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Godot Development Tools

ADR 0001: Rust, as a Cargo workspace with a library and a CLI

Status: Accepted (2026-10-29)

Context

Section titled “Context”

The tool must be cross-platform (Windows, Linux, macOS), installable without a runtime, fast to start (it runs in front of every godot call when used as a shim), and reusable by a future GUI or editor plugin.

Decision

Section titled “Decision”

Write it in Rust, as a Cargo workspace:

  • crates/godot-dev-tools: library with all logic (versions, addons, tests, project parsing). No printing, no process exit; returns typed results and errors.
  • crates/gdt: the CLI binary, a thin layer over the library (argument parsing, output, exit codes).
  • crates/gdt-shim: the tiny godot shim binary Removed: the shim is gdt itself started as godot (ADR 0009).

Consequences

Section titled “Consequences”
  • Static single binaries, easy cross-compilation and release artifacts per target.
  • A GUI or plugin can depend on the library crate.
  • Rust has a learning curve for the maintainer; the code stays simple and well documented to compensate.
  • Crate names will be confirmed on crates.io before the first publish.

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