Second Shift

A completely vibe coded factorio mod -- I'm just here to solve a want on the game. Do not ask me about the code, I'm barely competent as it is and the moment Claude starting churning I stopped thinking.

Real-time Factorio production/consumption dashboard for a second monitor. Identifies bottlenecks and deficits without alt-tabbing from the game.

![Items tab showing produced vs consumed per minute with deficit highlighting]

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Requirements

• Factorio 2.0+
• Node.js 20+

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1. Install the Factorio mod

Copy the factorio-mod/ folder into your Factorio mods directory and rename it to second-shift_1.0.0:

OS	Mods directory
Windows	%APPDATA%\Factorio\mods\
Linux	~/.factorio/mods/
Mac	~/Library/Application Support/factorio/mods/

So the result looks like:

mods/
└── second-shift_1.0.0/
    ├── info.json
    └── control.lua

Enable the mod in Factorio → Main Menu → Mods, then start or load a save.

The mod writes stats every 5 seconds to:

OS	Output file
Windows	%APPDATA%\Factorio\script-output\second-shift.json
Linux	~/.factorio/script-output/second-shift.json
Mac	~/Library/Application Support/factorio/script-output/second-shift.json

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2. Configure the server

cd server
cp .env.example .env

Open .env and set FACTORIO_SCRIPT_OUTPUT to the script-output path from the table above. Example for Windows:

FACTORIO_SCRIPT_OUTPUT=C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\script-output

Optionally, point FACTORIO_DATA_PATH at your Factorio install's data/ folder to enable item icons in the dashboard:

# Windows (Steam)
FACTORIO_DATA_PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\data
# Linux (Steam)
FACTORIO_DATA_PATH=~/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data

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3. Start the server

Quickest: double-click start.bat (Windows) or run ./start.sh (Linux/Mac) from the project root.

Or manually:

cd server
npm install
npm start

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4. Open the dashboard

Open http://localhost:3000 on your second monitor.

The status badge in the top-left shows Live once data is flowing. The first update arrives within 5 seconds of the next game tick.

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Dashboard overview

Overview view

The default view. Shows what's in deficit right now.

Control	Description
Items / Fluids / Electricity	Switch stat category
Planet	Filter to a single surface (Space Age)
Save	Switch between stored game saves
Show top N	Limit how many rows the chart shows
Sort by	Order by consumed, produced, deficit severity, or name

Left panel lists every item currently in deficit, worst first:

• Red — consuming 50%+ more than producing (severe)
• Yellow — consuming any amount more than producing (warning)

Right panel shows a horizontal bar chart of produced vs consumed per minute, bars coloured by status.

Timeline view

Historical production charts. Switch to it with the Timeline button in the header.

Control	Description
Live / Minutes / Hours	Switch data precision (5s live, 1-min buckets 2h, 1-hour buckets 5d)
Search items	Add items to the card grid
Profiles	Save/load named item selections (stored in browser localStorage)

Each selected item gets its own chart card showing produced (green) and consumed (amber) over time. Click the P / C buttons on a card to toggle either line.

The first time you open Timeline, a default set of key intermediate products is pre-selected.

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Troubleshooting

Mod crashes on load — confirm you are on Factorio 2.0+. The mod uses APIs (helpers.write_file, per-surface statistics) not available in 1.x.

Dashboard shows "No data yet" — check that:

1. The mod is enabled and the game is running (not paused)
2. FACTORIO_SCRIPT_OUTPUT in .env points to the correct folder
3. second-shift.json exists in that folder

Minutes / Hours tabs show no data — the backfill runs once per in-game hour. To force it immediately, open the Factorio console and run:

/c storage.last_backfill_tick = nil

Then wait ~10 seconds for the server to pick it up.

Item icons not showing — set FACTORIO_DATA_PATH in .env to your Factorio data/ folder (see step 2 above).

Check mod logs — in Factorio: Help → Open Log File, then search for [second-shift].