Pins

Level Pins are spatial annotations for Editor review work. They can capture a title, body, tags, type, Open or Resolved status, assignee, comments, position, an optional saved viewport view, and one optional Snapshot without becoming part of the map.

Storage and map safety

Scope	Storage	Source-control behavior
Shared	`<Project>/ProjectPins/`	Uses the active Unreal source-control provider when available
Private	`<Project>/Saved/Locus/PrivatePins/`	Never queries or changes the provider

Each Pin is an external .locuspin file. A Pin is not an Actor, Component, UAsset, package, map metadata, runtime object, or cooked-data owner. Creating, moving, editing, or deleting a Pin does not by itself dirty the map package.

Browse Pins

Current Map shows Pins associated with the currently resolved saved map.
All Maps groups project Pins by map without loading those maps.

Combine the All/Shared/Private scope filter with search, tags, and compact Type, Status, and Assignee filters. Pin Types are Default, Important, Issue, Info, and Success, each with a distinct glyph and color. Status is independently Open or Resolved, with one contextual Resolve or Reopen action. Shared Pins can be assigned through the searchable People Picker; Me uses Your Display Name, while Private Pins remain Unassigned. Sort by Created, Name, Updated, or Map and reverse direction when needed.

Pins remain separate from the map they reference. Duplicating a map does not duplicate or retarget Pins. If a map moves, Locus may resolve an Asset Registry redirect, but it does not silently rewrite every Pin file.

Place a Pin

Open and save the target level first. Persistent Pins are unavailable for an unsaved or transient world.

Place Pin (Ctrl+Alt+P) places one Pin. Your next click on a valid surface creates the Pin and ends Place Pin. A click that finds no valid surface keeps placement armed. Press Ctrl+Alt+P again or Esc to cancel.
Placement Mode in the Pins workspace is continuous: each valid surface click creates a Pin until you select Placement Mode again or press Esc.
Add Pin in the Pins workspace creates a Pin without a viewport click.
Locus > Create Pin Here in the Level Editor viewport context menu creates a Pin at the clicked location.

While Place Pin, Placement Mode, or Move Pin is active, the viewport shows a clear indicator naming the active state; Place Pin and Placement Mode also show the Shared or Private creation scope. Placement also ends when you change maps, start Play or Simulate, or hide Level Pins.

Ctrl+Click is native Unreal viewport selection. Locus no longer uses it to place Pins.

The creation area combines a Shared/Private scope, optional Pin Preset, and the Viewport menu. Presets are personal to the user and project and contain only a Pin Type and tags. They apply only to future Pins created through Add Pin, Place Pin (Ctrl+Alt+P), Placement Mode, or Locus > Create Pin Here.

Select the Pin in the viewport or workspace to edit its metadata and comments. Comments show the configured display-name author and local time. They are a flat chronological record: existing comments cannot be edited or deleted, and there are no threads, reactions, mentions, or notifications.

The Pin Tags field uses the same chip editor as Notes. Type a tag and press Enter to add it, or select × on a chip to remove that tag. Empty tags and case-insensitive duplicates are rejected, and batch Add Tag and Remove Tag follow the same tag rules.

Viewport quick actions

Select an active saved Pin in the viewport to show compact quick actions on the Pin:

Click the status segment to Resolve or Reopen the Pin directly.
Open More Actions to Change Type, Assign the Pin, or Open Details in the Pins workspace.
Choose Take Note to open Quick Capture with the Pin attached as a reference. The new Note is independent of the Pin and its comments; a Private Pin can be referenced only from a Private Note.

These compact actions are the Pin’s action surface; right-clicking the Pin does not open a Pin action menu. Quick actions use the same edit, checkout, and read-only safeguards as the Pins workspace.

Edit multiple Pins

Ctrl/Shift-click to select several Pins, then use Status, Type, Assign, Add Tag, or Remove Tag in the selection panel or the list’s Bulk Actions menu. Fields whose values differ across the selection show Mixed. The selection is kept after these non-destructive edits, so you can apply several changes in a row. Delete Selected Pins remains a separate action that asks for confirmation.

Batch edits follow the same safety rules as single-Pin edits. They are unavailable when any selected Pin cannot be edited or checked out, and controlled Shared Pins are checked out through the normal provider workflow before they change. Batch actions do not convert Pins between Shared and Private, and Assign offers the available assignee choices rather than free-text entry.

Position and saved views

Drag the anchor to change its position in three axes.
Drag the marker head vertically to adjust its height.
Press End to snap the selected anchor downward to a surface.
Press F to focus the selected Pin.
Capture View stores the current Editor viewport view with the Pin; Restore View returns to it when one has been captured.
Move Pin places the selected Pin again with the next valid surface click and ends after a successful move. It can change the Pin’s owning level. If the selected Pin is lost while Move Pin is active, Move Pin ends without creating a new Pin.

