SCFD Changelog is designed to be lightweight, standalone, and easy to integrate into your own resources. It exposes a small collection of client and server exports that allow other resources to open the changelog, retrieve release information, and react to new updates.

The resource is entirely server-authoritative. Changelog parsing, validation, and webhook publishing all occur on the server before sanitized data is sent to clients.

Resource Architecture

The resource is split into several components.

client/
    Handles NUI communication and exports.

server/
    Parses CHANGELOG.md, validates releases and handles webhook publishing.

shared/
    Shared constants, logging and utilities.

web/
    React + Tailwind + shadcn/ui NUI.

data/
    Configuration.

locales/
    ox_lib localization.

Client Exports

Client exports allow your resources to interact with the changelog UI.

showChangelog

Opens the newest available changelog.

exports.scfd_changelog:showChangelog()

Example

RegisterCommand("updates", function()
    exports.scfd_changelog:showChangelog()
end)

showRelease

Opens a specific release.

exports.scfd_changelog:showRelease("3.0.0")

Returns true if the release exists.

Example

local success = exports.scfd_changelog:showRelease("2.5.0")

if not success then
    print("Release not found.")
end

hasUnreadChangelog

Returns whether the player has viewed the newest version.

local unread = exports.scfd_changelog:hasUnreadChangelog()

Returns:

boolean

Example:

if exports.scfd_changelog:hasUnreadChangelog() then
    print("Player has unread updates.")
end

isOpen

Returns whether the changelog UI is currently visible.

local open = exports.scfd_changelog:isOpen()

Returns:

boolean

setEnabled

Temporarily enables or disables automatic opening.

exports.scfd_changelog:setEnabled(false)

Useful when another resource is displaying onboarding screens or character selection.

Example:

exports.scfd_changelog:setEnabled(false)

-- Character creator...

exports.scfd_changelog:setEnabled(true)

Server Exports

Server exports provide access to parsed changelog data.

getChangelog

Returns every parsed release.

local releases = exports.scfd_changelog:getChangelog()

Returns:

table

getRelease

Returns a specific release.

local release = exports.scfd_changelog:getRelease("3.0.0")

Returns:

table | nil

Example:

local release = exports.scfd_changelog:getRelease("3.0.0")

if release then
    print(release.title)
end

getReleaseMetadata

Returns only a release's metadata.

local metadata = exports.scfd_changelog:getReleaseMetadata("3.0.0")

Useful if you only need:

• title
• summary
• author
• important flag

without loading the entire release.

getCategories

Returns every discovered category.

local categories = exports.scfd_changelog:getCategories()

Example output:

{
    "General",
    "Police",
    "EMS",
    "Economy",
    "UI"
}

reloadChangelog

Reloads and reparses CHANGELOG.md.

exports.scfd_changelog:reloadChangelog()

Useful during development.

Release Object

Each parsed release has the following structure.

{
    version = "3.0.0",

    date = "July 18, 2026",

    metadata = {
        title = "Summer Update",
        summary = "...",
        author = "Scuffed Labs",
        important = true,
    },

    sections = {
        {
            name = "Added",

            entries = {
                {
                    category = "Police",
                    text = "Added evidence lockers."
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Metadata Object

Metadata contains information displayed at the top of the changelog.

metadata = {
    title = "...",
    summary = "...",
    author = "...",
    important = true
}

All fields are optional.

Section Object

Every release contains one or more sections.

{
    name = "Fixed",

    entries = {
        ...
    }
}

Supported section names are:

• Added
• Changed
• Fixed
• Removed
• Deprecated
• Security

Entry Object

Each individual changelog entry contains:

{
    category = "Police",
    text = "Added new armory locations."
}

If no category is specified in the Markdown file:

category = "General"

is assigned automatically.

Version Detection

The current release version is automatically read from your resource metadata.

Example:

version "3.0.0"

Changing the resource version automatically causes the newest release to become unread for every player.

No manual configuration is required.

Player View History

Player history is stored using FiveM KVP storage.

The resource tracks:

• Latest viewed version
• Automatic display status

This allows:

• once-per-version display
• reopening previous releases
• seamless updates

Webhook Publishing

Webhook publishing is handled entirely on the server.

The client never receives:

• webhook URLs
• publish commands
• webhook configuration

Only sanitized release information is sent to Discord.

Security

SCFD Changelog validates every release before it reaches the client.

Validation includes:

• Metadata parsing
• Section validation
• Entry validation
• Character sanitization
• HTML stripping
• Invalid release detection

Malformed releases are ignored instead of being displayed.

React Integration

The NUI communicates using standard FiveM NUI callbacks.

Developers rebuilding the interface should use the provided helper utilities.

Recommended helpers include:

• fetchNui()
• useNuiEvent()
• isEnvBrowser()

These simplify local development and improve compatibility with browser mode.

Browser Development

The React application supports running outside FiveM for development.

When running in browser mode:

• Mock data is automatically loaded.
• NUI events are simulated.
• Live React development is supported.

This allows rapid UI iteration without restarting your server.

Best Practices

API Stability

All documented exports are considered part of the public API and are intended to remain stable across future releases.

Internal events, functions, and implementation details should be considered private and may change without notice.