HoldFast

Hold Start or Back on your gamepad for a configurable duration to open a menu directly. A short press opens the button's normal menu.

Gamepad only. Default behaviour is fully preserved.

Inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2's hold-Start-to-open-map mechanic.

NexusMods page

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Requirements

• Skyrim Special Edition or Anniversary Edition
• SKSE64
• Address Library for SKSE Plugins
• Optional: SKSE Menu Framework for in-game settings UI

Installation

Mod manager (recommended):

1. Install the requirements above.
2. Install HoldFast via your mod manager.
3. Launch Skyrim via SKSE.

Manual:

1. Install the requirements above.
2. Copy HoldFast.dll and HoldFast.ini to Data\SKSE\Plugins\.
3. Launch Skyrim via SKSE.

Configuration

Edit Data\SKSE\Plugins\HoldFast.ini:

[General]
; Duration in seconds a button must be held to trigger its long-press action (default: 0.5, max: 5.0)
fHoldDuration=0.5
; Long-press action for the Start (Menu) button. Short press performs the button's normal function.
; Valid values: Map, System, Quests, Stats, Inventory, Magic, Favorites, TweenMenu, Wait, NewSave, QuickSave, Bestiary, CharacterSheet, None (case-insensitive)
sButtonStartAction=Map
; Long-press action for the Back (View) button. Short press performs the button's normal function.
; Valid values: Map, System, Quests, Stats, Inventory, Magic, Favorites, TweenMenu, Wait, NewSave, QuickSave, Bestiary, CharacterSheet, None (case-insensitive)
sButtonBackAction=System

In-game settings (optional):

If SKSE Menu Framework v3 is installed, HoldFast adds a HoldFast/Settings page in its mod control panel. Use Save to config to persist and apply changes, Reload from config to discard staged edits and reload INI values, and Reset to defaults to stage defaults (0.5, Start=Map, Back=System) until saved.

Valid actions:

Value	What it does
Map	Opens the map
System	Opens the Journal on the System tab
Quests	Opens the Journal on the Quests tab
Stats	Opens the Journal on the Stats tab
Inventory	Opens the inventory
Magic	Opens the magic menu
Favorites	Opens the favourites menu
TweenMenu	Opens the tween menu (Items/Magic/Map/Skills)
Wait	Opens the sleep/wait menu
NewSave	Performs a new save
QuickSave	Performs a quicksave
Bestiary	Opens The Dragonborn's Bestiary (requires mod)
CharacterSheet	Opens Character Menu SE (requires mod)
None	Button not intercepted

Logs are written to:

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\HoldFast.log

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Development

Prerequisites

All platforms

• Git
• CMake 3.21+
• vcpkg — set VCPKG_ROOT in your environment

Linux

• LLVM/Clang (clang-cl, lld-link, llvm-lib, llvm-rc, llvm-mt)
• xwin — downloads the Windows SDK and MSVC CRT headers/libs
• Ninja

# Arch / CachyOS
sudo pacman -S clang lld llvm ninja

# Install xwin (requires Rust/cargo)
cargo install xwin

# Fetch Windows SDK + MSVC CRT headers to ~/.xwin (one-time, ~700 MB)
xwin splat --output ~/.xwin

Note: On first CMake configure, cmake/toolchains/clang-cl-cross.cmake creates TitleCase symlinks inside your xwin installation (e.g. Advapi32.lib → advapi32.lib). The originals are untouched. This is required because lld-link is case-sensitive but CommonLibSSE-NG references libs with mixed-case names.

Windows

• Visual Studio 2022 with Desktop development with C++

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Getting Started

Linux

1. Clone

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/codepuncher/HoldFast.git
cd HoldFast

2. Configure deploy path

Edit .env and set SKYRIM_MODS_FOLDER to your mod manager's staging folder:

# Vortex (Linux, Steam):
SKYRIM_MODS_FOLDER="$HOME/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Vortex Mods/skyrimse"

# MO2 (Linux):
# SKYRIM_MODS_FOLDER="$HOME/MO2/mods"

3. Build

./scripts/build.sh
# or directly:
cmake --preset release-linux
cmake --build --preset release-linux

The DLL lands in build/release-linux/HoldFast.dll.

