Remodel

Remodel is a command line tool for manipulating Roblox files and the instances contained within them. It's a scriptable tool designed to enable workflows where no other tool will do.

Remodel can be used to do almost anything with Roblox files. Some uses include:

• Extracting models from a place to use with Rojo
• Copying terrain from one place into another
• Minifying scripts before deploying a place
• Automatically attaching build metadata to a place
• Synchronizing development places with production

Remodel is still in early development, but much of its API is already stable. Feedback is welcome!

Installation

With Foreman

Remodel can be installed with Foreman, a toolchain manager for Roblox projects:

[tools]
remodel = { source = "rojo-rbx/remodel", version = "0.10.0" }

From GitHub Releases

You can download pre-built binaries from Remodel's GitHub Releases page.

From crates.io

You'll need Rust 1.56.0 or newer.

cargo install remodel

Quick Start

Most of Remodel's interface is its Lua API. Users write Lua 5.3 scripts that Remodel runs, providing them with a special set of APIs.

One use for Remodel is to break a place file apart into multiple model files. Imagine we have a place file named my-place.rbxlx that has some models stored in ReplicatedStorage.Models.

We want to take those models and save them to individual files in a folder named models.

local game = remodel.readPlaceFile("my-place.rbxlx")

-- If the directory does not exist yet, we'll create it.
remodel.createDirAll("models")

local Models = game.ReplicatedStorage.Models

for _, model in ipairs(Models:GetChildren()) do
	-- Save out each child as an rbxmx model
	remodel.writeModelFile("models/" .. model.Name .. ".rbxmx", model)
end

For more examples, see the examples folder.

Supported Roblox API

Remodel supports some parts of Roblox's API in order to make code familiar to existing Roblox users.

• Instance.new(className) (0.5.0+)
  • The second argument (parent) is not supported by Remodel.
• <Instance>.Name (read + write)
• <Instance>.ClassName (read only)
• <Instance>.Parent (read + write)
• <Instance>:Destroy() (0.5.0+)
• <Instance>:Clone() (0.6.0+)
• <Instance>:GetChildren()
• <Instance>:GetDescendants() (0.8.0+)
• <Instance>:FindFirstChild(name)
  • The second argument (recursive) is not supported by Remodel.
• <DataModel>:GetService(name) (0.6.0+)

Remodel API

Remodel has its own API that goes beyond what can be done inside Roblox.

remodel.readPlaceFile

remodel.readPlaceFile(path: string): Instance

Load an rbxlx file from the filesystem.

Returns a DataModel instance, equivalent to game from within Roblox.

Throws on error.

remodel.readModelFile

remodel.readModelFile(path: string): List<Instance>

Load an rbxmx or rbxm (0.4.0+) file from the filesystem.

Note that this function returns a list of instances instead of a single instance! This is because models can contain mutliple top-level instances.

Throws on error.

remodel.readPlaceAsset (0.5.0+)

remodel.readPlaceAsset(assetId: string): Instance

Reads a place asset from Roblox.com, equivalent to remodel.readPlaceFile.

This method requires web authentication for private assets! See Authentication for more information.

Throws on error.

remodel.readModelAsset (0.5.0+)

remodel.readModelAsset(assetId: string): List<Instance>

Reads a model asset from Roblox.com, equivalent to remodel.readModelFile.

This method requires web authentication for private assets! See Authentication for more information.

Throws on error.

remodel.writePlaceFile

remodel.writePlaceFile(path: string, instance: DataModel)

Saves an rbxlx file out of the given DataModel instance.

If the instance is not a DataModel, this method will throw. Models should be saved with writeModelFile instead.

Throws on error.

remodel.writeModelFile

remodel.writeModelFile(path: string, instance: Instance)

Saves an rbxmx or rbxm (0.4.0+) file out of the given Instance.

If the instance is a DataModel, this method will throw. Places should be saved with writePlaceFile instead.

Throws on error.

remodel.writeExistingPlaceAsset (0.5.0+)

remodel.writeExistingPlaceAsset(instance: Instance, assetId: string)

Uploads the given DataModel instance to Roblox.com over an existing place.

If the instance is not a DataModel, this method will throw. Models should be uploaded with writeExistingModelAsset instead.

This method always requires web authentication! See Authentication for more information.

Throws on error.

remodel.writeExistingModelAsset (0.5.0+)

remodel.writeExistingModelAsset(instance: Instance, assetId: string)

Uploads the given instance to Roblox.com over an existing model.

If the instance is a DataModel, this method will throw. Places should be uploaded with writeExistingPlaceAsset instead.

This method always requires web authentication! See Authentication for more information.

