The script presented in this guide was not created, nor is it maintained, by me. Credit for the script goes to Misunderstood Wookie and their guide The Reliable Guide to make Workshop Mods Work on Dedicated Servers, for which the script was initial created. The script presented here has been modified (minorly) to suit the need of this guide and is hosted and posted with permission.

Mods on the stable Starbound workshop were created using the stable game as a base. As patches to Starbound - Unstable can make drastic changes to the core assets, some, many, or all mods on the workshop could potentially be incompatible. Any user making use of this guide is expected to have an understanding of the starbound.log file and how to use it to determine crashes due to mods. The author of this guide takes no responsibility for mods causing your Unstable to become MORE unstable.

The easiest way to get Unstable to recognize stable workshop mods is through liberal use of Symbolic Links[en.wikipedia.org]. For a simple explanation, a symbolic link (or symlink) creates a file that leads back to another file, but to the reading program (in this case Starbound) the symlink IS the file; for a better and more in-depth explanation, please see the provided link.

For this method, you will need to download a modified version of Misunderstood Wookie's "Starbound Workshop Easy Linker" script. You can find the version modified for this guide HERE.[drive.google.com]
NOTICE: This guide and script use the Windows 7 default folder structure.
If you use an OS that uses different folders, or you have somehow changed these locations, you will have to modify the script to suit your needs.

1. Install Starbound
   
2. Install Starbound - Unstable
   
3. Go through the Starbound workshop and install any mods that you want in Unstable.
   
4. Start Starbound and click the gear icon found in the bottom right corner (if the main menu is not modded) to ensure that the mods have installed and that the stable game boots properly with the selected mods.
   
   • If the mods do not show up in the in-game list, restart Steam. Occasionally, Steam will (for reasons beyond imagination) not distribute mods without a restart.
     
   • If the stable game crashes during boot after installing mods, you have an incompatibility. Use the tools you have and your brain to find the incompatibility.
5. Right-click on SWEL.bat, the Starbound Workshop Easy Linker script, and "Run As Administrator".
   
   • If you have disabled Windows UAC[en.wikipedia.org] settings, you likely won't need to grant admin and can just double-click away.
6. After SWEL finishes its clever boot sequence, select option #1.
   
   • If you get any errors at this point, either you didn't run as administrator, you CAN'T run as administrator, or you have different mod/workshop folders and need to adjust the script for your setup.
7. After the links are created, hit #3 and enjooy your modded Starbound - Unstable!
   
   
   Advantages of Symlinks
   • No need to manually move or rename files.
     
   • Workshop updates are delivered automatically.
   
   
   Disadvantages of Symlinks
   • Stable Starbound must remain installed and all mods must remain subscribed, meaning two effective installations of Starbound.
     
   • Administrator rights required for the computer you are playing on.