.serps packages

A .serps package is the Team Simplified suite's mod format: a zip with whole game files under a content root. The Simplified for Swofty addon imports it on the Mods page. It compares each file with the clean game files and merges only the differences: database records, archive resources, text and loose files. A zip, 7z or RAR archive or a folder laid out the same way imports too, with or without mod.serps.

1. Lay out the package

Put your files under an F1 25/ folder, at the paths they have in the game folder:

Scuderia AlphaTauri ORLEN.serps
├── mod.serps
└── F1 25/
    ├── game_package/gamedatabases/gamedatabases.2025.bin
    ├── localisatioa/2025_release/language_eng.lng
    └── shader_package_2025/object_opaque.nefx2.sm51.erp

• The content root is the first folder, at most three levels down, whose name starts with F1 25.
• Without one, it's the first folder, from the top down to three levels, that holds a game folder: asset_groups, actionmaps, audio, videos, game_package, character_package, localisation, localisatioa, or a folder whose name ends in _package, _package_shared or _asset_groups, or starts with shader_package_.
• localisatioa/ and localisation/ both name the stock language file with the same file name.

Ship only the files your mod changes. The importer keeps every difference, so a whole gamedatabases.2025.bin from an older game build changes every record the game has updated since.

2. Write mod.serps

Put your mod's details in mod.serps at the package root. It's JSON, and every field is optional. The reader accepts a UTF-8 byte order mark, comments, trailing commas, and camel- or Pascal-case keys.

Field	Meaning
mod_name or name	The mod's name; mod_name wins
author	The author
version	The mod's version
game	The game, such as F1® 25
game_version	The game version the mod was made for, such as 1.0.141.7865
studio_version	The Simplified Studio version that made it

{
  "mod_name": "Scuderia AlphaTauri ORLEN",
  "author": "RM Designs",
  "version": "1.0",
  "game": "F1® 25",
  "game_version": "1.0.141.7865"
}

3. Import and build

swofty mods import "Scuderia AlphaTauri ORLEN.serps"
swofty mods enable rm-designs.scuderia-alphatauri-orlen
swofty build

The mod's id is <author>.<name>: both lowercased, each run of other characters turned into -. RM Designs and Scuderia AlphaTauri ORLEN give rm-designs.scuderia-alphatauri-orlen. Without either, the id comes from the file name. Importing an id that's already in the library replaces that mod, and every profile keeps its place and switch.

swofty build prints the mod's ops among the rest. Read it for conflicts with other mods and addons, and for ops waiting on the in-game loader. The Mods page shows the same counts on the mod's row (Mods and tracks).

What the importer accepts

Input	Claimed when
A .serps file, 7z or RAR archive	Always, by its extension
A zip	It holds mod.serps at its root, a folder whose name starts with F1 25, or a game folder at most three folders down
A folder	As for a zip
A track zip	It holds manifest.json with a track_code at its root, or holds one such zip (Track packages)

Encrypted archives aren't supported. Entries with absolute paths or .. are skipped and counted.

What the importer reads

Each file under the content root gets a class:

Path	Class
game_package/gamedatabases/gamedatabases.2025.bin	Database. It must parse as F1 25's database, or the import fails
localisation/*/language_<code>.lng, localisatioa/*/language_<code>.lng	Text
A .erp the game ships	Archive
Any other file the game ships	Replacement
A file the game doesn't ship	Addition
.exe, .dll, .asi, and EA AntiCheat files other than EAAntiCheat.splash.png	Skipped and named in the result

What the importer applies

The importer compares each file with the clean files of the installed game build, never with the game folder as modded, and keeps the differences. At each build, it turns them into operations:

Class	Compared by	Changed	Added	Removed	Applied as
Database	Record key	Same key, other tag or bytes	Key not in stock	Stock key missing from the package	db.put-record, db.remove-record
Archive	Resource name	Type, fragment layout or sizes, or index digest differ	Name not in stock	Stock name missing from the package	erp.put-resource, erp.remove-resource
Text	Language and key	Value differs	Key not in stock	Never	lang.set
Replacement, Addition	Whole file	Whole file	Whole file	Never	file.put

• Text counts like any other change: every changed string and every key the stock files don't have becomes a lang.set, and new keys are added to the game's text. A language the package lacks takes the changes of its language_eng.lng, or of its first language file by name.
• Removals apply only when game_version matches the installed game. Otherwise they're dropped, and the mod's row says how many and which version the package was made for.
• The launcher skips every database removal of a stock record, whatever the game version, and warns with the count per mod. See Removing stock records.
• A database change touches only the records the package changed, and archives merge one resource at a time.
• Every resource a mod adds or changes goes into an overlay of the 2025_asset_groups/ archive it belongs to. A changed resource may change size there.
• Resources a mod carries in a shader_package_2025/ archive stay in that archive. The launcher merges them into the game's copy and writes it into the game files, and each GPU build of the archive gets its own copy.
• Team logo texture arrays in ui_texture* archives merge slice by slice across every enabled mod.
• When a team rename package fills in the game's own text for the teams it doesn't rename, those defaults don't undo another mod's rename.
• A special livery row the package adds is reported as owned, so the livery shows in the picker.
• A write that repeats a value an earlier mod already put in place is left out.

Without the in-game loader, lang.set ops wait and the text doesn't change.

Parts

A mod can come in parts: folders that each hold game files of their own, such as 2026 Broadcast graphics/shader_package_2025/ beside Realistic Tyre colours/shader_package_2025/. A mod with two or more parts imports as one library entry per part, <mod id>.<part>, each with its own switch, place in the load order and conflicts.

Before you share it

• Set mod_name, author, version and game_version in mod.serps.
• Include a README that credits each author whose files you ship, and get their permission to redistribute those files.
• Don't ship executables or DLLs: the importer skips them.

The .serps reader is ported from the Simplified Launcher and is based on Simplified Suite by Team Simplified, github.com/TeamSimplified/simplified-suite.