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Editor Plugin Backend ​

The editor plugin backend is Director's preferred mode of operation. When you have the Godot editor open with the Director addon enabled, all Director operations route through this backend automatically.

How it works ​

When the Director addon is enabled in the Godot editor (Project Settings → Plugins → Director → Enable), the plugin.gd EditorPlugin starts a TCP listener on port 6551.

The director binary connects through the configured local address and verifies the editor's canonical project before dispatch. The GDScript listener does not set an explicit bind address and has no authentication. Keep it off untrusted networks.

The editor process has access to:

  • Full EditorInterface — can save resources, reload scenes, update the editor UI
  • ResourceSaver — saves scenes and resources to disk correctly with UIDs
  • ProjectSettings — can read and write project settings (layer names, etc.)
  • All Godot engine APIs — the same environment available in @tool scripts

Why the editor backend is best ​

Instant feedback. When Director creates a node or sets a property, you see the result immediately in the editor's scene tree and inspector. No need to reopen the file.

Correct resource serialization. The editor's ResourceSaver handles UIDs, import metadata, and embedded resource paths correctly. Hand-written .tscn files often have subtle serialization errors; the editor never does.

EditorUndoRedoManager integration. Individual and batch operations against an open scene create native undo entries. They preserve existing human history and remain unsaved until an explicit scene_save.

Selected save. scene_save serializes only the selected scene and retains undo. It does not flush unrelated external resources, and Godot's native dirty marker may remain.

Native run control. editor_run starts, stops, or restarts a selected saved scene without implicitly saving open work. Stage runtime_status separately establishes runtime readiness.

On Windows, start and restart can explicitly select automated or deferred best-effort presentation protection, or interactive ordinary presentation. Omission preserves legacy behavior. Automated and deferred are rejected before dispatch on other platforms. A degraded result retains actual launch and running facts so the run can be stopped before fallback.

No separate process. Everything runs inside the already-open editor.

Limitations ​

Requires the editor to be open. If you close the editor, this backend becomes unavailable. Director falls back to the daemon backend automatically.

One project at a time. The editor backend operates on its verified current project. A mismatch is rejected before editor dispatch and can use a supported headless fallback for the requested project. After dispatch, a lost response has an unknown outcome and is never replayed automatically.

Not available in CI/CD. Automated pipelines do not have a GUI editor running. Use the daemon backend for CI workflows.

Port configuration ​

The editor plugin and Director client resolve the port in this order:

  1. DIRECTOR_EDITOR_PORT in both processes' environment
  2. connection/editor_port under the [director] section of project.godot
  3. the default, 6551

Set the project value through Project Settings → Director → Connection → Editor Port, or edit the equivalent project setting:

ini
[director]

connection/editor_port=6552

When using DIRECTOR_EDITOR_PORT, give the editor and the agent process the same value. Keep a custom editor port distinct from the daemon port.

Verifying the backend is active ​

When the editor backend is listening, the Godot output panel shows:

[Director] Editor plugin listening on port 6551

You can also check the Director dock (right side of the editor), which shows:

● Director: Editor backend active (port 6551)

Editor dock ​

When the Director addon is enabled, a Director dock panel appears. It shows:

  • Backend status: Editor / Daemon / One-shot
  • Recent operations: log of recent Director tool calls and their results
  • Active port: which port the editor backend is listening on

The dock is informational only — all Director operations are triggered by the AI agent, not through the dock UI.