To stop mods from breaking in Skyrim Anniversary Edition, Bethesda gave developer extrwi early access, letting them prepare an SKSE update before the new version of the game went out en masse. Now you can update Skyrim while keeping SkyUI, letting you use a whole host of other dependant mods.
Skyrim launched in 2011 to resounding success, immediately building one of the most active and dedicated modding communities across the internet. It was succeeded in 2016 by the Special Edition which broke SKSE and subsequently SkyUI, two of the major building blocks to various fan-favourite mods.
There was a wilderness period where it didn't look as though SKSE would ever come to Special Edition, leading to numerous prolific modders cobbling together makeshift workarounds with in-game UI and assets. Mods that were once dependant on SkyUI's dedicated menu were being built as spells that conjured up cluttered, hard-to-navigate prompts. It was patchwork, but at least it worked. Regardless, we're avoiding that tedious headache this time around.
"In an attempt to avert the part of the modpocalypse that I can control, I've been spending all of my free time for the last week and a half or so getting this ready and just made it about an hour before the update was pushed," extrwi said on Reddit. "Thanks to Bethesda for giving me early access to AE so I could get this ready."
It's a "preliminary build" in that the hooks and Papyrus extensions are working while the plugin manager is missing. Extrwi has to "rewrite the system that handles plugin compatibility checks." In fact, a lot has to be rewritten, so this updated version of SKSE comes with a warning - it might be a bit buggy. But it's a Bethesda game so that's what we've come to expect anyway, aye?
Importantly, this means SkyUI - the more PC-friendly user interface and menus mod - works with the Anniversary Edition. We gave it a try for a couple of hours and only ran into one issue - a slightly laggier mod menu. The actual inventory systems are all as before. Given that, other SKSE dependant mods will likely work as well, likely being the operative word.