Validation

The OpenUSD Validation framework provides a system to validate assets, verifying core rules, schema rules, and client-provided rules via plugins, to ensure assets are robust and interchangeable between different USD workflows.

UsdValidationValidators are used to run validation tests. A single UsdValidationValidator instance represents a single validation test that can result in zero or more named validation errors when run. For example a "usdValidation:CompositionErrorTest" validator might test for multiple types of composition errors, returning errors for any composition issues it encounters.

Each Validator instance has metadata represented by UsdValidationValidatorMetadata. Validator metadata includes:

• name: The validator name. For validators defined in a plugin, the name must be in the format "pluginName:validatorName", e.g. "usdGeomValidators:StageMetadataChecker"
• pluginPtr: Pointer to the plugin where a plugin based validator is defined, used to dynamically load plugin validators as needed. If the validator was explicitly created (see "Explicit Validators" below), this will be null. Note that this metadata is implicitly handled by validator registration and does not need to be provided by custom validator developers.
• keywords: Keywords associated with this validator.
• doc: Doc string explaining the purpose of the validator.
• schemaTypes: The schema types the validator is associated with, if any.
• isTimeDependent: If the validator is testing rules which are time dependent.
• isSuite: If the validator represents a suite of validators.

Validator instances can be used to run validation tests, but more commonly a set of validators will be used, represented by a UsdValidationContext. A UsdValidationContext can be created from a vector of UsdValidators, which can be created manually, or obtained via metadata query methods on UsdValidationRegistry. UsdValidationContext also provides convenience constructors that determine which validators to use based on metadata filters, such as a list of keywords.

Some constructors allow for including validators for ancestor schema types, for any found validators associated with schema types. For example, when using a UsdValidationContext constructor with the keywords parameter, if includeAllAncestors is set to true (the default), and a validator is found for, say, the UsdGeomSphere schema type, any validators associated with ancestor schema types of UsdGeomSphere (such as UsdGeomGprim, UsdGeomImageable, etc.) will also be included in the context.

UsdValidationRegistry is the central registry that manages all registered validators. The registry is used to obtain validator instances via validator metadata (name, keywords, schemaTypes). The registry also provides access to registered UsdValidationValidatorSuites which represent predefined sets of validators (that can be used to create a UsdValidationContext). Finally, the registry can be used to register custom validators (see "Creating Custom Validators" below).

Validator instances (as well as the UsdValidationRegistry singleton) are immutable, non-copyable, and (if the validator is registered in the registry) immortal throughout a given USD session.

When validation tests are run (see "Running Validator Tests" below), any errors are captured in UsdValidationErrors. Errors contain the following information:

• Name: A name the validator writer provided for the error, e.g. "MissingDefaultPrim".
• Identifier: An identifier used to distinguish similar-named errors from different validators. For a plugin validator the identifier should be of the format "pluginName:validatorName.errorName". For an explicit validator, the format is "validatorName.errorName".
• Error type: A UsdValidationErrorType that indicates the severity of the error (None, Error, Warn, Info).
• Error sites: One or more sites where the error was reported. An error could be reported in a SdfLayer (in layer metadata, for example), or a UsdStage (in stage metadata, for example) or a prim within a stage, or a property of a prim.
• Message: The error message provided by the validator writer that contains more detailed information about the error.
• Access to the UsdValidationValidator that created the error, via UsdValidationError::GetValidator().
• Convenience access to any UsdValidationFixers associated with the validator for this error, via UsdValidationError::GetFixers() methods.
• Error Data: A VtValue set by the UsdValidationValidator issuing this error, that represents additional data passed to the client, or used by an associated UsdValidationFixer. For example, a validator test might test if an attribute value meets a certain criteria, and the error data can be used to pass along a value that meets requirements to a fixer, which will update the value accordingly.

