--scan-modlist — find missing declared animations

BehaviourGraphStudio.exe --scan-modlist "<MO2 instance>" [--json]

Opens a Mod Organizer 2 instance, layers the enabled mods over the base game the way the engine loads them, and for every character file provided by an enabled mod or the overwrite folder, checks that each animation the character declares still resolves to a file somewhere in the merged load order — including base‑game Data.

A character file (hkbCharacterStringData) lists the animation set it expects. If a mod removes or replaces a file so that one of those declared animations no longer resolves, the game is missing an animation it believes it has — this mode catches that before you launch.

What it finds

Result	Meaning
MISSING ANIMATIONS	The winning character file declares animations that resolve nowhere in the load order. Each missing path is listed beneath it.
UNREADABLE CHARACTER	The winning copy could not be read or parsed (bad data, or an HKX class layout BGS does not support).

Reading the output

profile Play; 12 active mod root(s); Data C:\MO2\Instances\Fallout 4\Stock Folder\Data
indexing mod archives for characters...
processed 3 archive(s); found 40 character file(s) to check
  scanned 40/40 character(s)...
MISSING ANIMATIONS  meshes/actors/character/characters/defaultmale.hkx  [loose:MyMod]  (3 of 250)
    Animations/MyMod/idle.hkx
    Animations/MyMod/walk.hkx
    Animations/MyMod/run.hkx
done  40 winning character file(s) checked, 1 with missing animations, 3 missing reference(s), 0 unreadable

• The header line shows the resolved profile, how many mod roots are active, and the Data folder used — check these match the load order you meant to scan.
• [loose:MyMod] / [Archive.ba2] after the path is where the winning copy came from.
• (3 of 250) means 3 of the 250 animations the file declares are missing. Human output lists up to 40 missing paths per file; --json carries the full list in details.

What is scanned

--scan-modlist scans the character files supplied by your enabled mods and the overwrite folder — not pure base‑game character files. Each scanned file's declared animations are then resolved against the full merged view, base‑game Data included, so a mod that removes or replaces a file a character depends on is caught even when the character itself is a base file overridden by a mod. (Same principle as --scan-clips, which likewise scans mod/overwrite‑provided behaviours.)

JSON summary and findings

• summary: checked (character files with declared animations), broken (files with at least one missing), missing (total missing references), unreadable.
• Finding kinds: missing-animations, unreadable-character, plus archive-warning for a mod archive that could not be indexed.
• Exit 1 when missing > 0 or unreadable > 0; otherwise 0.