Deploy to mod manager

./scripts/deploy.sh
# or directly (deploy.sh sources .env for you; cmake does not):
source .env && cmake --workflow --preset deploy

Copies HoldFast.dll, HoldFast.pdb, and HoldFast.ini into $SKYRIM_MODS_FOLDER/HoldFast/SKSE/Plugins/.

Windows (MSVC)

cmake --preset release-windows
cmake --build --preset release-windows

The DLL lands in build/msvc/Release/HoldFast.dll.

Running Tests (Windows)

Unit tests use Catch2 and run without SKSE or Skyrim installed.

cmake --preset test-windows
cmake --build --preset test-windows
ctest --preset test-windows

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Git Hooks (Lefthook)

Prerequisites:

• go install github.com/evilmartians/lefthook@latest
• clang-format and clang-tidy (part of LLVM)
• cmake-format (sudo pacman -S cmake-format on Arch/CachyOS; pip install cmakelang elsewhere)
• shellcheck (sudo pacman -S shellcheck on Arch/CachyOS)
• dprint
• Vale CLI

lefthook install

Markdown checks in hooks:

• dprint formats staged README.md and docs/**/*.md
• vale lints staged README.md and docs/**/*.md (warnings and errors fail the hook)

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Editor Setup (clangd / Neovim)

CMake writes compile_commands.json to the build directory. Symlink it to the project root:

ln -sf build/release-linux/compile_commands.json compile_commands.json

The .clangd file sets --target=x86_64-pc-windows-msvc so clangd resolves Windows headers correctly on Linux.

Recommended plugins: nvim-lspconfig with clangd, clangd_extensions.nvim.

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Markdown Linting and Formatting

This repository uses Markdown tooling:

• dprint for formatting
• vale for prose/style linting

Run locally:

dprint fmt "README.md" "docs/**/*.md"
dprint check "README.md" "docs/**/*.md"
vale --glob='*.md' README.md docs

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Updating CommonLibSSE-NG

git submodule update --remote lib/commonlibsse-ng
git add lib/commonlibsse-ng
git commit -m "chore: update CommonLibSSE-NG submodule"

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CI

Workflow	Trigger	What it does
ci.yml	PRs to main touching source/cmake/vcpkg	clang-format (ubuntu) → clang-tidy + build (windows, parallel)
release.yml	Push of a v* tag	Builds release DLL and publishes GitHub Release
nexus-upload.yml	Release publish or manual workflow_dispatch	Uploads the packaged ZIP to Nexus Mods
lint.yml	PRs touching scripts, markdown docs, or markdown lint config/workflow files	shellcheck (scripts) + markdown checks (dprint and vale)
pr-title.yml	PR opened/edited/synchronised	Validates PR title follows Conventional Commits

Nexus Mods Upload

Triggered on release publish, or manually via workflow_dispatch with the version input set (e.g. 1.0.0). One-time setup:

1. Upload your first file manually via the Nexus Mods web UI to create the file group.
2. Add to your repository:
   • Secret NEXUSMODS_API_KEY — your Nexus Mods API key
   • Variable NEXUSMODS_FILE_GROUP_ID — the file group ID

Upload behavior is configured as:

• archive_existing_file: true
• primary_mod_manager_download: true
• allow_mod_manager_download: true
• show_requirements_pop_up: true

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Credits

• Inspired by the hold-Start-to-open-map mechanic in Red Dead Redemption 2
• SKSE by the SKSE Team
• Address Library for SKSE plugins by meh321
• CommonLibSSE-NG by alandtse and contributors

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.