Terminals, the in-game browser, messages and arcade cabinets

Maturity: Draft. How Cyberpunk 2077's computers and terminals render their screens, how the in-game browser finds and draws web pages, how mods add sites, shops, phone messages and devices without replacing the game's own content, and how arcade cabinets launch their built-in games. Consolidated on 26 September 2026 from the decompiled 2.31 script bundle (redscript-cli 0.5.31), installed mods read in place, their public source where it exists, one mod's world resources read as JSON outside the repository, and the source of ArchiveXL, Codeware and Red Hot Tools. Nothing here has been seen in a game session. Grades follow the knowledge rules.

This page answers: what can a mod add to terminals, the browser and arcade cabinets, how do the existing frameworks do it additively, and how could XF Studio author such content later?

Sources

Installed-mod citations give paths inside each mod's folder in the mod manager (for MO2, mods/<mod name>/). Game-script citations are paths inside the decompiled bundle. Who made each mod and what it taught us is in the community credits.

1. The short answers

2. Computers and terminals

2.1 Entities, state and screens

• Classes: Computer extends Terminal extends InteractiveMasterDevice extends InteractiveDevice extends Device source cyberpunk/devices/masters/computer.script:53, terminal.script:2. The terminal requests its screen as the component terminalui (worlduiWidgetComponent) source terminal.script:11.
• Persistent state: ComputerControllerPS holds a persistent ComputerSetup source computerController.script:49-68. It carries the starting menu, one enable flag per menu (mails, files, system, internet, news feed), a style preset, the mail and file folders ([GenericDataContent]), a news feed, and m_internetSubnet, whose only field is the browser's startingPage address source orphans.script:36131-36188, 44150-44153.
• Screen binding: a device's SUIScreenDefinition pairs two TweakDB ids, a DevicesUIDefinitions screen (with ratio, content ratio and library path) and a DevicesUIStyles style source orphans.script:33261-33274, 15427-15438. A world node's component can override it; otherwise the entity default applies, DevicesUIDefinitions.Computer_21x9 for computers source core/deviceBase.script:887-896, computer.script:325-332.

2.2 How the screen is built

• ComputerInkGameController spawns the layout record DevicesUIDefinitions.ComputerLayoutWidget, then each part from its own record: screensaver, wallpaper, MenuMailsWidget, MenuFilesWidget, MenuNewsFeedWidget, MenuMainWidget and InternetBrowserWidget source UI/computer/computerGameController.script:63-114, computerMainLayoutController.script:100-338.
• Library lookup: widget requests try library ids LibraryID[_style][_ratio], most specific first, in the record's local and external libraries source core/deviceGameControllerBase.script:144-199, core/ui/baseControllers/widgetController.script:93-200.
• Navigation is local to the UI. Menu buttons carry a widgetName (mails, files, devices, newsFeed, mainMenu, internet), and ShowMenuByName dispatches on it. There are no device actions for opening mail or the browser; data requests go UI → entity event → PS → blackboard → UI source computerGameController.script:201-226, 391-416, 705-710, computer.script:225-233, computerController.script:416-423.

2.3 Input

• Camera zoom, not a menu. Examining a computer pushes the DeviceZoom game context, registers the device as an input listener and sets IsUIZoomDevice. The player aims a cursor at the world widget and clicks; every handler tests IsAction(n"click"). The hints are click, right_stick_y and UI_Exit source core/deviceBase.script:1266-1375, core/scriptableDeviceBasePS.script:1563-1566, 4264-4273. The cursor mechanics are native hypothesis.
• Other device screens use the same pattern: the drop point's sell screen and the vending terminal each host a DeviceInkGameControllerBase on a ui component source UI/drop_point_terminal/dropPointTerminalGameController.script:2, vendingMachines/vendingTerminal.script:12, 116-122.

