Unreal Engine 5 C++ AI Developer Skill

A curated system prompt and instructions package designed specifically for modern AI Coding Assistants and AI IDEs (such as Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Copilot, Antigravity, and others).

By integrating this skill into your AI assistant, you force the AI to stop writing generic "standard C++" and start writing robust, memory-safe, high-performance C++ code that strictly adheres to the modern Unreal Engine 5 ecosystem and design patterns.

🚀 Why Use This Skill?

Unreal Engine C++ relies on highly specific paradigms: garbage collection via UObject, macro reflection (UCLASS, UPROPERTY), subsystem decoupling, and heavy emphasis on memory efficiency.

Out of the box, AI models often fail to grasp these idiosyncrasies without explicit instruction. They will try to use std::vector instead of TArray, raw pointers instead of TObjectPtr, and put heavy calculation logic inside Tick().

This skill explicitly course-corrects the AI, demanding that standard C++ practices are swapped with Epic Games' strict C++ standards.

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🛠️ Features Governed by the AI

When this skill is active, the AI will automatically enforce the following modern standards:

• Pointer & Memory Safety: Replaces generic raw pointers (*) with UE5 TObjectPtr. Utilizes proper GC macros and pointer validation macros (IsValid, ensure).
• Data-Driven Architecture & Tags: Prioritizes UDataAsset and GameplayTags over hardcoded configuration variables and enums inside Actors.
• Enhanced Input System (EIS): Strictly enforces UEnhancedInputComponent over deprecated Action/Axis mappings.
• IWYU Protocol: Actively uses Forward Declarations and minimizes header #includes, protecting compilation time.
• Performance & Micro-optimizations: Bypasses std:: containers in gameplay code in favor of TArray, TMap, FString, FText, and FName. Uses TInlineComponentArray to avoid heap allocations.
• Tick Elimination: Forces PrimaryActorTick.bCanEverTick = false by default in constructors. Promotes event-driven designs (Timers and Delegates) over wasteful Tick() routines.
• Asset References & Tuning: Eliminates brittle hardcoded C++ asset paths (FObjectFinder) and "magic numbers". Forces exposing tuning values and assets via UPROPERTY or TSoftObjectPtr.
• Blueprint Integration: Accurately designates BlueprintCallable, BlueprintPure, and delegates via BlueprintImplementableEvent avoiding spaghetti architecture.

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📂 Files Provided & Structure

• .agent/skills/unreal-cpp-developer/SKILL.md: The core set of rules. Your AI reads this to understand Unreal Engine.
• .agent/skills/unreal-cpp-developer/custom_rules.md: A dedicated file for your team. Add your project's naming conventions, specific macros, or class prefixes here. The AI will prioritize your custom rules over the base skill.
• .agent/skills/unreal-cpp-developer/templates/: Clean boilerplate templates for .h and .cpp files. The AI will use these when asked to generate a brand new class from scratch.

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⚡ Installation & Usage

For Antigravity, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, and other Custom Agents

1. Download or clone this repository.
2. Copy the entire .agent folder into the root directory of your Unreal Engine project. (E.g., MyUEProject/.agent/)
3. Your AI IDE / Assistant will automatically detect .agent/skills/unreal-cpp-developer/SKILL.md and enforce these guidelines whenever you ask it to work with your C++ files.
4. (Optional) Open custom_rules.md and add your project-specific rules.

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🤝 Contributing

You are welcome to submit refinements as best-practices natively evolve in future versions of Unreal. Pull requests should follow the formatting style seen in the document, keeping instructions highly condensed and unambiguous!

📜 License

MIT License. Feel free to adopt and adjust these instructions freely for commercial or indie ventures alike.