A UsdValidationFixer represents a fix that can be applied to fix specific validation errors. A fixer is associated with a specific validator, and can be associated with a specific error name, or can be generic to any error associated with the corresponding validator. A fixer contains a name (unique among all fixers associated with a specific validator), description, keywords used to filter/group fixers (e.g. by department, show, etc.), and implementations of FixerImplFn and FixerCanApplyFn functions to apply a fix and verify if a fix can be applied respectively.

Running Validator Tests

Validation tests can be run on a stage, layer, or prim, by using the various Validate() methods on UsdValidationValidator or UsdValidationContext. When validating using a UsdValidationContext, multiple UsdValidationValidator tests will be run in parallel.

Validation tests can potentially initiate stage traversal, and it's the caller's responsibility to maintain the lifetime of the stage/layer/prims that are being validated during the lifetime of the validation tests. UsdValidationContext provides Validate() methods for validating stages that can take a Usd_PrimFlagsPredicate to control stage traversal.

Validation tests that test time-dependent values will by default be run against the GfInterval::GetFullInterval() (-inf to inf) time interval. There are Validate() methods that can take a specific time interval to run against, and will run tests on all timeCodes in the given time interval.

When validation tests have finished running, any validation errors will be returned as UsdValidationErrors. See details above for information contained in a UsdValidationError. If the error provides associated UsdValidationFixers, it is the responsibility of the caller to fix errors using the fixer's CanApplyFix() and ApplyFix() methods on the client provided UsdEditTarget. Validation tests will not automatically call any fixers.

Creating Custom Validators

Custom validators can be created either via the OpenUSD plugin infrastructure, which results in lazy loading of the validators, or via explicitly creating and registering validators via UsdValidationValidator and UsdValidationRegistry APIs.

A custom validator must implement a validator task function (UsdValidateLayerTaskFn, UsdValidateStageTaskFn, or UsdValidatePrimTaskFn) which gets passed to the registry during registration, and called when the validator's test is run. Validators should implement the task function at the appropriate granularity level. For example, if the validation logic can be succinctly defined to be applied to a prim, implement UsdValidatePrimTaskFn rather than UsdValidateStageTaskFn or UsdValidateLayerTaskFn. Using too broad a granularity can impact performance — for instance, a validator task that only needs to operate at the prim level but is implemented as a stage task may incur unnecessary stage traversal each time it runs.

Similarly, when a prim-level validator only applies to prims of a specific schema type, ensure schemaTypes is set appropriately. This allows the validation framework to skip non-matching prims and avoid unnecessary validator invocations.

Plugin Validators

For custom validators created in a plugin, the plugin's plugInfo.json will contain the custom validator metadata. For example, a plugInfo.json for a plugin that has a "Validator1" validator, and a "ValidatorSuite1" validator suite, might look something like the following.

{
    "Plugins": [
        {
            "Info": {
                "Validators": {
                    "keywords" : ["commonKeyword"],
                    "Validator1": {
                        "doc": "Validator that has test for imageable Gprims.", 
                        "schemaTypes": [
                            "UsdGeomImageable"
                        ],
                        "keywords": [
                            "UsdGeomImageable",
                            "keyword1"
                        ]                        
                    },
                    "ValidatorSuite1": {
                        "doc": "Suite of validators",
                        "keywords": ["suite"],
                        "isSuite": true
                    }                          
                }
            }, 
            "LibraryPath": "@PLUG_INFO_LIBRARY_PATH@", 
            "Name": "newValidatorPlugin", 
            "ResourcePath": "@PLUG_INFO_RESOURCE_PATH@", 
            "Root": "@PLUG_INFO_ROOT@", 
            "Type": "library"
        }
    ]
}

Note how the validator metadata is set in the plugInfo.json, along with an extra "keywords" entry for keywords that are added to all validators defined in the plugin.

The plugin code to implement and register the validator might look something like the following.