3. The in-game browser

3.1 Pages are journal entries

flowchart LR
  A["Computer PS: internet startingPage address"] --> B["BrowserController.SetDefaultPage"]
  B --> C["LoadWebPage(address)"]
  C --> D["JournalManager.TryGetWebsiteData(address): active JournalInternetPage, else NETdir://page_not_found"]
  D --> E["AsyncSpawnFromExternal(page's own .inkwidget)"]
  E --> F["WebPage.FillPage: texts, images, videos, canvases matched by widget name"]
  F --> G["Link clicked: OnLinkPressed"]
  G --> C

• BrowserController.LoadWebPage asks the journal for the address and spawns the page's GetWidgetPath() library asynchronously into the page root source UI/internet/browserController.script:109-156.
• JournalInternetPage is importonly: address, widget path, scale, facts to set, and lists of texts, rectangles, images, videos and canvases source orphans.script:44172-44195. JournalInternetSite gives the short name, icon atlas and part, and whether the desktop ignores it source orphans.script:44224-44233.
• Filling: WebPage.FillPageFromJournal matches each journal element's name against the widgets in the page controller's lists and sets text and tint, atlas and part, video path, or visibility source browserController.script:265-273, 396-499. Links call back through OnLinkPressed, and the controller loads the clicked address source browserController.script:125-128, 501-538.
• The home page NETdir://ncity.pub is filled from script: all active sites from JournalManager.GetInternetSites, into slots named TextLink01… and ImageLink01… source browserController.script:277-370. Browser Extension's notes say the home-page widget has 10 such slots source Browser Extension browserController.overrides.reds:3-12.
• Pages can carry their own game controllers, as the Yaiba showroom and the vehicle shop do source UI/internet/YaibaShowroom.script:2, vehicleShopGameController.script:2.

3.2 Mails, files and news

• A mail or file is a DataElement: journal path, or inline owner, date, title and content strings, video path, and persistent isEncrypted, wasRead and isEnabled source orphans.script:36257-36296. The PS reads the JournalEmail/JournalFile entry first and falls back to the inline strings; a document is valid with either a journal path or a title source computerController.script:499-551, 813-815.
• Adding mail at run time: the PS API only enables, disables, encrypts or decrypts existing slots source computerController.script:900-1032. Pushing a new DataElement into m_mailsStructure from an added method, then refreshing the thumbnails, may work; whether script can build that native struct and whether the change survives a save is untested hypothesis.

3.3 Messages on the phone

The journal types for contacts, conversations and messages are importonly with getters only, and JournalManager offers reads and ChangeEntryState but no way to create entries source orphans.script:32999-33113, core/systems/journalManager.script:62-98. New threads must come from a .journal resource; §6.1 shows how a mod still makes their text dynamic.

