Mod keys

Players change the game's keys in Options → Controls. Your mod's commands show up there on their own, as long as they have a name: you don't register anything.

Example to copy: examples/custom-orders.

How your commands show up

A command is a <cmd> in a file under data\commands. Its default key is the key attribute (key="j"; with ctrl="1" it needs Ctrl). The player can change it, and their change is saved in controls.ini, not in your mod.

A command needs rollover: that's its name in the list. Without rollover it doesn't appear in Controls.

• If the command is in a game file that your mod patches (for example RBarracks.xml), it appears in the tab for that building or unit, with the others. Exception: Stonehenge.xml isn't in the table of known files, so a command added there appears under "Buildings" with the file name.
• If your mod ships a new commands file (for example data\commands\MyBarracks.xml), it appears in the Content tab, in a section named after your mod. With several commands files, each gets its own section.

The Content tab only appears if some active mod has new commands.

Naming the section

By default the section is named after your mod (plus the file name if you ship several). To give per-language names, use commands in mod.json, keyed by the file name without extension:

"commands": {
  "MyBarracks": {
    "name": {"spanish": "Cuartel romano extra", "english": "Extra Roman barracks", "italian": "Caserma romana extra"}
  }
}

It shows the name in the game's language; if there isn't one, English; if not, the first. A plain string also works ("name": "Cuartel extra"). On screen: Mod name · Extra Roman barracks.

Each command's name is its rollover, and it's translated like any other text: see Languages and texts.

Which keys you can use

A letter (A–Z) or a symbol (semicolon, equals, comma, hyphen, period, slash, backslash, brackets, single quote and the backtick), optionally with Ctrl. Digits don't work: commands only accept letters and symbols, so key="1" never becomes a key in Controls. Shift and Alt don't work either, only Ctrl.

Players can also use the By position on the bar mode (Q is the first button, W the second…). Your commands go in there like all the others.

What you can't do

• A key that does anything other than a game command (changing a mod option, firing a loose script) doesn't exist. Every keyed action has to be a command.
• A commands file outside data\commands doesn't load.