TF_REGISTRY_FUNCTION(UsdValidationRegistry)
{
    UsdValidationRegistry &registry = UsdValidationRegistry::GetInstance();
    const TfToken validatorName("newValidatorPlugin:Validator1");
 
    // Create our validator UsdValidateStageTaskFn here
    // (you could also use a static function defined elsewhere)
    const UsdValidateStageTaskFn stageTaskFn =
        [](const UsdStagePtr &usdStage,
           const UsdValidationTimeRange &timeRange) {
            UsdValidationErrorVector errors;
 
            // ...Validator test logic here, accessing usdStage as needed,
            //    creating errors as needed...
 
            return errors;
        };
 
    registry.RegisterPluginValidator(validatorName, stageTaskFn);
 
    // Register the validator suite to include the validator we just registered
    // (in practice, suites will most likely contain more than one validator).
 
    const TfToken suiteName("newValidatorPlugin:ValidatorSuite1");
    const std::vector<const UsdValidationValidator *> containedValidators
            = registry.GetOrLoadValidatorsByName({ validatorName });
    registry.RegisterPluginValidatorSuite(suiteName, containedValidators);      
}

Note that UsdValidationError instances are typically created by the validation task functions.

Explicit Validators

For custom validators created explicitly, create a UsdValidationValidatorMetadata with the desired validator metadata along with the validator test implementation, and use UsdValidationRegistry::RegisterValidator(). The following example creates a UsdValidateStageTaskFn and UsdValidationValidatorMetadata to register an explicit validator.

const UsdValidateStageTaskFn explicitStageTaskFn =
    [](const UsdStagePtr &usdStage,
       const UsdValidationTimeRange &timeRange) {
        UsdValidationErrorVector errors;
 
        // ...Validator test logic here, accessing usdStage as needed,
        //    creating errors as needed...
 
        return errors;
    };
const UsdValidationValidatorMetadata explicitValidatorMetadata = {
    TfToken("ExplicitValidator"),
 
    // ...other metadata fields...
 
};
 
registry.RegisterValidator(explicitValidatorMetadata, explicitStageTaskFn);

Choosing a Registration Path

The decision comes down to how you want other code to discover your validator:

	Explicit	Plugin
Metadata source	Caller provides ValidatorMetadata	plugInfo.json
Discoverability	Only after registration code has run	Metadata visible at startup; validator lazily loaded
Lazy loading	No; must register each session	Yes; validator loaded when first queried by name
Use when	Prototyping, one-off scripts, tests, runtime-generated rules	Shipping validators in a distributed plugin

If other code needs to query your validator's metadata (keywords, schema types) before the validator is loaded, use plugin registration. If the validator is created dynamically or is only used by the code that creates it, explicit registration is simpler.

Adding Fixers

UsdValidationRegistry::RegisterPluginValidator() and UsdValidationRegistry::RegisterValidator() can optionally take a vector of UsdValidationFixers. Each fixer will specify a name, description, FixerCanApplyFn and FixerImplFn functions, a list of keywords, and the error name the fixer can fix.

Validator tests can result in multiple errors, and multiple fixers may be associated with some of these errors. UsdValidationFixer::CanApplyFix() will utilize all of this information to determine if a fixer can be applied.

The following example shows a utility function that creates a new fixer, adds it to a vector of fixers, and returns the vector.

const std::vector<UsdValidationFixer>
_ValidatorFixers() {
    std::vector<UsdValidationFixer> fixers;
 
    FixerCanApplyFn fixerCanApplyFn =
        [](const UsdValidationError &error, const UsdEditTarget &editTarget,
           const UsdTimeCode &/*timeCode*/) -> bool {
            
            // ...fixer logic here...
 
            return true;
        };
 
    FixerImplFn fixerImplFn =
        [](const UsdValidationError &error, const UsdEditTarget &editTarget,
           const UsdTimeCode &/*timeCode*/) -> bool {
 
            // ...can apply fixer logic here...
 
            return true;
        };
 
    fixers.emplace_back(
        TfToken("Example Fixer"),
        "An example fixer.",
        fixerImplFn, fixerCanApplyFn, TfTokenVector{},
        TfToken("ErrorNameAssociatedWithFixer"));
 
    return fixers;
}

Pass in the vector of fixers when the validator is registered. For example, the registration code to register a plugin validator with fixers, using the previously shown utility function, might look something like the following.

registry.RegisterPluginValidator(validatorName, stageTaskFn, _ValidatorFixers());

Note that UsdValidationRegistry does not manage fixers directly, and these are held by their respective UsdValidationValidator(s).