3.4 Three additive ways to add a site

4. Browser Extension

• Registry: a ScriptableSystem, BrowserExtension.System.BrowserExtensionSystem, keeps listeners, a block list of addresses, and a config (enabled, show all journal sites, AutoFixer and EZEstates first) exposed through Mod Settings when installed source BrowserExtension.System.reds:9-110, BrowserExtension.Config.reds, ModSettingsConditional.reds.
• A site is a listener. BrowserEventsListener.Init(BrowserGameController) registers itself for that one browser instance and fills CustomInternetSite {address, shortName, iconAtlasPath, iconTexturePart}; GetWebPage(address) returns an inkCompoundWidget source BrowserExtension.Classes.reds:8-52, BrowserExtension.DataStructures.reds. Consumer mods create their listener by wrapping BrowserGameController.OnInitialize and release it in OnUninitialize source Virtual Atelier SetupNewSite.reds:40-56.
• Loading: a wrap on BrowserController.LoadWebPage asks the registry first. The first listener whose address is a prefix of the requested one supplies the widget, which is reparented into the page root; otherwise the vanilla journal path runs source BrowserExtension.System.reds:70-78, browserController.overrides.reds:222-262. Because custom sites are asked first, a listener could shadow a vanilla address; XF content must not.
• Home page: FillCustomHomePage merges custom sites, the home page's own journal links and (optionally) every active journal site, de-duplicated by address, and shows 10 per page. UI_MoveUp/UI_MoveDown (usually the mouse wheel) page through them through a player input listener source browserController.overrides.reds:266-507, HomePagePagination.reds:7-34.
• Public calls added to BrowserGameController: LoadPageByAddress, LoadHomePage, RefreshHomePage, IsHomePage, GetCustomSites, GetBlockedSites source browserController.overrides.reds:14-90. It steps aside during the Corpo prologue and the Phantom Liberty epilogue source BrowserExtension.System.reds:80-96.
• The widget can come from anywhere. Virtual Atelier returns SpawnFromExternal(root, r"base\gameplay\gui\virtual_atelier_stores.inkwidget", n"AtelierStores:VirtualAtelier.UI.AtelierStoresListController") source SetupNewSite.reds:22-29. The item:Controller form is ArchiveXL's ink-spawner extension: it adds the external library to the spawning library and attaches the named script controller class to the spawned root source ArchiveXL src/App/Extensions/InkSpawner/Extension.cpp:53-67, 126-180. Browser Extension itself builds its page counter with new inkCanvas() and new inkText() source browserController.overrides.reds:470-497.

5. Virtual Atelier and store mods

• Registration is an event. When the hub menu opens, VirtualAtelierStoresManager.BuildStoresList clears the list and queues a VirtualShopRegistration event on the UI system source core/systems/VirtualAtelierStoresSystem.reds:52-58, 177-181. Each store mod adds one callback method to gameuiInGameMenuGameController whose parameter is that event, and calls AddStore source Lime Makeup Atelier r6/scripts/LIMEMAKEUPATELIER-atelier-store.reds; Anrui's Netrunner Emporium r6/scripts/Anrui_ANE-atelier-store.reds. The event reaches every such method by its parameter type, so any number of stores coexist.
• AddStore(storeID, storeName, items, prices, atlasResource, texturePart, opt qualities, opt quantities): items are TweakDB item record names ("Items.…"); shorter price or quality arrays fall back to their first value source core/Classes.reds:12-30, virtual-store/VirtualStoreController.reds:792-819. A store mod ships only this script and an .inkatlas icon; its items come from its own or another mod's TweakXL records resource Lime Makeup Atelier and Anrui archives.
• Categories are derived from the first and last item's type (clothes, weapons, cyberware, consumables, other) source VirtualAtelierStoresSystem.reds:60-80, 150-181. Bookmarks and the "new" badge persist in the save through persistent fields source VirtualAtelierStoresSystem.reds:10-11.
• The shop is the vanilla vendor screen, repurposed. Clicking a store calls UISystem.RequestVendorMenu with vendor id "VirtualVendor"; a wrap on FullscreenVendorGameController.OnInitialize clears the screen and spawns Atelier's own widget and controller when it sees that id source stores-list/AtelierStoresListController.reds:156-182, virtual-store/HijackVendorController.reds:5-19, vendor-preview/FullscreenVendor.reds:185-187. Large stock lists use virtualised item lists (ScriptableDataView, virtual item controllers) source virtual-store/VirtualStoreDataView.reds.
• Safe zones only for the computer tab source SetupNewTab.reds:48-67. Pad and keyboard get different action bindings, picked from PlayerLastUsedPad() source core/AtelierActions.reds:15-40.
• High Resolution Garment Preview ships only same-path replacements of base\gameplay\gui\widgets\notifications\garments_preview.ent and garments_preview.dtex resource archive list. That the .dtex sets the garment-preview render resolution is hypothesis. It is a replacement, not an addition.

