Skip to content

Hand-Crafting Saveable Filters (Preview)

This page is for power users who want to author saveable animal filters by hand. It documents the on-disk XML format, every available field and comparator, the rules the evaluator follows, and a few real examples.

Status: Most players should use the in-game filter editor (RL Menu -> Settings -> Filters) - see the Saved Filters guide. This page remains a reference for the on-disk XML format and power-user hand-editing, and is intentionally kept out of the site navigation.

Note: This documentation was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies. If you spot an error, please open an issue.

Where the file lives

Filters are stored together with your RL settings, in your savegame folder:

~/Library/Application Support/FarmingSimulator2025/savegame<N>/rm_RlSettings.xml

(or the equivalent on your platform)

Edit only when the game is closed for that savegame. The host writes this file out on every settings change and on every game save, so live edits will be overwritten. Always make a backup before editing.

If you have not yet opened the savegame after installing the version that moved filter persistence into rm_RlSettings.xml, the file may exist with only your settings and no <filters> block. Add the block as shown below.

Top-level structure

The file root is <rm_RlSettings>. Filters live in a single <filters> block as a sibling of the settings entries:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<rm_RlSettings version="1">
    <deathEnabled value="2"/>
    <diseaseDifficulty value="3"/>
    <!-- ... other settings ... -->
    <filters>
        <filter id="my_first_filter" name="My first filter" animalType="COW" farmId="1" version="1">
            <group op="AND">
                <condition field="age" cmp=">=" value="60.000000"/>
                <condition field="isPregnant" cmp="==" value="false"/>
            </group>
        </filter>
        <!-- more <filter> entries ... -->
    </filters>
</rm_RlSettings>

Every filter has exactly one root <group>. Group operators can be nested arbitrarily deep, but the in-game editor only shows the conditions directly in the root group. A nested group still loads and runs; the editor hides it, counts it in a banner and keeps it as written.

<filter> attributes

Attribute Required Type Notes
id yes string Stable unique identifier. Any string works; production filters created via the in-game flow use the prefix rlFilter_. Hand-authored ids can be any short slug, e.g. cow_butcher. Must be unique within the file.
name recommended string Display name shown in the in-game cycle chip and lists. Optional: the loader defaults a missing name to an empty string. Only id and the .group subtree are hard requirements.
animalType optional string Scope to a single animal type: COW, SHEEP, PIG, CHICKEN, HORSE, ALPACA and bridge-mod types (for example RABBIT on Witcombe). A type that isn't registered in the current game skips the whole filter (see Validation behaviour). Omit the attribute for global scope (filter shows on every animal-type tab).
farmId optional integer Scope to a single farm by id (1, 2, ...). Omit for global scope (visible to every farm).
usage optional string Controls which screens show the filter: ANY (default), OWNED (owned-herd screens), DEALER (buy screen). Unknown values load as ANY with a warning.
version optional integer Schema version for forward compatibility. Default 1. Leave at 1 unless future docs say otherwise.

A filter with animalType="COW" farmId="1" only appears on Farm 1's cow tab. A filter with both attributes omitted appears everywhere. farmId is immutable once a filter is created through the in-game flow, while the animal type can still be changed in the editor; for hand-authored filters both are honoured as-written each load.

Groups: AND / OR

Every filter has exactly one root <group>. A group has one attribute, op, which is either AND or OR. A group's children are any mix of <condition> and <group> elements:

<group op="AND">
    <condition .../>
    <group op="OR">
        <condition .../>
        <condition .../>
    </group>
</group>

Vacuous truth (important):

  • An empty AND group (<group op="AND"/> with no children) evaluates to true for every animal. Useful as a "match-all" placeholder.
  • An empty OR group evaluates to false for every animal.
  • Any other (non-AND, non-OR) op is treated as false to fail-closed.

There is no NOT operator in the current schema. Negation lives at the condition level via !=, notin, notcontains, or by inverting a bool condition (isPregnant == false).