Creating Custom Validators in Python

Custom validators can be implemented in Python using either of the two registration paths described in "Creating Custom Validators":

• Plugin registration (RegisterPluginLayerValidator, RegisterPluginStageValidator, RegisterPluginPrimValidator) — the caller provides only the validator name as a TfToken. Metadata comes from the plugin's plugInfo.json and is parsed automatically during registry initialization.
• Explicit registration (RegisterLayerValidator, RegisterStageValidator, RegisterPrimValidator) — the caller provides full ValidatorMetadata. No plugin infrastructure is required; the validator is available immediately after registration.

Performance Considerations

When a ValidationContext runs validators, all validator tasks — C++ and Python — are dispatched into the same shared TBB worker thread pool. Python task functions must acquire the Python GIL on each invocation. A TBB worker thread executing one of these Python validator tasks is blocked waiting for the GIL. This has two consequences:

• Python validators do not benefit from parallelism among themselves. Even with task parallelism available via UsdValidationContext, only one Python validator task runs at a time; the rest are blocked waiting for the GIL.
• Python validators can starve C++ validators. If enough Python validator tasks are scheduled simultaneously to occupy all TBB worker threads, C++ validator tasks that are ready to run will sit in the queue with no available workers until a GIL-blocked thread finishes and is freed.

For performance-sensitive validation pipelines, prefer C++ implementations for validators. Python validators are best suited for prototyping, tooling, or validators that run rarely and on small scenes.

Task Function Signatures

Each registration method accepts a Python callable with a specific signature, matching the corresponding C++ task function type:

Method	Callable signature
RegisterLayerValidator / RegisterPluginLayerValidator	(layer: Sdf.Layer) -> list[ValidationError]
RegisterStageValidator / RegisterPluginStageValidator	(stage: Usd.Stage, timeRange: UsdValidation.TimeRange) -> list[ValidationError]
RegisterPrimValidator / RegisterPluginPrimValidator	(prim: Usd.Prim, timeRange: UsdValidation.TimeRange) -> list[ValidationError]

The callable must return a list (or any iterable) of UsdValidation.ValidationError objects. Return an empty list when the validation passes.

Explicit Registration Examples

Layer Validator

from pxr import Sdf, UsdValidation
 
registry = UsdValidation.ValidationRegistry()
 
metadata = UsdValidation.ValidatorMetadata(
    name="myPackage:RequiresDefaultPrim",
    doc="Warn when a layer has no default prim set.",
    keywords=["myPackage"],
)
 
def _CheckDefaultPrim(layer):
    if not layer.defaultPrim:
        return [
            UsdValidation.ValidationError(
                "MissingDefaultPrim",
                UsdValidation.ValidationErrorType.Warn,
                [UsdValidation.ValidationErrorSite(
                    layer, Sdf.Path.absoluteRootPath)],
                f"Layer '{layer.identifier}' has no defaultPrim.",
            )
        ]
    return []
 
registry.RegisterLayerValidator(metadata, _CheckDefaultPrim)

