<!-- generated by build_articles.py — edit content/answers/search-unity-project-assets.md instead -->
---
title: "Search Unity scenes and the C# beside them"
canonical: "https://xerj.org/answers/search-unity-project-assets"
updated: "2026-08-21"
source: "content/answers/search-unity-project-assets.md"
---

# How do I search Unity YAML scenes and the C# that references them as one project?

**TL;DR** — Run `xerj autoindex` on the project folder. XERJ detects the `unity` and `unity-meta` families and extracts `m_Name`, `unity_class` and `guid`. One `bool` query joined an asset to its `.meta` document and returned 3 documents across 2 families.

## Agent prompt

```text
Act as a coding agent. Read https://xerj.org/llms.txt, install the latest XERJ and start a node, run xerj autoindex on a Unity project folder with --prefix unity, list the indices it created, then find one GameObject by m_Name and join one asset to its .meta record with a bool should query on asset_path and ax_path.
```

## Commands

### Command 1

Note: Index the Unity project folder into unity-* indices.

```sh
xerj autoindex ./unity --url http://127.0.0.1:9480 --prefix unity --state-dir ./state-unity --progress plain --disable-feedback
```

### Command 2

Note: Read the fields XERJ extracted before you write a query against them.

```sh
curl -s -XGET 'http://127.0.0.1:9480/unity-*/_mapping'
```

### Command 3

Note: Find one scene object by the name Unity wrote into the scene file.

```sh
curl -s -XPOST 'http://127.0.0.1:9480/unity-*/_search' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"query":{"term":{"m_Name":"QuokkaSpawner"}},"size":5,"track_total_hits":true}'
```

## Index the project folder

Install the latest XERJ first. Point `xerj autoindex` at the Unity project. XERJ decides each file's family from its content, so no per-extension configuration exists to write.

```sh
xerj autoindex ./unity --url http://127.0.0.1:9480 --prefix unity --state-dir ./state-unity --progress plain --disable-feedback
```

The run wrote 1 file document per file, plus the extracted content documents. Read the catalog if you want the per-file view.

| path | family | status | `records` |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `Assets/PlayerController.cs` | `code` | indexed | 1 |
| `Assets/PlayerController.cs.meta` | `unity-meta` | indexed | 1 |
| `Assets/Scenes/Main.unity` | `unity` | indexed | 2 |

## One index per Unity class

XERJ does not put a scene into a single index. Each Unity class in the scene gets its own index, named after the dataset path and the class.

```text
unity-assets-scenes-gameobject
unity-assets-scenes-occlusioncullingsettings
unity-docs
```

`unity-docs` holds the `.meta` documents and the C# source. The 2 scene indices hold 1 document per object in the scene, and their mappings differ because their Unity classes differ.

## Find a scene object by its Unity name

A `term` query on `m_Name` locates a single object in the scene.

```sh
curl -s -XPOST 'http://127.0.0.1:9480/unity-*/_search' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"query":{"term":{"m_Name":"QuokkaSpawner"}},"size":5,"track_total_hits":true}'
```

```json
{"_index":"unity-assets-scenes-gameobject",
 "_source":{"unity_class":"GameObject","unity_class_id":1,"file_id":519420028,
            "m_Name":"QuokkaSpawner","m_TagString":"Untagged","m_IsActive":1,
            "ax_path":"Assets/Scenes/Main.unity","ax_locator":"u519420028"}}
```

`ax_locator` carries the Unity `fileID` prefixed with `u`. That value is how you point a human or an agent back at the exact object inside the scene file.

## What a `.meta` file becomes

Every `.meta` file lands in the `unity-meta` family with its importer settings flattened into fields.

```json
{"guid":"8f3c1d2e4b5a6c7d8e9f0a1b2c3d4e5f",
 "asset_name":"PlayerController.cs",
 "asset_path":"Assets/PlayerController.cs",
 "importer":"MonoImporter",
 "fileFormatVersion":2,
 "MonoImporter_executionOrder":0,
 "ax_path":"Assets/PlayerController.cs.meta","ax_locator":"meta"}
```

A `term` query on `guid` returns that document directly. XERJ indexes the GUID as a value; it does not resolve GUID references between assets for you.

## Join an asset to its metadata

`asset_path` on the `.meta` document holds the same string as `ax_path` on the asset itself. One `bool` `should` query therefore returns both sides of the pair.

```sh
curl -s -XPOST 'http://127.0.0.1:9480/unity-*/_search' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"query":{"bool":{"should":[{"term":{"asset_path":"Assets/PlayerController.cs"}},{"term":{"ax_path":"Assets/PlayerController.cs"}}],"minimum_should_match":1}},"size":20,"track_total_hits":true}'
```

The capture returned 3 documents across 2 families.

| `ax_path` | `ax_format` | `ax_locator` |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `Assets/PlayerController.cs.meta` | `unity-meta` | `meta` |
| `Assets/PlayerController.cs` | `code` | `file` |
| `Assets/PlayerController.cs` | `code` | `code` |

The importer settings and the parsed C# symbols arrive in one response. You configure no join key anywhere, because the provenance fields carry it.

## There is no `body` field on a scene document

The scene indices carry typed Unity fields and nothing else. A `match` query on `body` against `unity-assets-scenes-*` returns 0 hits, so read `_mapping` before you write a query.

```sh
curl -s -XGET 'http://127.0.0.1:9480/unity-*/_mapping'
```

## What the capture was

One single-node XERJ process and 3 generated fixture files totalling 789 bytes. Our fixture generator wrote those files to the real on-disk Unity formats, and no Unity editor produced them. Read the field names as real and the project size as a demonstration.

## FAQ

### How do I search a Unity project's assets?

Run `xerj autoindex` on the project folder. XERJ detects `.unity` scenes and `.meta` files as their own families and extracts typed fields from both.

### How do I search Unity scenes and the C# in the same project?

Run one `autoindex` over the project root. Scene and `.meta` files get the Unity families and `.cs` files are parsed as source code, so both land under one index prefix.

### Unity YAML is unreadable. How do I search it?

The scene is split into one index per Unity class with typed fields instead of raw YAML. A `term` on `m_Name` matched `QuokkaSpawner` and returned `unity_class`, `unity_class_id`, `file_id` and `m_TagString`.

### How do I find every prefab that references a script?

XERJ indexes the `guid` field on the `.meta` document, and it does not resolve a GUID reference to the asset it names. Our capture joined an asset to its own `.meta` record by path and did not verify a prefab-to-script lookup.

### What indices does a Unity scene create?

One per Unity class in the scene. Our 1-scene fixture created `unity-assets-scenes-gameobject` and `unity-assets-scenes-occlusioncullingsettings`.

### Can I join an asset to its .meta file?

Yes. The `.meta` document carries `asset_path`, and the asset document carries the same value in `ax_path`. One `bool` `should` query returns both.

### Does the unity family produce a body field?

No. The scene indices carry typed Unity fields such as `m_Name` and `unity_class`, so a `match` query on `body` returns 0 hits against them.

## Related

- [How do I find every place a config key is set across YAML and XML in a repo?](/answers/search-yaml-xml-config-repository)
- [How do I stop my agent from reading the whole repo into context?](/answers/index-monorepo-for-agent)
- [How should an agent figure out what's in a messy data folder before searching?](/answers/catalog-files-with-autoindex-map)