ArchiveXL: Tags

Summary

Published: ??? by mana vortex Last documented update: 22 May 2026 by LadyLea

This page will tell you about tags and how they can be used to influence item behaviour. It also teaches you how Adding Custom tags can help you conditionally un-hide / hide items or add new features.

Wait, this is not what I want!

• Tags are used for calculating Garment Support score, see Garment Support: How does it work?

• There is an own page for Influencing other items

What do tags do?

Tags are a way to tell Cyberpunk that an item has certain properties and should behave in a certain way. This makes the game apply properties to your items, which can then be utilized by the game and ArchiveXL.

To apply visual tags to an item you must add them to visualTags property of your appearance definition or to visualTagsSchema of your root entity template.

Tags are case-sensitive!

Base game tags

Tag	Effect
hide_H1	Hides an item in the Head slot.
hide_F1	Hides an item in the Eyes slot.
hide_T1	Hides an item in the Chest slot.
hide_T2	Hides an item in the Torso slot.
hide_L1	Hides an item in the Legs slot.
hide_S1	Hides an item in the Feet slot.
hide_T1part	Toggles the partial suffix (&Full →&Part) when applied to Torso item.
hide_Hair	Hides hair.
hide_Genitals	Hides genitals in uncensored mode and underwear in censored mode.

ArchiveXL tags

• Check Base Game Tags and ArchiveXL Tags - Visual Guides for a diagram

• Check the Foot states section for more tags concerning Toggleable Feet

• Check Footsteps: Setting footwear sounds for shoe sound tags

• Check the Root entity tags section below for more tags

Tag	Effect
hide_Head	Hides head.
hide_Torso	Hides the whole torso (0, 1, 2)
hide_LowerAbdomen	Hides lower abdomen. (3)
hide_UpperAbdomen	Hides upper abdomen. (2)
hide_CollarBone	Hides collar bone area. (1)
hide_Arms	Hides the whole arms, including hands. (There's no easy way to partially hide arms, you would have to create custom tags)
hide_Thighs	Hides thighs. (4)
hide_Calves	Hides calves. (5)
hide_Ankles	Hides ankles. (6)
hide_Feet	Hides feet. (7)
hide_Legs	Hides the entire legs (including feet, 4, 5, 6, 7)
HighHeels	Turns the current (shoe) item into high heels. (Item's yaml $base must be a foot item)
FlatShoes	Turns the current (shoe) item into flat shoes. (Item's yaml $base must be a foot item)
AppearanceParts	Goes into the .app file. Enables partsValues for non-player-equipment

Base Game Tags and ArchiveXL Tags - Visual Guides

Visual Guide - Tags - Male Body - By LadyLea

Visual Guide - Tags - Female Body - By LadyLea

Visual Guide - Tags - Default Arms - By LadyLea

Visual Guide - Tags - Head - By LadyLea

Tags to partially hide default arms and cyberarms are not available, however, you can make use of Chunkmasks with the aid of this component list for Arms and Cyberarms OR you can create your own Custom Tags.

Root entity tags

There are a few tags that can be added to the root entity or in the .app file. Here's a list:

EmptyAppearance

This only works for legacy ArchiveXL projects. If you're using ItemAdditions: Dynamic Appearances, please use conditional appearances in your .app file.

This will hide an item under certain conditions. Add the following tag to the root entity:

EmptyAppearance:FPP

You have the following other options to achieve the same end:

Root entity appearance (without dynamic variants)	name: my_appearance&FPP	.app path: base\characters\appearances\player\items\empty_appearance.app default
.app conditional appearance: change default appearance name	name: my_appearance&camera=tpp	ArchiveXL will automatically add empty appearances for anything you have not defined
.app conditional appearance: add empty appearance yourself	name: my_appearance&camera=fpp	no partsValues, no components. Do not do this - use the line above this one instead!

force_Hair

A tag that forces hair to show up while wearing a head item. By default, head items turn hair invisible. By adding this tag to the root entity, you can override this process.

force_FlatFeet

A tag that forces female V's feet to be flat. Only works with a foot item as $base in the .yaml: use this if you're making flat shoes and don't want female V's feet to look as if she was wearing heels.