6. Beyond the browser: Delivery and Car Dealer

6.1 Virtual Atelier Delivery

• Phone messages from script. The mod ships a contact with a conversation of pre-authored message slots in djkovrik\atelier\delivery.journal, merged by ArchiveXL resource VirtualAtelierDelivery.archive.xl. At run time a scriptable system loads that journal resource through Codeware's resource depot, keeps the conversation, writes each slot's text from its persistent history, and toggles the last message inactive then active with JournalNotifyOption.Notify to raise the notification source VirtualAtelierDelivery.reds:1887-1995. It also wraps the messenger to mark the thread unread source VirtualAtelierDelivery.reds:1857-1885. The number of slots caps the visible history.
• Spawned devices with their own actions. Drop points are spawned with Codeware's DynamicEntitySystem (persistSpawn, alwaysSpawned, tags) from a mod .ent; a wrap on DropPointControllerPS.GetActions adds a new device action (OpenVaDeliveryUI extends ActionBool) only for those tagged entities, with a TweakXL interaction choice source VirtualAtelierDelivery.reds:596-921, 2020-2070; resource r6/tweaks/VirtualAtelierDelivery/DropPointAction.yaml.
• Popups and components built in script with Codeware's InMenuPopup, inkComponent and CustomButton source VirtualAtelierDelivery.reds:2088-2600. World-map pins and tooltips are extended by wraps source VirtualAtelierDelivery.reds:3439-3589.
• Billboards: TweakXL gamedataAdvertisement_Records point at the mod's advert .inkwidgets and are appended to every district's advertisement list resource r6/tweaks/VirtualAtelierDelivery/NewAdvert.yaml.
• Not purely additive: it deletes a few world nodes where drop points stand and ships a same-path vanilla van .ent resource .xl and VirtualAtelierDeliveryColumbus.archive list.

6.2 Virtual Car Dealer

• Registers NETdir://cyber.car as a Browser Extension site, or a computer tab without it, with its own .inkwidget and a controller that extends inkGameController source overrides/SetupNewSite.reds, overrides/SetupNewTab.reds, content/CarDealerContentController.reds:9.
• Sets vehicle prices at TweakDB load with Codeware's ScriptableTweak and TweakDBManager.SetFlat source core/CarDealer-ScriptableTweak.reds:1-60.

7. What is possible inside a page or terminal

Limits.

• Input: in camera-zoom mode the player has a cursor and click; typing needs raw key events or Codeware's text input widgets source Codeware scripts/UI/TextInput. Controller play works through mapped actions, but a cursor-driven page is clumsy on a pad hypothesis. A fullscreen popup avoids the world-widget cursor entirely hypothesis.
• Performance: redscript runs in the game's script VM. Menus and turn-based games fit; per-frame physics for many objects is untested hypothesis. Large lists should be virtualised as Atelier's are source. A world widget re-renders to a texture on the device screen hypothesis.
• Compatibility: every page mod wraps the same few browser functions. A wrap that forgets wrappedMethod() breaks all the others, and a redscript compile error stops every mod's scripts (runtime access §2).

8. Arcade cabinets

8.1 The device

• ArcadeMachine extends InteractiveDevice, with ArcadeMachineController/ArcadeMachineControllerPS; pachinko subclasses all three source cyberpunk/devices/arcadeMachines/arcadeMachine.script:2, arcadeMachineController.script:2-17, pachinkoMachine.script:2.
• Two native enums: ArcadeMinigame {Quadracer, RoachRace, Shooter, Tank, Retros, INVALID} and ArcadeMachineType {Default, Pachinko} source orphans.script:9361-9373.
• Which game a cabinet runs is decided on every attach, not saved (the PS field is not persistent) source arcadeMachineController.script:16-17, arcadeMachine.script:37-40. SetupMinigame uses the entity's m_minigame if set; otherwise it matches the PS's m_gameVideosPaths choice against hard-coded .bk2 paths (retros.bk2 counts as the shooter); with no video it rolls at random. It then sets the attract video, music events and mesh appearance ap1…ap4 source arcadeMachine.script:202-272, arcadeMachineController.script:119-136.
• The attract screen is ArcadeMachineInkGameController, which loops that video in an inkVideo source cyberpunk/devices/UI/arcadeMachine/arcadeMachineGameController.script:2-108.

