9 min read

Source: Roblox Creator Hub · CC BY 4.0 · View source · Code samples: MIT Imported 2026-10-03. Formatting adapted for this site.

Explorer window

The Explorer window, accessible from Studio's Window menu or Home tab toolbar, shows a hierarchical list of every instance inside a game. At the highest level of the hierarchy are the services; Workspace, for example, is where visible 3D content such as parts are stored.

Parent-child hierarchy

All children of a parent object appear under its branch when expanded. Click the arrow next to a parent branch — or press the →/← arrow keys when a parent is selected — to expand/collapse only that branch.

Note

To expand or collapse all branches within a multi‑nested hierarchy, hold Shift when clicking the expand/collapse arrow.

To change the parent of one or more children (reparent), simply drag and drop them onto the new parent.

Object insertion

While primitive parts can be inserted from the Home or Model tab toolbars, you can select from a full array of objects by hovering over the intended parent and clicking the ⊕ button (shortcut of CtrlI on Windows or ⌘I on Mac).

You can further customize insertion behavior by clicking the ⋯ button to the right of the search field:

Note

To keep the hierarchy cleaner, services such as VoiceChatService are hidden by default. You can show hidden services by right‑clicking in the window and selecting Show Services… from the context menu. Similarly, you can hide a visible service by right‑clicking it and selecting Hide Service in Explorer.

Duplicate and paste

Objects can be quickly duplicated into the same branch, while items copied to the clipboard can be pasted into the top‑level Workspace or directly into one or more existing parents.

Note

When pasting 3D objects copied to the clipboard, you can maintain their original CFrame position by right‑clicking the target parent instance in the hierarchy and selecting Paste Options ⟩ Paste Into At Original Location.

Contextual options

Right-clicking on an instance opens the options menu, contextually adjusted for the object type. For example, right‑clicking a Model reveals standard options like Copy and Duplicate, and also options specific to Models like Ungroup. In contrast, right‑clicking a service like Lighting reveals a more concise menu of actions valid for services.

Folder organization

Like directories/folders on a computer, the Folder object is a useful way to organize objects. For instance, if you want to store all environmental audio assets in a logical place, you can create a folder and place multiple AudioPlayer objects within it.

You can organize objects into folders as follows:

• Create a Folder instance through a standard insertion method, then drag and drop existing objects into it.

• Select multiple objects, right-click them, and then select Group As a Folder from the context menu (shortcut of AltCtrlG on Windows or ⌥⌘G on Mac).

Search methods

Through the search input near the top of the window, you can find instances by name, property, class/subclass/tag bespoke queries, and ancestry queries. You can also combine parameters for advanced logical searches. Quickly access this input by pressing CtrlShiftX (Windows) or ⌘ShiftX (Mac).

Navigate up and down through search results

Select all search results (<kbd>Ctrl</kbd><kbd>A</kbd> on Windows or <kbd>⌘</kbd><kbd>A</kbd> on Mac)

Refresh search results

Note

A name is a sequence of characters that are alphanumeric, _, -, or .. In all of the following search methods, exercise caution when searching for instances whose names contain spaces, as the search logic may confuse spaces for a combined search. When searching for names with spaces, you should surround the full name with double quotes, for example tag:"Light Source" to search by the full tag name of Light Source .

Name search

Typing in a basic string yields name matched instances, case‑insensitive. For example, searching by the keyword script finds all instances containing it, such as ServerScriptService and LocalScript.

Property search

You can filter by property equality or value comparisons. Most properties are supported, it works with partial matches, ignores spacing, and is case‑insensitive.

Equality

Property equality is searched through the operators = or ==.

Value Comparisons

Property value comparisons are searched through the operators ~=, >, <, <=, or >=.

Individual Fields

Property types such as Vector3 and Color3 support searching by individual fields. This works either for exact equality or for value comparisons.

Complete Units

Property types such as Vector3 and Color3 support searching as a complete unit, with the unit surrounded by quotes. This works either for exact equality, or with comparison operators in which every value is compared against the comparator.

