Documentation

Hierarchy Notes 1.0 · Unity 2021.3 LTS → Unity 6.3 · Editor-only, all render pipelines

Adding and editing notes

Right-click a GameObject — in the Hierarchy or directly in the Scene View (on Unity 2021.3–2023.1, use Ctrl+Right-Click in the Scene View; on 2023.2+ the entries are part of the native right-click menu) — and choose Hierarchy Notes → Add or Edit Note, or press Ctrl+Alt+N with the object selected. Type your note (Shift+Enter inserts a line break), pick a status, and save (Ctrl+Enter also works). Clicking outside the note window saves it, like a sticky note; Escape cancels without saving. The window is freely resizable and remembers its size.

Remarks

Below the note, the Remarks field holds longer details — implementation notes, tested values, links, anything too verbose for a label. Remarks are never shown in the Scene View or the Hierarchy: they live only in the edit window and the Overview, where entries with remarks display a ¶ marker (hover it to preview). Think of it as: note = what everyone sees at a glance, remarks = the fine print.

Statuses: TODO WIP BROKEN FINAL — each tints the Hierarchy row and shows a badge. Hover the note icon to read the note; click it to edit. Remove a note via Hierarchy Notes → Remove Note or the X button in the Overview.

Every operation supports Undo (Ctrl+Z).

Scene View labels

Annotated objects show a floating label in the Scene View — no selection required. Labels display up to four lines of the note (long lines are truncated with "…"); the full text is always available in the tooltip. Remarks never appear in the Scene View. Labels beyond a configurable distance from the camera are hidden.

Drag a label to reposition it. The offset is stored in world space, so the layout stays consistent as you orbit the camera, with a leader line back to the object.
Click a label to edit the note.
Right-click a label for Reset Position and Edit Note.

Toggle labels via Window → Hierarchy Notes → Show Notes in Scene View or in Preferences.

By default, labels and their leader lines anchor to the visual center of the mesh (combined renderer bounds, children included) rather than the transform pivot — imported FBX models often have their pivot at the model origin, which would otherwise send leader lines to the ground. This can be disabled in Preferences (Anchor labels to mesh center). The default screen offset of labels and their font size (8–32) are also configurable there.

The Overview panel

Open Window → Hierarchy Notes → Overview. It lists every note in the project, grouped by scene and by prefab, with search and a status filter. Per entry:

Ping / Open — the navigation button adapts to context, so you can move between scenes and prefabs without ever touching the Project window. Open (on a prefab note) opens the prefab in isolation, then pings and selects the annotated object inside. Ping on a prefab note whose stage is already open pings it within the stage; on a scene note it pings the object in the scene — and if a prefab is currently open, it first returns to the scene (same as the Hierarchy back arrow, with Unity's native save dialog if the prefab has unsaved changes), then pings the object.
Edit opens the note editor; X deletes the note.
Relink appears on orphaned notes (greyed out, in italics) and rebinds the note to the currently selected object.
Clean missing removes entries whose object no longer exists, with a confirmation if some are still relinkable.
Entries with remarks show a ¶ marker next to the note preview — hover it to read them. The search field matches both note text and remarks.

Prefab Mode

Notes created in Prefab Mode belong to the prefab asset, not to scene instances. They are visible while editing the prefab and in the Overview (grouped under [Prefab]); scene instances of the prefab do not display them.

Prefab notes are identified by the prefab's GUID plus the object's path inside the prefab. Renaming the prefab file is safe; renaming an object inside the prefab orphans its note (relink it from the Overview).

Instance indicators

When a prefab asset contains notes, every scene instance of that prefab shows a compact indicator on its root row in the Hierarchy: one small vertical bar per status present (fixed order: BROKEN TODO WIP FINAL) and a counter with the total number of notes ("3", "9+"). Hover for a detailed breakdown; click to open the prefab in isolation. The indicator never collides with a note placed directly on the instance — both can coexist on the same row. Toggle it in Preferences (Show prefab note indicators in Hierarchy).

Storage & teams

All notes live in a single asset: Assets/HierarchyNotes/HierarchyNotesData.asset. No components are ever added to your GameObjects — prefabs, builds and version control stay clean. Commit the asset to share notes with your team. Visual preferences (colors, label size, toggles) are per-user and are not committed.

Settings

Open Edit → Preferences → Hierarchy Notes:

General: Scene View labels on/off, max display distance, auto-relink toggle, prefab note indicators on/off, Scene View context menu via Ctrl+Right-Click (Unity 2021.3–2023.1 only; on 2023.2+ the entries are part of Unity's native context menu), quick access to the Overview.
Appearance: Custom color per status, Hierarchy row tint opacity, badge and icon visibility, Scene View label font size (8–32), screen offset and background opacity, mesh-center anchoring on/off, reset to defaults.

Troubleshooting

A note disappeared after I turned an object into a prefab

Converting an object to a prefab changes its internal identifier. Hierarchy Notes detects this and automatically relinks the note when there is exactly one safe match. Auto-relink only applies within a few seconds of the note becoming orphaned — older orphans never rebind automatically and stay listed as (orphan) in the Overview, where you can relink them manually.

An old note attached itself to a new object

This was possible in early versions and is prevented by the auto-relink grace window. If you prefer, disable auto-relink entirely in Preferences and use manual Relink only.

I see notes I can't ping

The note's scene isn't loaded, or it's a prefab note (use Open). If the scene is loaded and the object is gone, the entry shows as orphaned — relink or clean it.

Support

Email joyfulprocess@gmail.com with your Unity version and steps to reproduce. Feature requests are very welcome.