates Config/UEPM.ini, UEPMPlugins/, modifies .uproject. Plugin context (.uplugin present): prompts for publish metadata and writes [Plugin] section.
uepm install [@scope/pkg[@ver] ...]	Install plugins. No args installs everything in Config/UEPM.ini.
uepm uninstall @scope/pkg	Remove a plugin and update Config/UEPM.ini.
uepm update [@scope/pkg]	Update one or all plugins to latest compatible versions.
uepm list	Show installed plugins and engine compatibility status.
uepm publish [--tag TAG] [--dry-run] [--yes] [--access public|restricted]	Publish this plugin to the registry. Reads [Plugin] from Config/UEPM.ini. Requires UEPM_TOKEN.

JSON output

Every command accepts a global --json flag that emits structured JSON on stdout for scripting, CI, and editor tooling:

uepm --json list                 # [{"name": "@acme/cool-plugin", "version": "1.2.3", "compatible": true}]
uepm --json install @acme/pkg    # [{"name": "...", "version": "...", "tarball": "...", "fresh": true}]

Errors are emitted as {"error": "<message>"} on stdout with a non-zero exit code. Interactive commands (init, publish) require --yes when --json is used.

Project files

Config/UEPM.ini — human-edited, check this in:

[Settings]
EngineVersion = "5.4"
CommitPlugins = false

[Dependencies]
"@acme/cool-plugin" = "^1.2.0"
"@acme/base-utils" = "^2.0.0"

CommitPlugins = false means UEPMPlugins/ is gitignored and restored by uepm install after clone. Set to true to check the installed plugins into version control (recommended for Perforce).

uepm.lock — machine-generated, check this in:

{
  "version": 1,
  "plugins": {
    "@acme/cool-plugin": {
      "resolved": "1.2.3",
      "tarball": "https://registry.npmjs.org/...",
      "sha512": "sha512-...",
      "dependencies": {}
    }
  }
}

Publishing plugins

Run uepm init in your plugin directory to write a [Plugin] section:

# Config/UEPM.ini (inside the plugin source tree)
[Plugin]
Name        = "@your-scope/plugin-name"
Version     = "1.0.0"
Description = "Does cool things"
Author      = "Your Studio"
License     = "MIT"
EngineRange = ">=5.3.0, <6.0.0"
Main        = "YourPlugin.uplugin"

[Dependencies]
# transitive deps go here

Then publish — no Node.js or npm required:

export UEPM_TOKEN=<your-npm-token>
uepm publish                  # interactive confirm + upload
uepm publish --dry-run        # validate and list files without uploading
uepm publish --tag beta       # publish under a non-default dist-tag

uepm publish builds the .tgz tarball in memory, computes SHA-512 integrity, and PUTs directly to the registry API. package.json is never written to disk.

Plugin dependencies

A plugin can declare its own UEPM dependencies in a Config/UEPM.ini at its package root. UEPM reads this after extraction and installs those deps recursively, with conflict detection.

Local development

Use file: paths to work against local plugin source without publishing:

[Dependencies]
"@acme/cool-plugin" = "file:../plugins/cool-plugin"

file: deps create a symlink in UEPMPlugins/ pointing at the source directory — edits are visible immediately.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
UEPM_REGISTRY	https://registry.npmjs.org	Registry base URL
UEPM_TOKEN	—	Bearer token for private registries
RUST_LOG	—	Log level (debug, info, warn, error)

Contributing

cargo build
cargo test
cargo test registry      # run tests for a specific module

Modules: manifest, lockfile, uproject, registry, installer, resolver, commands/

License

MIT — see LICENSE