JBurlison 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/prefabs Related skills: For spawning entities within prefabs, see
hytale-spawning-entities. For world generation with prefabs, seehytale-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
Eto 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
Eto 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
--helpat 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
Tto toggle the material view; usually at least one view is correct. /prefab deletemay error withAssert 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.