Conditions

A condition tests a single field against one or more values. There are two shapes depending on the comparator:

Scalar form (one value)

<condition field="age" cmp=">=" value="60.000000"/>
<condition field="gender" cmp="==" value="male"/>
<condition field="isPregnant" cmp="==" value="false"/>
<condition field="name" cmp="notcontains" value="keep"/>

The value attribute is interpreted per the field's type - see the Field reference below.

List form (multiple values, only for in / notin)

<condition field="subType" cmp="in">
    <value value="BULL_HOLSTEIN"/>
    <value value="BULL_SWISS_BROWN"/>
</condition>

Use the list form for in and notin comparators. Each <value> element has a single value attribute. An empty list (no <value> children):

  • in against an empty list -> false (the animal can't be "in" nothing)
  • notin against an empty list -> true (vacuously not-in)

Mixing forms (a value= attribute and <value> children on the same condition) is undefined; the engine reads the form that matches the comparator's expected shape.

Field reference

Field Type Comparators Scope Notes
age number < <= == != >= > in notin all Months, integer in practice.
gender enum == != in notin all Values: male, female (lowercase, internal keys).
isCastrated bool == all true / false.
isPregnant bool == all true / false.
isLactating bool == COW only On every other species the condition is always false, even isLactating == false. Goats (a SHEEP subtype, subType="GOAT") do track lactation internally, but this filter field is scoped to COW, so an isLactating condition always evaluates false for goats.
hasName bool == all True if the animal has a non-empty player-set name.
hasAnyDisease bool == all True if at least one disease is showing symptoms. A cured disease (still counting down its immunity), a genetic carrier state (CVM) and a disease still in its hidden phase on Hard or Very hard do NOT count - those animals match hasAnyDisease == false, the same "Healthy" the quick filter offers. This also steers Herdsman tasks built on this field: a task on it never selects cured animals, hidden cases or CVM carriers, and because a sick animal cannot be sold, a Herdsman Sell task on it sells and marks nothing.
hasAnyMark bool == all True if any mark is active (player-set or Herdsman).
name string contains notcontains all Case-insensitive substring match. Unnamed animals are treated as empty string, so notcontains anything is true for them.
weight number < <= == != >= > in notin all Monitor-gated. Returns no value when the animal's monitor is not active; the condition then evaluates to false.
health number same as weight all Monitor-gated. Same as weight.
genetics.metabolism number (0-99) < <= == != >= > in notin all Scaled to 0-99.
genetics.health number (0-99) same all Scaled to 0-99.
genetics.fertility number (0-99) same all Scaled to 0-99. A castrated male reads 0.
genetics.quality number (0-99) same all Scaled to 0-99.
genetics.productivity number (0-99) same COW, SHEEP, CHICKEN, ALPACA Scaled to 0-99. Other species don't carry productivity, so on them the condition is always false.
genetics.overall number (0-99) same all Average of the present genetics traits, then scaled to 0-99. Matches the on-screen overall genetics number.
subType enum == != in notin all The internal breed/variant string. Examples (vary by map/bridge): COW_HOLSTEIN, BULL_HOLSTEIN, SHEEP_TEXEL, RAM_TEXEL, CHICKEN, CHICKEN_ROOSTER, RABBIT, RABBIT_MALE. To find the exact string for a breed on your map, open rm_RlAnimalSystem.xml and look at the subType="..." attribute on any <animal> entry.

Type rules at a glance:

  • number comparators require numeric values on both sides. Integer or float literals both work in the XML; ages are integer in practice, genetics/weight/health are floats.
  • bool values are the literal strings true / false.
  • enum values are stable lowercase / uppercase internal keys (see notes per field). Enum keys are case-sensitive.
  • string comparators (contains / notcontains) are case-insensitive substring matches.

== and != enforce type strictness: a number-vs-string comparison returns false rather than fail-open, so a non-numeric typo like value="abc" on the age field yields nil and will silently exclude every animal.

Comparators by type

Type Comparators
number < <= == != >= > in notin
bool == only
enum == != in notin
string contains notcontains

in and notin on a number field work in a hand-written filter, but the in-game editor doesn't offer them: it hides such a row, counts it in a banner and keeps it as written.