Each Pin can also store one viewport Snapshot. Capture from an available perspective Level Editor viewport, open the larger Pin Snapshot preview from its thumbnail or image affordance, and use Update Snapshot or Clear Snapshot as allowed. Shared snapshots are separate source-control-aware image files; Private snapshots remain local beneath Saved. Deleting a Pin removes its snapshot.

Selected Locus Pin with viewport marker, anchor, and details panel in a saved map — A selected Level Pin connects its viewport marker and anchor to the editable Pin details.

Edits save automatically. Press Ctrl+S to flush or retry a save.

Classic streaming sublevels

Level Pins understand classic streaming sublevels:

Interactive placement follows Unreal’s current level. Pins placed in the persistent (main) level behave as before.
A Pin owned by a classic streaming sublevel follows that level’s Editor visibility, so it is hidden while its owning level is hidden or unloaded.
A locked current sublevel refuses placement. A hidden current sublevel can still receive a Pin; Locus shows a notice, and the Pin stays hidden until the level is shown.
The Pins workspace shows the Owning Level of sublevel-owned Pins.
Move Pin can change the owning level. Ordinary dragging and End snapping keep the current owner.
Go to Pin moves the camera only; it does not change level visibility, loading, or the current level.
Pin anchors stay in world space. Moving or transforming a sublevel does not move its Pins.
Add Pin creates persistent-level Pins, and the MCP locus.create_pin tool creates only persistent-level Pins.
Level Instance Pin ownership is not supported.

Viewport presentation

Open Viewport to control Show Level Pins, Show Filtered Pins Only, Title Visibility, and Occlusion. Show Filtered Pins Only is off by default and mirrors the current map, scope, search, tags, Type, Status, and Assignee result; sorting does not change membership and selected or Review Pins do not bypass the filter.

Title display supports Always, Selected, Hovered, Nearby, and Adaptive behavior. Occlusion choices are Always Visible, Scene Depth, Line of Sight, Selected Through Geometry, and Reduced Opacity. Line of Sight is the default collision-trace mode. Scene Depth allows visible scene geometry to occlude the complete marker and title while selected and active Review Pins remain foregrounded.

Personal Pins settings control nearby-title distance, maximum marker height, marker and connector presentation, and placement animation. These preferences affect only Editor presentation; they do not alter maps or the authoritative Pin content. See Settings.

The most useful visual controls are Glow Strength for additional luminous energy, Connector Thickness for the persistent core, and Line and Ring Color Mode for semantic or custom accents.

Search, duplicate, and delete

Search and filters narrow Pins by their user-facing fields and map/scope context. Ctrl+D duplicates the selected Pin. Delete requests permanent deletion and requires confirmation. Unreal undo cannot restore a deleted external Pin file.

Review N starts Level Review over the current filtered result, beginning with the current selection when it belongs to that set. Previous Pin and Next Pin traverse cyclically; Exit Review keeps the current selection. Current Map Review ends if the root map changes. All Maps Review confirms cross-map navigation with Open Level, Skip Pin, or Cancel. Review state is session-only.

Recovery and conflicts

Recovery snapshots are stored beneath <Project>/Saved/ProjectPins/Recovery/ for Shared Pins and <Project>/Saved/Locus/Recovery/PrivatePins/ for Private Pins. Recovery actions include restoring, restoring as a new Pin, and discarding the snapshot.

If a .locuspin changes externally while local edits are pending, Locus blocks silent replacement and offers safe conflict actions such as reloading disk or saving local work as a new Pin. See Troubleshooting.

Source control

A new Shared Pin remains local and Untracked until you explicitly choose Mark for Add; eligible multi-selected Shared Pins can be added together. After submission, changing a controlled Shared Pin requests checkout automatically and mutates only after checkout succeeds. Shared snapshot images have their own Mark for Add or Check Out state.

Private Pins remain user-local and have zero provider interaction. They do not require Mark for Add or Check Out. Local and untracked Pins remain editable in Local Mode when no provider is configured, and the workspace omits source-control-specific UI. Locus does not submit files, sync, manage changelists, or change typemaps. See Source Control.

Responsive layout

Toolbar actions move progressively into the ellipsis menu as space narrows; the scope filter becomes a compact menu, metadata stacks vertically, Snapshot thumbnails reduce before becoming an icon, and Sort yields the footer to active Review controls. At extreme narrow widths, the list and details become a master/detail view with Back to Pins navigation. Comment cards and the composer wrap to keep actions reachable.

Current limitations

A saved top-level world is required for persistent placement.
Level Instance Pin ownership is not supported.
Map duplication does not clone or retarget Pins.
Snapshot capture requires an available perspective Level Editor viewport and is unavailable during PIE.
Comments cannot be edited or deleted.
Batch edits cannot change Shared/Private scope and are unavailable when any selected Pin cannot be edited or checked out.
Provider and complex-world workflows outside the currently validated release matrix should be verified by the project before relying on them.