engine_records

The engine's own records: the tables a subsystem keeps as its account of what stands in the running engine, and the classes whose every instance is one. The input maps activated, a signal's handlers and connections, the entity and asset event registries and the renderer's registry of live features are records; each follows whoever holds the thing it records.

declare(t) makes a table a record, declareClass(mt) makes every table carrying that metatable one, and holds(v) answers whether a value is a record. engine.snapshotModuleState carries a record by reference without walking it, and engine.restoreModuleState leaves it as it stands, so what went away since a reading stays away and what arrived stays in place.

A leaf with no requires, so a module that loads before the engine global exists declares its records as it loads.