!= is intentionally absent for bool (use == against the negated value). == and != are intentionally absent for string (the substring matcher is the only intended path; for an exact match, use contains <fullName> on a sufficiently-unique substring).

There is no between operator. Express ranges as AND(field >= low, field <= high).

What each comparator means

Plain-English glosses for each comparator - the same wording the in-game editor now shows as its Compare labels (see the Saved Filters guide), repeated here for quick reference while hand-authoring. In XML the cmp attribute is always the raw symbol in the left column; the editor renders the "Reads as" label for it - except a bool field with == drops the operator entirely in the editor (e.g. Pregnant No, not Pregnant is No).

Comparator Reads as Example
< is less than age < 12
<= is at most age <= 12
== is gender == male
!= is not gender != male
>= is at least age >= 30
> is more than weight > 500
in is one of subType in [BULL_HOLSTEIN, BULL_SWISS_BROWN]
notin is none of subType notin [BULL_HOLSTEIN]
contains contains (case-insensitive) name contains betty
notcontains does not contain (case-insensitive) name notcontains keep

Inside XML attribute values, remember to entity-encode < as &lt; and > as &gt; (see the quick reference card).

Behaviours that catch authors out

Monitor-gated fields silently fail. weight and health only return a value when the animal's monitor is active. If you write <condition field="weight" cmp=">=" value="200"/>, animals without an active monitor never match. Combine with another field if you want a fallback.

name on unnamed animals is the empty string, not nil. This means name notcontains "keep" is true for every unnamed animal - they vacuously do not contain "keep". This is intentional so that herds with mostly-unnamed animals still get filtered sensibly.

hasName and name are independent. hasName == false filters to unnamed animals; name contains "betty" filters to animals named with "betty" anywhere in their name. Use the one that matches your intent.

Empty AND matches everything. A condition that fails to load (unknown field, unknown comparator, etc.) is dropped during load, but the group is preserved. If every condition in an AND group is dropped, you end up with an empty AND that matches every animal. Watch the game log for RLFilterSerialization warnings on first load to catch this.

Genetics are 0-99. Every genetics field reads on the same 0-99 scale you see on the in-game info card, not the game's internal values. genetics.health >= 75 does what you expect.

Filter id collisions silently overwrite. If two <filter> entries share the same id, the second one wins on load. Pick distinct ids.

Validation behaviour

The filter loader is fail-closed: a malformed condition is dropped with a warning, not silently passed through. On first load after editing, watch the game log for warnings like:

Log line Meaning Fix
RLFilterSerialization.readCondition: unknown field 'X' at ...; skipping (fail-closed) Field name doesn't exist in the catalog. Check spelling against the Field reference.
RLFilterSerialization.readCondition: cmp 'X' is not in ... for field 'Y' at ...; skipping Comparator isn't valid for that field's type. Pick a comparator from the field's row in the table.
RLFilterSerialization.readCondition: missing field/cmp at ... (field=... cmp=...); skipping One of the required attributes is absent. Add the missing attribute.
RLFilterSerialization.readFilter: missing id at ...; skipping filter <filter> lacks an id attribute. Add a unique id.
RLFilterSerialization.readFilter: filter id=... names animal type 'X', which is not registered; skipping filter animalType names a type this game doesn't have: a typo, or a map, pack or DLC that isn't active. Fix the spelling, or load the savegame with that content active.
RLFilterSerialization.readFilter: filter id=... at ... has no .group subtree; skipping (corrupt save?) <filter> has no <group> child. Wrap conditions in a <group op="AND">...</group>.

Anything skipped here is not kept: the next save rewrites the file without the dropped condition or filter, so hold on to your backup until the log is clean.

A filter that loads cleanly but matches every animal usually means an empty AND group - see Empty AND matches everything above.

Examples

The filters below are real working examples. Adapt the id, name, animalType, farmId, and the breed strings (subType values) to your own savegame.

