Documents Hytale's prefab system for creating, saving, loading, and managing reusable structures via in-game commands. Use when creating prefabs, saving structures, loading prefabs, editing prefab worlds, or working with reusable structures. Triggers - prefab, prefab system, /prefab, /editprefab, reusable structure, structure, save structure, load structure, prefab world, prefab editing, prefab commands, paste brush, selection brush.
Hytale Prefabs
Reference for Hytale's prefab system — creating, saving, loading, and managing reusable structures via in-game commands.
Source:https://hytalemodding.dev/en/docs/guides/prefabsRelated skills: For spawning entities within prefabs, see hytale-spawning-entities. For world generation with prefabs, see hytale-world-gen.
Quick Reference
Task
Approach
Create a new prefab world
/editprefab new <world_name>
Save a prefab
/prefab save (use selection brush first)
Load a prefab
/prefab load
List all prefabs
/prefab list
Delete a prefab
/prefab delete
Exit prefab editing world
/editprefab exit
Select a prefab area
Use the selection brush in the editing world
Paste a prefab
Use the Paste brush, press E to select from menu
See command options
Append --help to any command (e.g., /prefab save --help)
Key Concepts
Prefab editing world — A dedicated world created for building and editing prefabs. Created with /editprefab new.
Prefabs — Physical structures saved as JSON files. A single editing world can contain multiple prefabs.
Selection brush — In-game tool used to select the area to save as a prefab.
Paste brush — In-game tool used to place saved prefabs. Press E to open the selection menu.
Basic Workflow
/editprefab new my_prefab_world — Create a new prefab editing world
Build the structure you want in the editing world
Use the selection brush to select the area
/prefab save — Save the selected area as a prefab
/editprefab exit — Exit the editing world
Use the Paste brush, press E to select the prefab from the "server" dropdown (top-right of menu)
Commands
/prefab
Manages prefab files on disk.
Subcommand
Description
save
Saves the prefab to the file system
load
Loads a prefab into the game
delete
Deletes the prefab from the file system
list
Lists all prefabs in the file system
/editprefab
Manages the physical structure editing workflow.
Subcommand
Description
new
Creates a new prefab editing world from scratch
load
Creates a new editing world with an existing prefab pasted in
exit
Exits the current prefab editing world
select
Selects the prefab area the user is looking at (within 200 blocks)
save
Saves the current prefab using the existing or selected area
saveui
Opens the save UI for managing all prefabs in the current world
saveas
Saves the selected prefab into a new file
kill
Despawns all entities in the currently selected prefab
setbox
Sets the bounding box of the currently selected prefab
info
Shows information about the currently selected prefab
tp
Opens teleport UI to jump to a prefab in the current editing world
modified
Lists all modified prefabs with unsaved changes
Use --help at the end of any command to see all available options (e.g., /editprefab save --help).
Known Issues
After saving edits to an existing prefab, the prefab may not reflect changes immediately. Workaround: exit and re-enter the world.
When pasting a prefab, it may not always display accurately. Workaround: press T to toggle the material view; usually at least one view is correct.
/prefab delete may error with Assert not in thread.
Edge Cases & Gotchas
The world name in /editprefab new <world_name> is the world name, not the prefab name. Worlds can contain multiple prefabs.
Saved prefabs appear in the "server" dropdown of the Paste brush menu (top-right).
Prefabs are saved as JSON files to the server file system.
This is primarily a command-based workflow — there is currently no public Java API for programmatic prefab manipulation from plugins.
