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Beastwhispering dev verbs — the command channel

Beastwhispering can be driven at runtime by writing verbs to a text file. This is a tester's and tuner's tool — most of it drives internal state and dumps diagnostics — but a few verbs (tame, feed, recall, reloadcfg) are handy in ordinary play too.

The command channel

The mod watches BepInEx/config/bw_cmd.txt. Write a verb line into it and the mod runs that verb on its next poll — even while the game is paused (the poll runs on unscaled time). Results go to the logs (BepInEx/LogOutput.log, and Unity's own output_log.txt).

  • Write help (or any unknown verb) to have the mod list every registered verb.
  • Some verbs take arguments, space-separated after the verb: setloyalty 80, give 5 Raw Meat.
  • The same verbs are used to retune data tables live and to dump the state of every subsystem.

Keybinds

Five actions are also bound to keys (rebindable in the [Keys] config section):

Key Action
F7 Tame the nearest wild creature
F8 Feed the pet the first inventory item its diet accepts
F9 Recall the pet to your feet (also re-forms a bodiless pet)
F10 Run the compute-layer self-test
F12 Dump a [DIAG] state snapshot to the log

Pet lifecycle & control

Verb What it does
tame Tame the nearest wild creature (the F7 action).
recall Recall the pet to your feet; re-forms a bodiless pet.
release Release the pet — full teardown, ends the bond, clears the save.
resummon Re-form the pet's body now.
reformtest Force the re-form path (diagnostic).
petdown Down the pet via the real downed flow (tests the re-form-after-defeat path).
petheal Heal the pet to full.
pethealth Report the pet's current/max HP.
petstatus One-screen dump of the pet's whole state (loyalty, hunger, comfort, stance, combat).
pettab Open the injected Companion menu tab directly.
petpanel Dump the Companion-tab display model to the log (data check with no menu open).
petsound Play the species attack/hurt/death sounds in sequence.

Feeding & items

Verb What it does
feed Feed the pet the first accepted inventory item (F8).
feeditem [force] <name-or-id> Feed a specific item through the real feed pipeline.
givechow [species] Spawn a species's taming chow into the pouch.
givescroll [species] Spawn a species's taming-recipe scroll into the pouch.
giveblanket [heat\|cool] Spawn a consumable blanket.
givefeather [loyalty\|quality] [qty] Spawn Pearlbird feathers of a given quality.
hr <0-5> [seconds] Stage a Health Recovery regen on the pet (feed-free).
giveblanket / givewater Spawn a blanket / a filled waterskin (water via the shared item verbs).

Skills & progression

Verb What it does
learnskills Teach the player all ten Beastwhispering skills at once.
gift Cast the Gift skill body (skill-free).
engage / disengage / petcommand The Command Pet skill's two orders and the toggle.
special Fire the pet's Hunt as One signature attack.
huntasonesync Diagnostic for the Hunt as One / pet-special cooldown sync.
synergy <0-4> Set the Synergy stack count for testing.
ftk Cast For the Kill (skill-free).
setcourage <0-5> Set the species-relic stack count.
travelcheck / travelcross Inspect / drive the Wild Unknown region-travel gate headlessly.
marenstatus / marenspawn / marendespawn / marenhere Inspect, spawn, despawn, or re-place the trainer NPC (marenhere stamps her at your current spot).

Diagnostics & dumps

Most subsystems have a …dump verb that prints its table, its live resolution, and the current state — the fastest way to see why a data-driven feature is or isn't firing.

