Asset Manifests and Approvals

Review and approve assets at the commit level before deployment.

Table of contents

1. Overview
2. How Manifests Work
3. Manifest Statuses
4. Approval Workflow
5. Per-Asset Approvals
6. Approval Permissions
7. Integration with Deployments
8. API Access
   1. Get Manifest for Build
   2. Approve Asset
   3. Export Manifest JSON
9. Best Practices

Overview

Asset Manifests provide a snapshot of all assets in a specific commit or build, allowing your team to review and approve changes before they reach production. This quality gate ensures that only approved content makes it to your players.

How Manifests Work

When a build completes, ButterStack automatically generates an Asset Manifest containing:

• All assets included in the build
• Who modified each asset
• Which commits/changelists introduced changes
• Current approval status per asset

Manifest Statuses

Approval Workflow

Build Completes
      │
      ▼
Manifest Generated (pending)
      │
      ▼
Team Reviews Assets
      │
      ├──▶ All Approved ──▶ Manifest Approved ──▶ Deploy
      │
      └──▶ Issues Found ──▶ Manifest Rejected ──▶ Fix and Rebuild

Per-Asset Approvals

Each asset in a manifest can be individually:

• Approved - Asset meets quality standards
• Rejected - Asset needs changes
• Pending - Not yet reviewed

This granular control lets you approve most assets while flagging specific items that need attention.

Approval Permissions

Configure who can approve assets:

• Project Leads - Approve any asset
• Department Leads - Approve assets in their domain (art, audio, code)
• Individual Contributors - View only, no approval rights

Integration with Deployments

Manifests connect directly to the deployment pipeline:

1. Build completes, manifest created
2. Team reviews and approves
3. Approved manifest linked to deployment
4. Deployment tracks which manifest version is live

API Access

Get Manifest for Build

GET /api/v1/projects/:project_id/builds/:build_id/manifest

Approve Asset

POST /api/v1/manifests/:manifest_id/assets/:asset_id/approve

Export Manifest JSON

GET /api/v1/manifests/:manifest_id/export

Response:

{
  "manifest_id": "abc123",
  "build_number": 456,
  "status": "approved",
  "created_at": "2026-12-15T10:30:00Z",
  "approved_at": "2026-12-15T14:22:00Z",
  "approved_by": "jane.smith",
  "assets": [
    {
      "path": "/Game/Characters/Hero/Hero_Mesh.uasset",
      "type": "mesh",
      "status": "approved",
      "modified_by": "john.doe",
      "changelist": 12345
    }
  ]
}

Best Practices

1. Review Before Deploy - Always approve manifests before pushing to production
2. Use Comments - Add notes when rejecting assets to help the creator understand the issue
3. Batch Similar Assets - Review related assets together for consistency
4. Set Up Notifications - Get notified in Slack/Discord when manifests need review