DreamShader skill

---
name: dream-shader-create
description: Write a new DreamShader source from a plain-language description — a material, material function, layer, material instance or Custom Pass pipeline — then check and compile it headlessly to prove it builds. Use when asked to create, author, add or write a DreamShader material, shader, material function, material instance, .dss / .dsi / .dsp file (or a .dsm in a 1.x project), or a render pass for an Unreal project.
---

# dream-shader-create `<description>`

Turn a description — "a UI panel with scrolling scanlines and a glow band" — into a source file that
**provably builds**. The proof is not optional: the compiler checks names, types, widths and engine pins, and
the only way to know a file passes is to run it.

Paths below are relative to the plugin root, `Plugins/DreamShader/`.

## Do this

**1 — Pick the kind, then read its reference.** Do not write DreamShaderLang from memory.

| The user wants | Write | Read first |
| :-- | :-- | :-- |
| a material, material function, layer or layer blend | a `.dss` | [`reference/dss.md`](../reference/dss.md) |
| a variant of an existing material — other colours, other textures | a `.dsi` (material instance) | [`reference/dss.md` § 7](../reference/dss.md#7-instances--dsi) |
| a render pass — an outline, a blur, a screen effect, a compute shader writing a texture | a `.dsp` and the `.dss` materials its passes use. **UE 5.8+ only** | [`reference/dsp.md`](../reference/dsp.md) |
| a change in a project whose sources are `.dsm` / `.dsf` | match the project: a `.dsm` / `.dsf` — or offer [`dream-shader-migrate`](../dream-shader-migrate/SKILL.md) first | [`reference/legacy.md`](../reference/legacy.md) |

New work is `.dss`. Look at what the project already has (`DShader/**`) before choosing: mirror its folders,
naming (`M_`, `MF_`, `MI_`, `CP_`) and the doc-tag style of its parameters.

**2 — Decide the details, then write the file** under the project's `DShader/` tree. A `.dss` builds its asset
where the file is: `DShader/UI/M_Panel.dss` → `/Game/UI/M_Panel`, named after its `export` function.

| Question | Answer it with |
| :-- | :-- |
| Which surface? | `#pragma material(Domain = …, ShadingModel = …, BlendMode = …)` — [`Docs/settings/material-enums.md`](../../Docs/settings/material-enums.md) |
| Must an artist open the graph? | `#pragma material(Backend = Graph)` for a plain `UMaterial`; leave it out for the project default (ThinCustom) |
| Dense math, a matrix, a real loop? | a `/// @custom` function — its body is verbatim HLSL |
| Reuse an existing material function? | `/// @asset <path>` + an `extern` prototype |
| Something a material cannot do — draw objects again, read another pass's output, run compute? | a `.dsp` |

Give every parameter `@group`, `@sort` and `@desc` — that is what makes the generated material instance usable
without reading the source — and `@slider min max` on scalars with a sensible range.

**3 — Check it.** Fast, writes nothing, reports every diagnostic of the file at once:

```bash
pwsh -File Plugins/DreamShader/.skill/dsc.ps1 check DShader/UI/M_ScanlinePanel.dss
```

Fix everything it reports, then check again. An unfamiliar code →
[`dr