MO2 Pin Plugins By Name

Description

This tool exists for generated plugins. PGPatcher's PG_1.esp, DynDOLOD's Occlusion.esp, Synthesis' output, xEdit script output and their kind share two properties: they only work at the very bottom of the load order, and they are rewritten every time the patcher runs - which is often, because you re-run the patchers whenever the list changes. The new file is a different file, often briefly absent while the patcher works, so anything that pins the file loses its grip and the plugin drifts back up the order. MO2 Pin Plugins pins the name. A regenerated Occlusion.esp is still Occlusion.esp, so it goes straight back to the bottom.

MO2's own tools do not quite answer this: dragging is undone by the next sort, "lock load order" locks a plugin to a position number rather than to "last", and LOOT groups are a hint that wants a rule per generated file. This is the missing "always last, whatever the file is this time round".

Generative AI disclosure: this tool's code, this page's text and its banners were produced with generative AI (Claude), directed and tested by the author. The page is tagged accordingly.

Main features

- Made for patcher output. Pin PG_1.esp, Occlusion.esp, your Synthesis patch and whatever else your patchers generate, once. Re-run the patchers as often as you like; the pins hold.

- One window, Tools -> MO2 Pin Plugins (it can go on the toolbar). It lists the load order with the pinned plugins at the bottom, in the order they are applied - the last row loads last and wins every conflict. Tick, Move up / Move down, OK.

- Pinned by name, per profile. A pin whose file is absent right now is kept and shown greyed out, not dropped - a patcher mid-run must not make the tool forget.

- Re-applied on every plugin-list refresh (settable), which is exactly what happens after a patcher runs. Nobody presses anything.

- Masters handled honestly. A pinned master goes to the end of the master block, as far last as the game allows; the window and the log say so.

- Settings in the window, as check boxes that save at once: re-apply on refresh, and a log of each run.

- Light touch. Each pinned plugin is moved with MO2's own setPriority; no forced refresh, nothing written but the pins, the two settings and MO2PinPlugins.log.

Installation

- Copy plugins\MO2PinPlugins.py into your MO2 instance's plugins folder (next to the other .py plugins) and restart MO2.

- Not a mod: do not install it with the mod manager into the mods folder.

- To remove it, delete the file.

Debugging

Send <your MO2 folder>\MO2PinPlugins.log with any bug report: one line per run - what was pinned, what moved, what was remembered but absent.

Requirements

| Mod Organizer 2 | Nexus page | 2. 5.x (tested on 2. 5. 2). A PyQt5 fallback for 2. 4 exists but is untested. |

Compatibility notes

Runs inside Mod Organizer 2, not the game, and works with any game MO2 manages. It changes only the position of the plugins you pin. A sorter (LOOT, a plugin-sync tool) that runs afterwards may move a pinned plugin up again; the next plugin-list refresh, or OK in the window, puts it back. A pinned master cannot pass the master block - that is the game's rule, not the tool's.

Source

GPL-3. 0-or-later: github.com/ApocryphaRealm/MO2PinPlugins, tagged at each version.

This package is v1. 0. 1 (release tag).

Credits

The Mod Organizer 2 team - the plugin API this is built on.