# Before you ship

Keep the addon out of every exported build, and prove it with a scan of the pck.

> **The addon must not ride into an exported game**
>
> It is a command server with an arbitrary-eval surface, and its two game-side autoloads poll IPC files every frame, release builds included. Two steps keep it out, and one scan proves they worked. Do them for every release.

## 1. Disable the plugin before exporting

Project → Project Settings → Plugins, untick Swallowtail. Disabling removes the two injected autoloads, `MCPGameInspector` and `MCPGameInput`, from `project.godot`. Re-enabling puts them back, so the toggle costs nothing per release.

## 2. Exclude the addon files in every export preset

In the Export window, Resources tab, add to *Filters to exclude files/folders*:

```
addons/swallowtail/*
```

Add `mcp_commands/*` too if the project defines [project-local commands](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/extending). The default "Export all resources" mode ships unreferenced scripts, so the filter matters even with the plugin disabled. Check every preset, since each carries its own filter.

## 3. Scan the build

A green export means the exporter ran. The receipt is the pck itself: the addon name and the autoload names must score zero, and a known game path must be present so you know the scan read the right file.


**Bash**

```bash
grep -a -c 'swallowtail' Game.pck     # 0, or the addon shipped
grep -a -c 'MCPGame' Game.pck         # 0 covers project.binary's autoload list
grep -a -c 'res://scenes' Game.pck    # above 0: the game itself is in there
```


**PowerShell**

```powershell
$t = [Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString([IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("Game.pck"))
([regex]::Matches($t, 'swallowtail')).Count    # 0, or the addon shipped
([regex]::Matches($t, 'MCPGame')).Count        # 0 covers project.binary's autoload list
([regex]::Matches($t, 'res://scenes')).Count   # above 0: the game itself is in there
```


`swallowtail export <preset>` runs the export from the terminal and exits non-zero when Godot wrote no file. The [Shipping and export guide](https://regiellis.github.io/godot-mcp-go/docs/guides/shipping-export) covers the rest of the release pipeline: the headless loop, per-platform receipts, and Android packages, which carry no loose pck.