UE Reflect Watch

Stop manually closing and reopening Unreal Editor every time you add a UPROPERTY.

UE Reflect Watch monitors your Unreal Engine C++ header files and automatically handles the rebuild cycle for you — closing the editor, rebuilding the project, and relaunching — the moment it detects a reflection macro change.

The Problem

Every Unreal C++ developer knows this workflow:

1. Add a UPROPERTY or UFUNCTION to a header file.
2. Remember to close the Unreal Editor.
3. Build the project.
4. Wait.
5. Reopen the editor.
6. Continue working.

Live Coding cannot handle reflection table changes. This is a hard limitation of how Unreal's macro system works. The restart is unavoidable — but doing it manually every single time is not.

What UE Reflect Watch Does

Save a .h file. The extension detects the change, asks if you have saved your work in the editor, and handles the rest automatically.

• Detects additions, removals, and specifier changes across UCLASS, UPROPERTY, UFUNCTION, USTRUCT, and UENUM
• Closes UnrealEditor.exe
• Runs Build.bat and streams the full build output to a dedicated output pane
• Relaunches the editor on success
• Leaves your code untouched if the build fails

Comments, function bodies, and regular member variables without macros never trigger a rebuild.

Features

Automatic detection on save

Every .h file save is scanned. Only real macro changes trigger the cycle — not every save.

Silent mode

Toggle silent mode from the toolbar or the Extensions menu. When on, changes are logged but no prompt appears. Rebuild when you are ready using the Rebuild Now button.

Initial Project Scan

Installing mid-development? Run Extensions > UE Reflect Watch > Initial Project Scan once to build a baseline from your existing headers. Without it the extension has nothing to compare against and will prompt on the first save of every file.

Dedicated output pane

Full UnrealBuildTool output streams to the UE Reflect Watch pane in the Output window. See the actual compiler error without digging through the Error List.

Configurable behaviour

All options are available under Tools > Options > UE Reflect Watch:

• Auto rebuild without prompting
• Confirmation dialog before the editor is killed
• Auto relaunch after a successful build
• Configurable grace period between closing the editor and starting the build
• Engine path override for non-standard install locations

Getting Started

1. Install the extension.
2. Open your Unreal project solution.
3. Go to Extensions > UE Reflect Watch > Initial Project Scan and run it once.
4. Right-click the Visual Studio toolbar strip and enable the UE Reflect Watch toolbar.
5. Add a UPROPERTY to any header file and save. The extension takes it from there.

The Initial Project Scan is important if you are adding this extension to an existing project. Skip it and the first save of every header file will look like all macros were just added.

Requirements

• Windows
• Visual Studio 2022 (17.x) or Visual Studio 2026 (18.x)
• Unreal Engine 5.x installed via the Epic Games Launcher
• A solution opened from the root of a .uproject folder

Known Limitations

• Windows only
• Only monitors files saved through Visual Studio
• The extension kills UnrealEditor.exe immediately. Use the confirmation dialog (on by default) to save your work first
• If your engine is not installed in the default Epic Games Launcher location (C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_x.x), set the path override in Tools > Options > UE Reflect Watch
• The Settings page under All Settings > UE Reflect Watch shows a "not migrated" notice in Visual Studio 2026. This is a Visual Studio 2026 issue affecting all extensions using the legacy options API. Settings are fully functional via Tools > Options > UE Reflect Watch

Source and Issues

Source code and issue tracker available on GitHub.

Bugs, feature requests, and pull requests are welcome.

Currently in beta. Use at your own risk. See the LICENSE for full disclaimer of liability.