DCS Hot Loader is a tool to allow for hot loading of lua scripts in DCS World.

It exposes a REST API to allow for the execution of lua scripts.

All that is required is to copy the dcs-hot-loader.lua into the Scripts/Hooks folder in your DCS Saved Games folder.

%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Scripts\Hooks\

%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\DCS\Scripts\Hooks\

To run the below tests, create a file called hello-world.lua in your DCS\Scripts folder with the following contents

-- C:\Users\username\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Scripts\hello-world.lua
if (log and log.info) then
    log.info("Hello World!")
else
    print("Hello World!")
end

The server will automatically start when you start DCS World.

To use the server, make a request to the following endpoint

curl --location 'https://127.0.0.1:7943/dofile' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "path": "{WRITE_DIR}\\Scripts\\hello-world.lua",
    "target": "gui"
}'

The target parameter should be one of the following

• gui (GameGUI)
• mission (Mission Scripting Environment)

The following variables are available for path replacements, ofc you can also use absolute paths

To get an active list of variables, make a request to the following endpoint

curl --location 'https://127.0.0.1:7943/health'

Once executed the response will be the resolved URL or any errors

Note: When using the mission target, the response may not indicate errors with resolving the path, but you will receive an alert in mission

{
  "status": "OK",
  "path": "C:/Users/username/Saved Games/DCS.openbeta//Scripts/hello-world.lua",
  "target": "gui"
}