Throws on error.

remodel.getRawProperty (0.6.0+)

remodel.getRawProperty(instance: Instance, name: string): any?

Gets the property with the given name from the given instance, bypassing all validation.

This is intended to be a simple to implement but very powerful API while Remodel grows more ergonomic functionality.

Throws if the value type stored on the instance cannot be represented by Remodel yet. See Supported Roblox Types for more details.

remodel.setRawProperty (0.6.0+)

remodel.setRawProperty(
	instance: Instance,
	name: string,
	type: string,
	value: any,
)

Sets a property on the given instance with the name, type, and value given. Valid values for type are defined in Supported Roblox Types in the left half of the bulleted list.

This is intended to be a simple to implement but very powerful API while Remodel grows more ergonomic functionality.

Throws if the value type cannot be represented by Remodel yet. See Supported Roblox Types for more details.

remodel.readFile (0.3.0+)

remodel.readFile(path: string): string

Reads the file at the given path.

Throws on error, like if the file did not exist.

remodel.readDir (0.4.0+)

remodel.readDir(path: string): List<string>

Returns a list of all of the file names of the children in a directory.

Throws on error, like if the directory did not exist.

remodel.writeFile (0.3.0+)

remodel.writeFile(path: string, contents: string)

Writes the file at the given path.

Throws on error.

remodel.removeFile

remodel.removeFile(path: string)

Removes the file at the given path.

This is a thin wrapper around Rust's fs::remove_file function.

Throws on error.

remodel.createDirAll

remodel.createDirAll(path: string)

Makes a directory at the given path, as well as all parent directories that do not yet exist.

This is a thin wrapper around Rust's fs::create_dir_all function. Similar to mkdir -p from Unix.

Throws on error.

remodel.removeDir

remodel.removeDir(path: string)

Removes a directory at the given path.

This is a thin wrapper around Rust's fs::remove_dir_all function.

Throws on error.

remodel.isFile (0.7.0+)

remodel.isFile(path: string): bool

Tells whether the given path is a file.

This is a thin wrapper around Rust's fs::metadata function.

Throws on error, like if the path does not exist.

remodel.isDir (0.7.0+)

remodel.isDir(path: string): bool

Tells whether the given path is a directory.

This is a thin wrapper around Rust's fs::metadata function.

Throws on error, like if the path does not exist.

JSON API

json.fromString (0.7.0+)

json.fromString(source: string): any

Decodes a string containing JSON.

Throws on error, like if the input JSON is invalid.

json.toString (0.7.0+)

json.toString(value: any): string

Encodes a Lua object as a JSON string. Can only encode Lua primitives like tables, strings, numbers, bools, and nil. Instances cannot be encoded to JSON.

Throws on error, like if the input table cannot be encoded.

json.toStringPretty (Unreleased)

json.toStringPretty(value: any, indent?: string = "  "): string

Encodes a Lua object as a prettified JSON string. If an indent is passed, will use that for indentation, otherwise will default to two spaces.

Throws on error, like if the input table cannot be encoded.

Supported Roblox Types

When interacting with Roblox instances, Remodel doesn't support all value types yet and may throw an error.

Supported types and their Lua equivalents:

• String: string
• Content: string
• Bool: boolean
• Float64: number
• Float32: number
• Int64: number
• Int32: number

More types will be added as time goes on, and Remodel will slowly begin to automatically infer correct types in more contexts.

Authentication

Some of Remodel's APIs access the Roblox web API and need authentication in the form of a .ROBLOSECURITY cookie to access private assets. Auth cookies look like this:

_|WARNING:-DO-NOT-SHARE-THIS.--Sharing-this-will-allow-someone-to-log-in-as-you-and-to-steal-your-ROBUX-and-items.|<actual cookie stuff here>

Auth cookies are very sensitive information! If you're using Remodel on a remote server like Travis CI or GitHub Actions, you should create a throwaway account with limited permissions in a group to ensure your valuable accounts are not compromised!

On Windows, Remodel will attempt to use the cookie from a logged in Roblox Studio session to authenticate all requests.

To give a different auth cookie to Remodel, use the --auth argument:

remodel run foo.lua --auth "$MY_AUTH_COOKIE"

You can also define the REMODEL_AUTH environment variable to avoid passing --auth as an argument.

Remodel vs rbxmk

Remodel is similar to rbxmk:

• Both Remodel and rbxmk use Lua
• Remodel and rbxmk have a similar feature set and use cases
• Remodel is imperative, while rbxmk is declarative
• Remodel emulates Roblox's API, while rbxmk has its own, very unique API

License

Remodel is available under the terms of the MIT license. See LICENSE.txt for details.

Logo source.