Verb Subsystem
diag Consolidated [DIAG] snapshot (scene, vitals, combat, nearby AI, pet).
statdump Pet stats: captured vs loyalty-tuned vs the anchor's live readback; damage scale.
dietdump Diet table & feed resolution.
tamingdump Taming-food table & registration.
tempdump Temperature / comfort / blanket state.
mealdump Food-hex meal history & next-hit mix.
sigildump Sigil-synergy registry & detection.
geardump Equipped-gear effects.
weatherdump Weather-food buff state.
scentdump Scent-sense table & tracker.
scavengedump Scavenge-bonus table & armed fill.
giftdump Gift drop table & loyalty-lerped mix.
fletchdump Feather-fletch registration & held-ammo state.
buffdump / bufffooddump Bond buffs / buff-food state.
synergydump / ftkdump / killfavordump / tauntdump Synergy, For the Kill, kill-favor, taunt state.
boltdump / firebolt Ranged-special rig census / headless test fire.
bracedump / brace Brace stance state / force-enter.
echodump / echo Skill-echo roster / trigger.
warddump / lanterndump Ward-share / lantern-share state.
foodcats The 8 food-category tags → live tag names/UIDs.
speciesaudit Cross-table check for tameable-but-missing rows.
statusicons Pet status-icon pipeline (inputs → wanted → the player's actual statuses).
caravandump / caravanhere / caravanspawn Caravanner scent-sense diagnostics.
musicdump / musiccheck Combat-music state snapshot.
recipedump Crafting-recipe registration & learned state.
registrydump Write item/status/scene registries to BepInEx/config/bw_registries/ (feeds bwspecies check).
donorspot Log the current scene's AI roster as pastable donor-scene lines.
anchorstatus / anchorforce / anchorclear / anchorphys / anchortest Anchor state & weld diagnostics.
visdump / visfix Puppet draw-readiness dump / repair.
animdump / posdump / compdump / drifttest Animator / position / component / drift diagnostics.
combatcheck Combat-state readout.
sniff Force a scent scan now.
selftest Run the compute-layer self-test (F10).

Retune tables live (reload…)

These re-read a data table's config override and re-apply on the spot, no relaunch (item registration is still boot-time — a brand-new species needs a relaunch):

reloadcfg (the whole .cfg), reloadattacks, reloadcomfort, reloaddiets, reloadtaming, reloadfoodhexes, reloadsigils, reloadgear, reloadweather, reloadscents, reloadgifts, reloadgrowth, reloadftk, reloadbuffs, reloadbufffoods, reloadscavenge, reloadfletch, reloadskillechoes, reloadyaw.

reloadcfg is the important one: BepInEx has no config file-watcher, so any raw edit to cobalt.beastwhispering.cfg does nothing until you run reloadcfg or relaunch.

Expedition & templates

Verb What it does
expedition <scene\|species> Run a donor-region round trip to cache a region-only creature's body.
harvest Harvest a donor body for a species.
tamecached Tame from a cached body template.
templateprobe / templateclear Inspect / clear the body-template cache.

Test-state & staging (shared ForgeKit verbs)

Beastwhispering inherits the CommonVerbs pack from ForgeKit, so these answer on bw_cmd.txt too. They spawn items, teleport, stage combat, and manipulate character state for unattended test sessions.

Verb What it does
give [pouch\|bag\|ground] [qty] <name-or-id> Spawn any item.
drop [qty] <name-or-id> Drop an item on the ground ahead of you.
useitem <name-or-id> Use the first matching inventory item through the real Use pipeline.
givewater [type] Spawn a filled waterskin (clean/river/salt/rancid/…).
givemoney <n> Add silver.
equip <name-or-id> / unequip <slot> Equip / unequip gear (spawns the item if absent).
learnskill <name-or-id> / unlearnskill <name-or-id\|all> Teach / forget any skill.
resetcooldowns Reset every learned skill's cooldown.
teleport <x> <y> <z> / goto <scene> [spawn] Move the player.
settime <hour> Set the game clock.
sethp <pet\|player> <n\|n%> Set health (floored at 1 — never a death path).
setloyalty <0-100> Set pet loyalty (0 needs force).
sethunger <0-1.5> Place the hunger clock.
simskip <seconds> Fast-forward the pet sim (decay, drains, expiries all apply).
aggro <me\|pet> [name] / pacify [radius] Force / clear enemy aggro.
killnearest [species] [radius] Overkill the nearest wild creature through the real damage pipeline.
combatcheck / combatclear Read / clear combat state.
scenedump / statusdump / skydump / groundprobe / ragdolldump / psdump / combatmgrdump / keybinds Engine-state dumps.

See also