References

A reference is a stored id, never an object#

public GameObject door;      // stored as door's persistent id
public Inventory owner;      // stored as owner's persistent id

Turning that id back into a live object is a decision about the running world, so it goes through a resolver rather than a lookup table buried in the framework.

Resolution order#

1. The resolver you pass to UnityObjectApplier.TryRestore(...) — the most explicit option, best for tests and for scenes you control.
2. A resolver the game injected with NexusForgePersistence.IdentifierResolver.
3. The session's own index, which save components populate automatically with the objects they capture. NexusForgePersistence.RegisterPersistentObject adds anything else you want resolvable — a pooled object, an object created after the load, a singleton.

class="tok-com">// Anything the framework does not see during capture is registered by you.
NexusForgePersistence.RegisterPersistentObject(pooledEnemy);

Why the index is session-owned#

The index is cleared with the session, so it can never resolve an identity to last session's object. That one property removes a whole class of bug where a save silently reattaches to a destroyed or unrelated instance.

The index also counts claimants per identity, which is what lets the duplicate-identity policy report an ambiguity instead of picking one silently. See Restore.

When a reference cannot be resolved#

Next#

• Prefabs — when the object does not exist yet.
• Persistent IDs — where the ids come from.
• Restore — every policy in one table.