The Code Editor

The Code Editor is a tab docked inside the Blueprint editor. Each open Blueprint editor gets its own independent instance, so the code you see always belongs to the graph you are looking at.

Opening and closing

• Toggle Code Editor button on the Blueprint editor toolbar, or Alt + C, shows or hides the tab.
• It also appears in the Blueprint editor’s Window menu as Code Editor.
• The tab is a singleton per Blueprint editor: toggling it again hides the same instance rather than spawning a second one.

How it follows your selection

The editor listens to node selection in the focused Blueprint graph. Select a node backed by a C++ UFUNCTION and the editor resolves that function’s source and loads it.

Select node  →  resolve UFUNCTION  →  read .h declaration + .cpp implementation

By default functions load in isolation: you see just the selected function rather than the entire file. This keeps the panes focused on the code behind the node you clicked.

Note

Select a different node and the panes refresh to that function. Any unsaved changes are tracked per function, so save before you switch if you want to keep edits.

The two panes

A pair of tab buttons at the top of the editor switch the active view:

| Pane | File | Shows | | --- | --- | --- | | Implementation | .cpp | The function body. This is the default view. | | Declaration | .h | The function signature (and its UFUNCTION macro). |

Both panes are full code editors with syntax highlighting, find and replace, go to line, and completion. Most day-to-day editing happens in Implementation; switch to Declaration when you want to read or tweak the signature or run Generate Definition.

Saving and building

| Action | Shortcut | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | | Save | Ctrl + S | Writes both panes’ changes to the .h / .cpp files on disk. | | Save and Build | Ctrl + Shift + B | Saves, then triggers a Live Coding compile so the change hot-reloads. |

A modified indicator (a small filled dot, gold by default) appears on a pane that has unsaved changes, and the Save buttons enable only when there is something to save.

1. Edit in either pane.

2. Save (Ctrl + S) to persist, or Save and Build (Ctrl + Shift + B) to persist and recompile.

3. After a Live Coding build completes, the new code is live in the editor.

Read-only files

If a function resolves to precompiled engine source (or a file the OS reports as read-only), the editor opens it read-only. You can read and copy the code and ask the AI about it, but you cannot save changes back to it. This is deliberate: the plugin will not let you edit engine source you cannot rebuild.

The AI panel

A collapsible AI assistant panel is built into the editor and starts collapsed. Expand it to chat about the current function. It is covered in detail in AI Assistant.

Tip

Edited a file outside Unreal while the tab was open? The editor detects when the code changed on disk so the panes don’t silently overwrite newer changes. If in doubt, reselect the node to reload fresh.