---
title: "procRecord: a kind of record a graph makes and saves"
description: "A .procRecord defines a kind of value a procedural graph moves that becomes an asset when it is saved: a material, a mesh, a texture…"
section: "Types"
slug: "types-procrecord"
canonical: "https://origozero.ai/docs/types-procrecord"
updated: "2026-10-13T20:37:09.273237696+00:00"
tags: ["asset-type", "reference"]
---

# procRecord: a kind of record a graph makes and saves

```
Glow.procRecord/
  init.luau     -- returns proc.record({ ... })
  README.md     -- what a record holds and the asset it saves as
  .metadata     -- description and tags
```

## What a kind states

- **`name`**: the kind's display name. A kind is identified by its guid, so two kinds may share a name.
- **`asset`**: the asset type a record saves as (`"material"`).
- **`applies`**: `{ component, field }`, the component a record stands in live and the field it feeds
  (`{ component = "Material", field = "material" }`).
- **`fields`**: the record's own fields by name, each with a short description.
- **`live(record, key)`**: the runtime value the applied field takes, filed under `key`.
- **`save(record, name, place)`**: writes the record as its asset and answers the reference. Left out, the asset type's
  own `graph.write` writes it.
- **`load(ref, options)`**: the record an asset of the kind holds. Left out, the asset type's own `graph.read` reads it.

## How records travel

A record carries its kind's guid as `kind`. The node that writes a record holds it on an element, in the attribute
named after the component the kind applies to (`Material = { material = <record> }`), and states the kind on the
geometry's detail attribute `records`: `{ [<kind guid>] = <reference to the .procRecord> }`. `io.output` stands the
element with the runtime value the kind's `live` answers, `io.export` saves the record through the kind, and
`io.import` reads an asset back as the same element: an asset type names the kind its assets load as in its `graph`
conversion (`graph.record`).

A node references a kind by a literal reference, `asset.resolve("<identity>", "procRecord")`, and
`proc.records.stamp(ref)` gives the `records` map that names it.

`io.import` of a `.procRecord` answers the kind itself, `{ kind, name, asset, applies }`: the guid a record of it
carries and what it saves as and applies to.