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Opening Your First Project

  1. Launch ArcaneIDE
  2. Go to File → Open… (or press Cmd+O)
  3. Select your Unity project’s root folder — the one that contains the Assets/ directory
  4. Click Open

ArcaneIDE detects the Unity project automatically by looking for the Assets/ folder. Non-project folders like Library/, Temp/, obj/, and Logs/ are hidden from the file explorer automatically.

As soon as the project opens, Arcane starts background indexing in the node process:

  • C# scripts are parsed for classes, methods, fields, and inheritance hierarchies
  • Unity scene and prefab files are parsed for GameObjects and their components
  • .meta files are read to build a GUID ↔ asset path lookup table
  • Animator controllers and Input Action assets are also indexed

You’ll see an indexing status indicator in the status bar. Once it reads “complete”, the AI has full knowledge of your project structure. For large projects this can take a minute or two on first open — subsequent opens are incremental.

The left sidebar shows your project’s Assets/ directory. You can:

  • Click any .cs file to open it in the editor
  • Right-click a .unity or .prefab file to Reveal in Unity or Ping in Unity (requires Unity connection)
  • Right-click any asset to Copy GUID for use in scripts or YAML

Before using the chat, you need an API key. Open the Settings panel via the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P → “Arcane: Settings”) and enter your OpenAI or Anthropic API key.

Once configured, click the chat icon in the left sidebar to start talking to the AI.