1. Cull cattle with poor genetics, or old and not pregnant

<filter id="cow_cull" name="Cow cull" animalType="COW" farmId="1" version="1">
    <group op="OR">
        <condition field="genetics.overall" cmp="&lt;" value="30.000000"/>
        <group op="AND">
            <condition field="age" cmp=">=" value="48.000000"/>
            <condition field="isPregnant" cmp="==" value="false"/>
        </group>
    </group>
</filter>

Selects any animal with overall genetics below 30 (average genetics read about 50), or any animal at least 48 months old and not currently pregnant, so older bulls match too. Note &lt; - the < character must be entity-encoded inside an XML attribute value.

2. Sell chickens for profit, but spare marked birds

<filter id="chicken_sell_profit" name="Sell chickens for profit" animalType="CHICKEN" farmId="1" version="1">
    <group op="AND">
        <condition field="subType" cmp="in">
            <value value="CHICKEN"/>
            <value value="CHICKEN_ROOSTER"/>
        </condition>
        <group op="OR">
            <condition field="age" cmp=">=" value="60.000000"/>
            <group op="AND">
                <condition field="age" cmp=">=" value="6.000000"/>
                <condition field="hasAnyMark" cmp="==" value="false"/>
            </group>
        </group>
    </group>
</filter>

Restricts to base chicken subtypes, then matches anything 60+ months old, or 6+ months old without any mark.

3. Move "any animal called 'keep' should NOT match" to a butcher list

<filter id="cow_butcher" name="Move to butcher" animalType="COW" farmId="1" version="1">
    <group op="AND">
        <condition field="age" cmp=">=" value="12.000000"/>
        <condition field="isPregnant" cmp="==" value="false"/>
        <condition field="hasAnyMark" cmp="==" value="false"/>
        <condition field="name" cmp="notcontains" value="keep"/>
    </group>
</filter>

Cows aged 12+ months, not pregnant, no active marks, with no "keep" substring in their name (case-insensitive). Unnamed cows pass the name check vacuously, so the filter is still useful in mostly-unnamed herds.

4. Find dairy breeding bulls in a specific genetics window

<filter id="dairy_bull_pick" name="Dairy breeding bull" animalType="COW" farmId="1" version="1">
    <group op="AND">
        <condition field="gender" cmp="==" value="male"/>
        <condition field="genetics.overall" cmp=">=" value="80.000000"/>
        <condition field="subType" cmp="in">
            <value value="BULL_HOLSTEIN"/>
            <value value="BULL_SWISS_BROWN"/>
        </condition>
    </group>
</filter>

Bulls (male cows) with overall genetics 80+ and a milk-breed subtype.

5. Match-all (placeholder while you draft)

<filter id="match_all" name="All animals" version="1">
    <group op="AND"/>
</filter>

Empty AND is vacuously true, so this filter matches every animal in scope. Useful as a starting point when iterating: edit the group, reload, test, repeat.

Limitations and notes

  • No NOT operator. Use !=, notin, notcontains, or invert a bool condition.
  • No between operator. Use AND(field >= low, field <= high).
  • No date-based fields. age is months only.
  • Per-mark-kind filtering (player vs. Herdsman mark) is not in this schema; only the generic hasAnyMark is exposed.
  • The subType strings depend on which mods/maps you have installed. When in doubt, copy the exact string from an existing <animal subType="..."/> line in rm_RlAnimalSystem.xml.
  • Multiplayer: filters are server-authoritative. Hand-edits on the host reach clients in the full list sent when they join. A change made in the game afterwards sends only that one filter.

Quick reference card

<rm_RlSettings>
    <filters>
        <filter id="<unique>" name="<display>" animalType="<TYPE>" farmId="<N>" usage="ANY|OWNED|DEALER" version="1">
            <group op="AND|OR">
                <condition field="<key>" cmp="<op>" value="<scalar>"/>
                <condition field="<key>" cmp="in|notin">
                    <value value="<v1>"/>
                    <value value="<v2>"/>
                </condition>
                <group op="AND|OR"> ... </group>
            </group>
        </filter>
    </filters>
</rm_RlSettings>

XML entity reminders inside attribute values: - < -> &lt; - > -> &gt; - & -> &amp; - " -> &quot;