Shader block in ShaderLab reference

Important: The Built-In Render Pipeline is deprecated and will be made obsolete in a future release.
It remains supported, including bug fixes and maintenance, through the full Unity 6.7 LTS lifecycle.
For more information on migration, refer to Migrating from the Built-In Render Pipeline to the Universal Render Pipeline and Render pipeline feature comparison.

A Shader object is a Unity-specific concept; it is a wrapper for shader programs and other information. It lets you define multiple shader programs in the same file, and tell Unity how to use them.

A Shader object has a nested structure; it organizes information into structures called SubShaders and Passes.

Inside the Shader block, you can:

Define material properties, using the Properties block. See ShaderLab: defining material properties.
Define one or more SubShaders, using the SubShader block. See ShaderLab: defining a SubShader.
Assign a custom editor, which determines how the shader asset appears in the Unity Editor. Optionally, you can assign different custom editors for different render pipelines. See ShaderLab: assigning custom editors.
Assign a fallback Shader object, using the Fallback block. See ShaderLab: assigning a fallback.

Render pipeline compatibility

Feature name	Universal Render Pipeline (URP)	High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP)	Custom SRP	Built-in Render Pipeline
ShaderLab: Shader block	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Syntax

Signature	Function
`Shader "<name>"` `{` `<optional: Material properties>` `<One or more SubShader definitions>` `<optional: custom editor>` `<optional: fallback>` `}`	Defines a Shader object with a given name.

Additional resources

Define a Shader object in ShaderLab

Shader in ShaderLab reference

Properties block reference in ShaderLab