Resource manifest entry reference

fxmanifest.lua runs in its own Lua runtime, separate from resource scripts. It describes metadata and loading; it does not share ordinary variables with client.lua or server.lua. Start with the practical manifest guide; this page supplies the complete built-in entry and version reference from the pinned upstream manifest manual .

Entries and downloaded files

The loader distinguishes .lua, .js and .net.dll. For compiled C# use the appropriate CitizenFX client or server assembly; a DLL referencing the wrong context is not corrected by changing the filename. author, description and version are useful metadata rather than application secrets.

Globs

*.lua matches Lua files in the current directory, not arbitrarily deep folders. dir/*.dll matches DLLs inside dir, not b.dll at the resource root. The latter distinction corrects an ambiguous example in the pinned table. **/*.lua and **.lua are recursive forms; **/cl_*.lua restricts matching filenames by prefix. Globbing support belongs to the entry type, not every arbitrary metadata field.

Do not depend on a broad glob to establish module initialization order. List startup files explicitly when one must run first, and exclude build tools, tests, private JSON and server code from client globs.

Custom metadata and exports

Plural declarations expand into repeated singular metadata. A custom declaration can have extra data serialized under an _extra key:

-- fxmanifest.lua
fx_version 'cerulean'
game 'gta5'
version '1.0.0'
docs_feature 'preview' { limit = 20 }
server_script 'server.lua'

-- server.lua
local resource = GetCurrentResourceName()
local count = GetNumResourceMetadata(resource, 'docs_feature')
for index = 0, count - 1 do
    local name = GetResourceMetadata(resource, 'docs_feature', index)
    local extra = GetResourceMetadata(resource, 'docs_feature_extra', index)
    print(name, extra) -- extra is JSON text; validate before using decoded data.
end

Metadata indexes are zero-based. A manifest declaration such as export 'readPreview' requires a corresponding global in client code. Runtime exports('readPreview', function() ... end) avoids the global declaration; consume on the same side with exports.resource_name:readPreview() in Lua or Exports["resource_name"].readPreview() in C#. Neither form crosses the client/server network boundary.

Runtime constraints

A dependency failure is a startup diagnostic: fix the required environment or intentionally revise the requirement after testing. Deleting constraints to suppress an error can leave the resource executing unavailable APIs.

NUI, maps and experimental invocation

cerulean uses a secure NUI context; browser callback fetches must use https://, including local resource callbacks. An external ui_page is permitted, but brings network availability and content-trust concerns. Loading screens use a separate lifecycle from a normal NUI menu.

OAL does not unpack a vector3 into separate native coordinates. Supply coords.x, coords.y, coords.z explicitly along with every remaining native argument. Wrong or unknown native parameter types can fail unexpectedly under OAL. Treat it as a measured compatibility change rather than a universal performance flag.

FxDK ConVar descriptors

A category contains a description and a list of field descriptors. Each descriptor begins with display title and variable name, followed by its type and parameters.

Use $variable in the descriptor for replicated setr values and #variable for public-info sets values. Example:

convar_category 'Preview' {
    'Local preview resource settings',
    {
        { 'Theme', '$docs_theme', 'CV_STRING', 'dark' },
        { 'Items', 'docs_items', 'CV_INT', 20, 1, 100 },
        { 'Mode', 'docs_mode', 'CV_MULTI', {
            { 'Off', 'off' },
            { 'Preview', 'preview' }
        }}
    }
}

Named FXv2 versions

Historical GUID versions

These explain old resources; they are not recommended declarations for new work.

After migration, test startup, dependencies, exports, NUI callbacks and networked entity behavior on the actual target track. A syntactically valid manifest does not certify those behaviors.