Stage Validator

from pxr import Sdf, Usd, UsdGeom, UsdValidation
 
registry = UsdValidation.ValidationRegistry()
 
metadata = UsdValidation.ValidatorMetadata(
    name="myPackage:RequiresUpAxis",
    doc="Error when a stage has no upAxis metadata.",
    keywords=["myPackage"],
)
 
def _CheckUpAxis(stage, timeRange):
    if not stage.HasAuthoredMetadata(UsdGeom.Tokens.upAxis):
        return [
            UsdValidation.ValidationError(
                "MissingUpAxis",
                UsdValidation.ValidationErrorType.Error,
                [UsdValidation.ValidationErrorSite(
                    stage, Sdf.Path.absoluteRootPath)],
                "Stage is missing upAxis metadata.",
            )
        ]
    return []
 
registry.RegisterStageValidator(metadata, _CheckUpAxis)

Prim Validator

from pxr import Sdf, Usd, UsdValidation
 
registry = UsdValidation.ValidationRegistry()
 
metadata = UsdValidation.ValidatorMetadata(
    name="myPackage:NoPrimsMissingKind",
    doc="Warn when a prim has no kind set.",
    keywords=["myPackage"],
)
 
def _CheckKind(prim, timeRange):
    if prim.IsPseudoRoot():   # skip pseudo-root
        return []
    model = Usd.ModelAPI(prim)
    if not model.GetKind():
        return [
            UsdValidation.ValidationError(
                "MissingKind",
                UsdValidation.ValidationErrorType.Warn,
                [UsdValidation.ValidationErrorSite(
                    prim.GetStage(), prim.GetPath())],
                f"Prim '{prim.GetPath()}' has no kind.",
            )
        ]
    return []
 
registry.RegisterPrimValidator(metadata, _CheckKind)

Plugin Registration Example

When a validator is declared in plugInfo.json, only the name is needed at registration time; all other metadata is already known to the registry.

Given a plugInfo.json that declares:

{
    "Plugins": [{
        "Info": {
            "Validators": {
                "CheckUpAxis": {
                    "doc": "Error when upAxis is missing.",
                    "keywords": ["stageMetadata"]
                }
            }
        },
        "Name": "myPlugin",
        "Type": "library",
        ...
    }]
}

The Python implementation registers the task function by name:

from pxr import Sdf, UsdGeom, UsdValidation
 
registry = UsdValidation.ValidationRegistry()
 
def _CheckUpAxis(stage, timeRange):
    if not stage.HasAuthoredMetadata(UsdGeom.Tokens.upAxis):
        return [
            UsdValidation.ValidationError(
                "MissingUpAxis",
                UsdValidation.ValidationErrorType.Error,
                [UsdValidation.ValidationErrorSite(
                    stage, Sdf.Path.absoluteRootPath)],
                "Stage is missing upAxis metadata.",
            )
        ]
    return []
 
# Name must match "pluginName:validatorName" from plugInfo.json.
registry.RegisterPluginStageValidator(
    "myPlugin:CheckUpAxis", _CheckUpAxis
)

Plugin validator suites work the same way:

registry.RegisterPluginValidatorSuite(
    "myPlugin:MySuite",
    [registry.GetOrLoadValidatorByName("myPlugin:CheckUpAxis")]
)

How Python Plugin Validators Are Triggered

For C++ plugins the Plug system loads the shared library and the TF_REGISTRY_FUNCTION(UsdValidationRegistry) macro ensures the registration code runs automatically at load time.

Python plugins work the same way, but will rely on module-level registration code in __init__.py instead of TF_REGISTRY_FUNCTION.

The lazy-load flow for a Python plugin:

1. Startup: ValidationRegistry parses plugInfo.json for all discovered plugins. Validator metadata (name, doc, keywords, schemaTypes) is available immediately, before any code is loaded.
2. Query: Client code calls registry.GetOrLoadValidatorByName("myPlugin:CheckUpAxis"). The registry finds metadata for this name and sees it belongs to a plugin that has not been loaded yet. The same load is triggered when validators are accessed via UsdValidationContext.
3. Load: The registry calls plugin->Load(). For a Python-type plugin, the Plug system executes import <module_name> (where <module_name> matches the "Name" field in plugInfo.json).
4. Register: The module's __init__.py runs at import time. Its top-level code calls RegisterPluginStageValidator (or the layer/prim variant) to register task functions with the registry.
5. Return: The registry now has a fully registered validator and returns it to the caller.

