Core concepts
This page defines the terms used across Prophouse and these docs. The same words appear in the desktop app, the web library, the Unreal plugin, the MCP tools and the REST API, so learning them once pays off everywhere.
Workspace and people
Section titled “Workspace and people”Workspace. Your studio’s or team’s account. A workspace has one library, one plan and one set of members. Each account belongs to one workspace. The workspace’s slug is part of its library address, https://<slug>.prophouse.dev.
Library. Everything your workspace has pushed: props, their versions and their files, plus the tags, collections, reviews and comments around them. The desktop app calls it the Cloud Library to distinguish it from the Local Library on your machine.
Member and role. Everyone in a workspace is a member with one of three roles:
| Role | What it adds |
|---|---|
owner |
The person who created the workspace. Everything an admin can do, plus deleting the workspace and accessing library exports. |
admin |
Manages members, invites, billing and workspace settings. Is a library admin: can deprecate or delete props and use the Admin area. |
member |
Uses the library. |
API key. A credential (ph_live_…) that lets a tool act on your workspace. Keys are either read or write scoped. Device sign-in in the desktop app and Unreal plugin creates one for you. See API keys.
Props, versions and lineage
Section titled “Props, versions and lineage”Prop (entry). One browsable item in the library: a mesh, blueprint, material, texture, audio clip, VFX system and so on. The MCP tools call it a prop; the REST API and parts of the UI call it an entry. Each prop has a name, a type, a category, tags, a thumbnail and a current version. Entry types the Unreal plugin emits today are mesh, blueprint, skeletal_mesh, texture, material, vfx, audio, animation and sequence.
Object (version). One exact, immutable saved file, identified by the SHA-256 hash of its bytes. Pushing a changed asset creates a new object; pushing identical bytes again reuses the existing one. Objects include dependency-only assets that are not props themselves, such as the textures behind a material.
Lineage. The chain of versions of one asset over time. Every object belongs to a lineage, and each prop follows exactly one lineage. The Unreal plugin stamps pushed and pulled assets with their lineage, so when you edit a pulled asset and push it back, Prophouse records it as a new version of the same prop instead of a new prop.
Version history. The lineage shown as a graph of versions with their parent, publisher and date. You find it on a prop’s History tab. You can pull or restore any earlier version.
Face version (current version). The version a prop currently shows and delivers by default: its thumbnail, metadata, search ranking and pulls all come from the face. A push of a new version moves the face forward. Restoring an earlier version moves the face back to it without deleting anything.
Variant. Two related ideas. A version can carry a variant label inside a lineage (for example a recolor published as a tweak of the original). A variant group ties separate props together as alternatives of each other (for example Crate_A, Crate_B, Crate_C), so the library can show them as siblings.
Deprecated. Admins can mark a prop deprecated. It is hidden from browse and search by default but stays linkable and can still be pulled (with a warning). A prop that has ever been pulled cannot be deleted, only deprecated, so nobody’s project loses its source.
Organizing the library
Section titled “Organizing the library”Pack. A named group of props, usually the pack or kit the assets came from. You choose a pack when you push. A prop’s pack is the pack its current version came from.
Category. A classification assigned automatically when a prop is indexed. You can override it with Edit category…; a manually set category is locked so it is not re-derived.
Tag. A label you create and apply to any number of props. Tag names are unique regardless of case, and tags can have a color.
Collection. A hand-picked set of props. Removing a prop from a collection, or deleting the collection, never deletes the prop. A whole collection can be pulled as one job.
Delivering props
Section titled “Delivering props”Dependencies and closure. A prop’s closure is everything it needs to load: its materials, their textures, referenced blueprints and so on, followed all the way down. Pushes upload the full closure, and pulls deliver it, so a pulled prop never arrives with missing references. A prop’s Dependencies tab shows the closure and the reverse view, Used by, which lists the props that depend on it.
Project. A named pull target, matching an Unreal project (by default the .uproject name). Projects are created the first time you pull into a new name and remember a default destination folder.
Pull job. A request to deliver one or more props (or a collection) into a project under a destination root, /Game/Prophouse by default. The full closure is resolved when the job is created, so later pushes never change what a queued job delivers. The Unreal plugin for that project picks up the job and places the files. Jobs appear under Pull Jobs in the desktop app and web library and under Pending imports in the plugin’s Prophouse panel.
Collaboration
Section titled “Collaboration”Check-out lock. An exclusive claim on a prop’s lineage that says “I am working on this”. While you hold the lock, nobody else can push a new version of that prop. Locks expire after 72 hours by default. Taking and releasing a lock needs a connection. See Collaboration.
Review. Review state lives on a specific version: Draft, In review, Changes requested or Approved. A review request asks up to 20 reviewers to look at one version; any Changes requested response wins, and the round completes when everyone approves. Pushing a new version puts the prop back to Draft, because the new version has not been reviewed.
Comments and annotations. Discussion on a prop, optionally pinned to a version, with replies, @mentions, image attachments and markup. Comments can be resolved.
Watch and notifications. Watching a prop sends its activity to your Inbox.
Thumbnail. The still image shown for a prop, rendered by the Unreal editor when you push.
Preview. An interactive view of the prop on its detail page: a 3D model you can orbit, an image, or an audio player, depending on the asset. 3D previews are generated separately from the push by an Unreal editor running the plugin, so a new prop can show only its thumbnail for a while.