Bespoke search

Classes, and subclasses, and tags are searched through various bespoke queries, including:

• is:[Class] finds everything that is of class [Class]. For example, is:Part finds everything that is a Part.
• is:[SubClass] finds everything that is a subclass of [SubClass]. For example, is:BasePart finds everything that is a subclass of BasePart, such as Part and MeshPart.
• tag:[TagName] finds everything with a CollectionService tag of [TagName]. For example, tag:LightSource finds everything that is tagged LightSource. You can add tags using the Tags section of an instance's properties and tag names will autocomplete.

Ancestry search

You can search within a specific scope using the . operator, chain operators together for highly specific searches, or use * as a wildcard.

• [Parent].[Child] finds named children inside a named parent. For example, workspace.Model finds instances named Model inside instances named workspace, similar to scripting.

• Chaining . operators adds specificity. For instance, Animals.Dog.Tail finds objects named Tail inside Dog inside Animals.

• * acts as a wildcard, for instance:

  Example	Result
  `Cart.*`	All children of an object named `Cart`.
  `Cart.Barrier.*`	All children of `Barrier`, itself a child of `Cart`.
  `Cart.*.*`	All grandchildren of `Cart`, excluding direct children of `Cart`.
  `Cart.*.Trim`	All grandchildren of `Cart` that are named `Trim`.

• [Parent].** finds all descendants of a parent. For example, CarModel.** finds all descendants of CarModel.

Combined

For advanced logical searches, you can combine queries through unions and grouping.

• Multiple queries separated by spaces or and operate on all of the conditions.

  Example	Result
  `Anchored=true CanCollide=true`	Every [`BasePart`](/docs/basepart) that is anchored and can collide.
  `Cart.*.* Transparency < 1`	All grandchildren of `Cart` that are not fully transparent.
  `Anchored=false and CanCollide=false`	Every [`BasePart`](/docs/basepart) that isn't anchored and can't collide.

• The or conjunction operates just like the or operator in code. Groups within parentheses, conjoined by or, find everything within multiple combined queries.

  Example	Result
  `Cat or Dog`	Everything that has `Cat` or `Dog` in its name.
  `(Anchored=true CanCollide=true) or (Anchored=false CanCollide=false)`	Every [`BasePart`](/docs/basepart) that either is anchored and can collide, **or** isn't anchored and can't collide.

Selection methods

Within a searched hierarchy, certain key shortcuts and mouse operations behave differently than they do within a non‑searched hierarchy.

Select all

Within a non‑searched hierarchy, pressing CtrlA on Windows or ⌘A on Mac selects all instances. Within a searched hierarchy, the same shortcut or the select all button selects only the query‑matching objects, for example all objects matching Board in a hierarchy searched for board.

Shift-select

Clicking an object and Shift-clicking another object behaves differently within a non‑searched hierarchy versus a searched hierarchy.

Non-Searched Hierarchy

Within a non-searched hierarchy, Shift-clicking two objects at the same hierarchy level selects both of them and every object between which is also at the same hierarchy level, as shown in image 🅰 where LeftFoot is initially clicked, LeftLowerArm is Shift‑clicked, and LeftHand at same hierarchy level is also selected. Duplicating, copying, or pasting the selected objects will result in a deep copy of those objects and all children.

If the first Shift-clicked object and the second Shift-clicked object are at different hierarchy levels, all objects in between them will be selected, as shown in image 🅱 where LeftFoot is initially clicked, LeftHand is Shift‑clicked, and everything between is also selected.

Shift-click at same hierarchy level

Shift-click at different hierarchy level

Searched Hierarchy

Within a searched hierarchy, if both the initially‑clicked object and the Shift‑clicked object match the query, only query‑matching objects between are selected. For example, in the following image with a hierarchy searched for anim, FallAnim is initially clicked, RunAnim is Shift‑clicked, and every object matching anim between is also selected.

Drag select

Clicking and dragging from an empty region of the window initiates a selection box. Within a non‑searched hierarchy, everything inside the box is selected. Within a searched hierarchy, only query‑matching objects inside the box are selected.

Key shortcuts