Python Plugin Directory Structure

The module directory name must match the "Name" field in plugInfo.json, and the plugInfo.json lives inside the module directory alongside __init__.py:

myPlugin/
    __init__.py       # Registration code runs at import time
    plugInfo.json     # "Type": "python", "Name": "myPlugin"

Example plugInfo.json (Python scenario)

{
    "Plugins": [{
        "Type": "python",
        "Name": "myPlugin",
        "Info": {
            "Validators": {
                "CheckUpAxis": {
                    "doc": "Error when upAxis is missing.",
                    "keywords": ["stageMetadata"]
                }
            }
        }
    }]
}

Example <strong>init</strong>.py

from pxr import Sdf, UsdGeom, UsdValidation
 
_PLUGIN_NAME = "myPlugin"
 
def _CheckUpAxis(stage, timeRange):
    if not stage.HasAuthoredMetadata(UsdGeom.Tokens.upAxis):
        return [
            UsdValidation.ValidationError(
                "MissingUpAxis",
                UsdValidation.ValidationErrorType.Error,
                [UsdValidation.ValidationErrorSite(
                    stage, Sdf.Path.absoluteRootPath)],
                "Stage is missing upAxis metadata.",
            )
        ]
    return []
 
# Registration at import time — equivalent to TF_REGISTRY_FUNCTION
_registry = UsdValidation.ValidationRegistry()
_registry.RegisterPluginStageValidator(
    _PLUGIN_NAME + ":CheckUpAxis", _CheckUpAxis)

The plugin directory must be discoverable by Plug.Registry (either on PXR_PLUGINPATH_NAME or registered via Plug.Registry().RegisterPlugins()). The parent directory of the module must be on sys.path so the import succeeds.

Running a Python Validator

Retrieve the registered validator by name and call Validate(), or pass it to a ValidationContext to run it alongside other validators.

# Direct invocation
validator = registry.GetOrLoadValidatorByName(
    "myPackage:RequiresUpAxis"
)
stage = Usd.Stage.Open("asset.usda")
errors = validator.Validate(stage)
for error in errors:
    print(error.GetErrorAsString())
 
# Via ValidationContext (runs all provided validators in parallel)
context = UsdValidation.ValidationContext([validator])
errors = context.Validate(stage)

Grouping Validators Into a Suite

stage_validator = registry.GetOrLoadValidatorByName(
    "myPackage:RequiresUpAxis"
)
prim_validator = registry.GetOrLoadValidatorByName(
    "myPackage:NoPrimsMissingKind"
)
 
suite_metadata = UsdValidation.ValidatorMetadata(
    name="myPackage:BaselineChecks",
    doc="Suite of baseline asset checks.",
    keywords=["myPackage"],
    isSuite=True,
)
registry.RegisterValidatorSuite(
    suite_metadata, [stage_validator, prim_validator]
)

Notes

• The ValidationRegistry is a singleton; validators registered in one module are visible to all other modules in the same process.
• Validator names must be unique across the registry. Re-registering an existing name will fail silently; use HasValidator() to check before registering if needed.
• Python exceptions raised inside a task function are converted to Tf errors and the validator returns an empty error list for that invocation. Add explicit error handling inside the callable if you need richer diagnostics.
• Explicitly registered validators have no associated plugin and are not lazily loaded. They must be registered each session before they can be used.
• Plugin-registered validators get their metadata from plugInfo.json. The metadata is discoverable at startup even before the Python task function is registered, enabling tools to enumerate available validators without loading every plugin.

Additional Examples

The code for usdchecker (in pxr/usdValidation/bin/usdchecker) has been updated to use validators and provides additional examples for using the validation framework.

See the various schema validators in /pxr/usdValidation for more example validator plugins.