Introduction to shader tags

Tags are key-value pairs of data. Unity uses predefined keys and values to determine how and when to use a given SubShader or Pass, or you can also create your own custom SubShader and Pass tags with custom values. You can access SubShader and Pass tags from C# code.

The most commonly used predefined Pass tag is the LightMode tag; this is used in all render pipelines. Other Pass tags vary by render pipelineA series of operations that take the contents of a Scene, and displays them on a screen. Unity lets you choose from pre-built render pipelines, or write your own. More info
See in Glossary. For more information, see the following pages:

• For predefined Pass tags in the Built-in Render Pipeline, see Predefined Pass tags in the Built-in Render Pipeline.
• For predefined Pass tags in the Universal Render Pipeline (URP), see URP Pass tags.

Additional resources

• SubShader tags in ShaderLab reference
• Pass tags in ShaderLab reference