Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

References panel

The References panel answers the question “where else is this referenced?” for any DB cell. It’s the modder’s “find all usages” — invaluable before deleting, renaming, or changing a row whose key something else depends on.

Toggle the panel from View → Toggle References Window.

In any DB editor, right-click a cell whose value is a key (typically a primary key or a foreign-key value) and choose Find References. The References panel populates with every other place that key appears — across the open Pack, parent mods, vanilla, and (where relevant) the Assembly Kit.

Reading the results

Each result is a row in a small table with these columns:

  • Data Source — PackFile, ParentFiles, GameFiles, or AssKitFiles.
  • Path — the in-Pack path of the file containing the reference.
  • Column Name — the column that’s referencing the key (DB-only; blank for loc/filename refs).
  • Row Number — the row containing the reference.

(There’s also a Column Number column, hidden by default — you can re-show it from the table header’s right-click menu if you need it.)

Click a result to jump to it.

Common workflows

  • Before deleting a row. Run a reference search on the row’s key. If anything in your Pack references it, you’ll need to clean those up first. References from vanilla / parent mods mean the row probably shouldn’t be deleted at all.
  • Before renaming a row. Same as above. If the references are all in your own Pack, Cascade Edition (right-click → Cascade Edition in the DB editor) can do the rename across them in one shot.
  • Auditing a new feature. After adding a new unit, run a reference search on its key to confirm it’s wired up everywhere it should be (cost table, recruitment table, faction availability, etc.).
  • Understanding a vanilla mechanic. Open a vanilla DB table from the Dependencies panel, reference-search a key that interests you, and follow the trail.

Limitations

References are computed from declared schema relationships — RPFM knows that column X in table A references column Y in table B because the schema says so. Hard-coded references in script files (Lua) or text-formatted UI files won’t show up unless the schema knows about them.

For text-only references (e.g. a Lua script that looks up a unit by string), use Global Search instead.