8.2 Launching the game

flowchart LR
  A["Cabinet PS GetActions: ON, playable, not in combat"] --> B["BeginArcadeMinigameUI action"]
  B --> C["Entity: player enters the cabinet workspot (locked camera)"]
  B --> D["PS, when the action completes: inkMenuInstance_SpawnEvent OnArcadeMinigameBegin"]
  D --> E["Hub menu: SwitchToScenario MenuScenario_ArcadeMinigame"]
  E --> F["ArcadeMinigameUserData.GetMinigameName: RoachRace to roach_race, Shooter to shooter, else None"]
  F --> G["SwitchMenu(name): menu entry in the in-game menu resource opens the game's .inkwidget"]

• IsPlayable() is true only for Roach Race and the shooter, so Quadracer and Tank cabinets show the attract video without a Play prompt source arcadeMachineController.script:28-54.
• The action's completion queues the menu event; the scenario's switch picks the menu name source arcadeMachineController.script:67-85, cyberpunk/UI/fullscreen/ingame/inGameScenarios.script:114-116, arcadeMinigameScenario.script:1-36. The name-to-widget mapping lives in the menu resource, which scripts never name hypothesis.
• The scenario ignores Back; OnArcadeMinigameEnd returns to idle, and the hub controller's OnArcadeMinigameEvent is probably called natively when a game ends source arcadeMinigameScenario.script:9-15, inGameMenuGameController.script:337-343; the native call hypothesis.

8.3 The minigames

• Roach Race and QuadRacer run on the native MinigameController/MinigameLogicController pair, Panzer on MinigameControllerAdvanced, and the shooter is native throughout, configured by TweakDB Shooter* records. The native engine sends state updates; script only reacts (HUD, lives, laps, collisions) source cyberpunk/UI/miniGames/sideScrollerMiniGameController.script:2-16, roachRace/roachRaceController.script:17-37, orphans.script:16110-16141, 55017-55147.
• In-game controls are native; script handles menu clicks only source roachRace/roachRaceGameController.script:35-74, roachRacePlayer.script:28-44.
• High scores live in memory in SideScrollerMiniGameScoreSystem, which knows three game names source sideScrollerScoreSystem.script:4-17.
• Pachinko machines have no game: music, a screen and a distraction quickhack source pachinkoMachine.script:16-52, pachinkoMachineController.script:15-25.

8.4 Registering a new game

The built-ins stay untouched if a mod:

1. Tags its cabinets without reusing the enum's meaning: a custom attract video path in the cabinet's instance data, or a device-id set in a scriptable system hypothesis.
2. Wraps ArcadeMachineControllerPS.GetActions (or IsPlayable) so tagged cabinets offer Play, and ArcadeMinigameUserData.GetMinigameName so they return the mod's menu name source for the functions; route hypothesis.
3. Adds a menu entry. Codeware imports inkMenuResource.menusEntries (name, menuWidget, depth, spawnMode, inputContext) and raises Resource/PostLoad, so a script could append an entry when the menu resource loads source Codeware scripts/Base/Imports/inkMenuResource.reds, inkMenuEntry.reds, src/App/Callback/Controllers/ResourcePostLoadHook.hpp:16. ArchiveXL's resource patches cover device, appearance and ink-animation resources but not menu resources source ArchiveXL src/App/Extensions/ResourcePatch/Extension.cpp:223-241. Whether an appended entry opens is hypothesis. The simpler fallback is to skip the scenario and open a Codeware in-game popup, or draw the game on the cabinet's own screen hypothesis.
4. Writes the game in script: an inkGameController with its own loop (delay callbacks) and input (§7). The native minigame engine only drives its built-in types hypothesis.
5. Ends cleanly: fires the scenario's end event and releases the workspot hypothesis.

