What is an InstanceHandle?

[Kartongbit (Meioua)]

I have a modulescript (A) with a “Generator” Instance Attribute set to another modulescript (B). This is the code i am running in the first modulescript (A):

local GeneratorModule = script:GetAttribute("Generator")
print(typeof(GeneratorModule)) --Should be "Instance", is actually "InstanceHandle"

I would expect this to print “Instance”, but i am instead being met with “InstanceHandle”
Attempting to require the “InstanceHandle” results in an error as it isnt a valid type for require.

Ive searched the engine documentation and i cant find anything about “InstanceHandle”

What is this “InstanceHandle” type and how can i instead get the actual instance?

[realmile (mile)]

In the announcement post its mentioned that you need to use :Get() on the InstanceHandle to get the instance. So just do GeneratorModule:Get() to get the actual instance.

[Studio Beta] Reference Instances Directly with Attributes

Hey Creators, We’re launching Instance attributes in Studio beta. You can now point an attribute at another Instance directly instead of relying on a separate ObjectValue. This works through a new engine type called InstanceHandle. [Screenshot 2026-07-08 at 1.14.48 PM] What’s new? Attributes let you store your own data on an instance, a number, a string, a Vector3, and so on. Until now, attributes could only hold plain data. If you wanted a part to point at another part, you had to add an O…

[Kartongbit (Meioua)]

Any idea why its not included in the documentation at all?

[realmile (mile)]

Haven’t checked the documentation myself, but I would assume since its a new attribute they probably just forgot to do it.

[barsmeyy]

This is new Instance Attributes feature that was just released in the recent studio update. When you set an attribute to an Instance, roblox now returns an InstanceHandle (safe pointer/wrapper) instead of the raw Instance to prevent errors with StreamingEnabled if the target instance hasn’t loaded yet

To get the actual ModuleScript you need to use :Get() or :Wait() method on that handle