Node Preview is an addon that generates and displays rendered thumbnails directly above nodes in the Shader Editor. The tool automatically updates previews for any affected nodes when edits are made to a material setup. To maintain interface responsiveness, all thumbnail rendering is handled by a background process.

The addon operates without modifying the underlying .blend file, ensuring compatibility when sharing projects with users who do not have the tool installed. Note that previewing packed images requires the file to be saved to disk first, and IES nodes are not currently supported.