8.5 Urmland Street Arcade

• urmland_street_arcade.xl adds the streaming block urmland_street_arcade/all.streamingblock and patches its custom_devices.devices into 03_night_city.devices with ArchiveXL resource .xl. The separate Urmland_street_arcade_removal.xl deletes a door, a neon sign with its light, and a decal from three vanilla sectors, each checked against the sector's expected node count resource.
• The sector holds 157 nodes: meshes, decals, collisions, lights, sound, a community area, and ten device nodes: four vanilla arcade_machine_1.ent cabinets (appearances arcade_machine_1…4), three pachinko_machine.ent, a vending machine, a TV and a door. Each cabinet's instance data only restates a default world-widget component, so the cabinets pick their games the vanilla way (§8.1) resource. Its .devices file registers only the TV's TVControllerPS resource.
• The CET addon JSON adds three "type": "arcade" spots at the pachinko machines to the Gambling System's pachinko mod, which reads every JSON file in its addons/ folder and offers a bet interaction at each spot with a random payout resource …/gambling-system-pachinko/addons/Urmland_Street_Arcade.json; source Pachinko init.lua, JsonData.lua. Its code carries a no-reuse notice; only the data format is described here.
• So the arcade adds places and props, not new games.

9. How XF Studio could author this later

Nothing below is built or decided; it records options for discussion.

9.1 A terminal-app or arcade feature module

• Outputs: redscript (a site listener or tab, a controller, a scriptable system), optional .inkwidget/.inkatlas resources, TweakXL records (items, interaction choices, adverts), and an .xl declaring journals, localisation and world additions. XF branding applies by default (for example a site called "XF …").
• Avoid binary ink authoring at first. Script-built widgets (Codeware) need no .inkwidget, so the first version could emit only text files (redscript, YAML, .xl) plus icon atlases hypothesis. .journal and .inkwidget writers would come later.
• Data-driven runtime. One versioned XF runtime mod could interpret app definitions (screens, widgets, bindings, a small state machine) exported as data, rather than generating new redscript per app. That matches the project's data-driven principle and lets a preview swap data without recompiling scripts hypothesis.
• Reading installed content: Atelier stores exist only as script calls, so the Studio cannot read them the way the game does offline. A bridge query of VirtualAtelierStoresManager.GetStores() could list them at run time hypothesis.

9.2 Live preview through the bridge

• Red Hot Tools exposes ReloadScripts, ReloadTweaks, ReloadArchives and HotInstall(path) to scripts source Red Hot Tools src/App/Facade.hpp:9-40. It does not reinitialise struct fields or register new scriptable-system request handlers until the session reloads source Red Hot Tools README.md.
• A bridge command could reload the app's data or scripts, then open it: on a computer through Browser Extension's LoadPageByAddress, or in a popup without a device hypothesis. Captures would use the bridge's existing capture path (runtime access §5).
• A quick HTML approximation inside the Studio could cover layout iteration between game checks hypothesis.

9.3 Scripting in TypeScript

A plausible path is E for shipped content, D for development, and A later for escape hatches. Choosing is the maintainer's decision.

Open questions

1. Does a journal-only site (ArchiveXL journal:) appear on the vanilla home page, and how many sites fit before the slots run out?
2. Can script construct a DataElement and add a mail to a computer, and does it persist?
3. Does appending an inkMenuEntry at Resource/PostLoad open a custom arcade game through MenuScenario_ArcadeMinigame? Which resource holds the in-game menus?
4. What ends the arcade scenario natively, and how does a script game release the workspot?
5. What frame budget can a script-driven ink game sustain on a world widget versus a fullscreen popup?
6. Can CET Lua register ink callbacks without a redscript helper class?
7. Does the vanilla arcade_machine_1.ent preset m_gameVideosPaths per appearance, which would decide the Urmland cabinets' games?

Related pages

Runtime access · Photo mode and the creator from script · Mod loading · World and interactive ideas · Feature-module platform