This tag will turn feet invisible for mascV unless the user has switch feet installed. You want to apply this to a conditional appearance in the .app file (&gender=m)

Footsteps: Setting footwear sounds

If you don't want your new boots to sound as if V was barefoot, add one of the following tags to the https://github.com/CDPR-Modding-Documentation/Cyberpunk-Modding-Docs/blob/main/for-mod-creators-theory/files-and-what-they-do/file-formats/entity-.ent-files#root-entity:

Boots
Heels
Sneakers
Stilettos
Metal_feet

Adding Custom tags

Custom tags let you set component chunk masks from the .xl file without the need of touching either .app or .ent file.

For this, it is mandatory that you have unique component names. If you include your modder name, it's unlikely that anyone will overwrite them by accident.

Why would I need this? partsOverrides exists!

1. PartsOverrides can't un-hide components for you. It can only hide them. If you want to load a different mesh (for example, a de-formed hakama when wearing a kimono or haori), then you're flat out of luck.

2. By being clever about your submeshes, you can offer different versions of your mesh (cropped! No arms! No legs), and users only need to install an .xl file! No need to have different meshes or even different .archive files.

Not convinced? Pity, but if you find a new use case for those things, do edit it in!

Example

Registering the tag

Add custom tags in your .xl file (not in your .yaml!)

overrides:
  tags:
    my_custom_unhiding_tag:
      my_hidden_component_name: {show: [0, 1, 2, 3]}
    my_HideSeamfix:
      t0_000_pma_base__full_seamfix: {hide: [0, 1, 2, 3]}

Connecting the tag with the item

Simply add the tag to your appearance's tags array near the bottom of the individual entries.

An example where to add your custom tag

Conditional component (un)loading

Custom Tags: Clothes

With ArchiveXL tags, you can conditionally switch out components — even those of other mods and garments. For example, you can load a narrower/compressed version of a garment when it's worn under a jacket:

hakama (monk_skirt) - shrinks under kimono/haori

To achieve this, we have two components in the mesh_entity:

The second component is turned off via chunkmask, the first one is displayed by default.

The trigger item (the kimono/haori on the left) uses the manavortex_kimono tag. This is the .xl file:

overrides:
  tags:
    manavortex_kimono:
      l1_manavortex_hakama_under_kimono: {show: [0, 1, 2, 3]}

The original mesh is hidden via partsOverride in the kimono's .app (I could also have used a second tag to hide the l1_manavortex_hakama component via .xl file):

Custom Tags: Bodies - Switching States

VTK Bodies, such as Hyst's Body Mods (EVB, EBB-EBBRB, EBBP-EBBPRB, ANGEL EVE) make use of custom tags, as they are implemented to make the bodies and clothes switch to different chest states. By adding the corresponding tag, your garment can determine which chest state should be displayed.

First things first, make use of VTK - Resources for Refits as this page contains the Shapes Add-ons resources to refit your garment. Once the ideal shape is chosen, it is time to build up your AXL project (further details on how to make AXL clothes can be found here and here)

To make use of custom tags, one of the Hyst's Visual State Tags below must be included within your .app file information list:

Natural Chest State [No bra outfits]

• hyst_boobs_natural - Used for [EBB-EBBRB], [EBBP-EBBPRB], [ANGEL]

• hyst_evb_boobs_natural - Used for [EVB]

Squished Chest State [Tight garment outfits]

• hyst_boobs_squish - Used for [EBB-EBBRB], [EBBP-EBBPRB], [ANGEL], [EVE]

Force Nipples On [Risqué outfits]

• hyst_boobs_nipple - Used for [EVE]

Hide SeamFix for Fem-V VTK Bodies

• hide_vtk_seamfix - Used for Fem-V VTK Based body mods (this tag can be combined with the tags above)

Special thanks to Meluminary for giving permission to make use of her CROPPED SPAGHETTI UNITARD .app file as an example and visual guide