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Code style guidelines

When contributing to Godot's source code, you will be expected to follow the style guidelines outlined below. Some of them are checked via the Continuous Integration process and reviewers will ask you to fix potential issues, so best setup your system as outlined below to ensure all your commits follow the guidelines.

C++ and Objective-C

There are no written guidelines, but the code style agreed upon by the developers is enforced via the clang-format code beautifier, which takes care for you of all our conventions. To name a few:

  • Indentation and alignment are both tab based (respectively one and two tabs)

  • One space around math and assignments operators as well as after commas

  • Pointer and reference operators are affixed to the variable identifier, not to the type name

  • See further down regarding header includes

The rules used by clang-format are outlined in the .clang-format file of the Godot repository.

As long as you ensure that your style matches the surrounding code and that you're not introducing trailing whitespace or space-based indentation, you should be fine. If you plan to contribute regularly, however, we strongly advise that you set up clang-format locally to check and automatically fix all your commits.

Warning

Godot's code style should not be applied to third-party code, i.e. that is included in Godot's source tree but was not written specifically for our project. Such code usually comes from different upstream projects with their own style guides (or lack thereof), and don't want to introduce differences that would make syncing with upstream repositories harder.

Third-party code is usually included in the thirdparty/ folder and can thus easily be excluded from formatting scripts. For the rare cases where a third-party code snippet needs to be included directly within a Godot file, you can use /* clang-format off */ and /* clang-format on */ to tell clang-format to ignore a chunk of code.

See also

These guidelines only cover code formatting. See C++ usage guidelines for a list of language features that are permitted in pull requests.

Using clang-format locally

You need to use clang-format 17 to be compatible with Godot's format. Later versions might be suitable, but previous versions may not support all used options, or format some things differently, leading to style issues in pull requests.

Pre-commit hook

For ease of use, we provide hooks for Git with the pre-commit Python framework that will run clang-format automatically on all your commits with the correct version of clang-format. To set up:

pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

You can also run the hook manually with pre-commit run.

Note

Previously, we supplied a hook in the folder misc/hooks. If you copied the script manually, these hooks should still work, but symlinks will be broken. If you are using the new system, run rm .git/hooks/* to remove the old hooks that are no longer needed.

Installation

Here's how to install clang-format:

  • Linux: It will usually be available out-of-the-box with the clang toolchain packaged by your distribution. If your distro version is not the required one, you can download a pre-compiled version from the LLVM website, or if you are on a Debian derivative, use the upstream repos.

  • macOS and Windows: You can download precompiled binaries from the LLVM website. You may need to add the path to the binary's folder to your system's PATH environment variable to be able to call clang-format out of the box.

You then have different possibilities to apply clang-format to your changes:

Manual usage

You can apply clang-format manually for one or more files with the following command:

clang-format -i <path/to/file(s)>

  • -i means that the changes should be written directly to the file (by default clang-format would only output the fixed version to the terminal).

  • The path can point to several files, either one after the other or using wildcards like in a typical Unix shell. Be careful when globbing so that you don't run clang-format on compiled objects (.o and .a files) that are in Godot's tree. So better use core/*.{cpp,h} than core/*.

IDE plugin

Most IDEs or code editors have beautifier plugins that can be configured to run clang-format automatically, for example, each time you save a file.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of beautifier plugins for some IDEs:

(Pull requests are welcome to extend this list with tested plugins.)

Header includes

When adding new C++ or Objective-C files or including new headers in existing ones, the following rules should be followed:

  • The first lines in the file should be Godot's copyright header and MIT license, copy-pasted from another file. Make sure to adjust the filename.

  • In a .h header, include guards should be used with the form FILENAME_H.

  • In a .cpp file (e.g. filename.cpp), the first include should be the one where the class is declared (e.g. #include "filename.h"), followed by an empty line for separation.

  • Then come headers from Godot's own code base, included in alphabetical order (enforced by clang-format) with paths relative to the root folder. Those includes should be done with quotes, e.g. #include "core/object.h". The block of Godot header includes should then be followed by an empty line for separation.

  • Finally, third-party headers (either from thirdparty or from the system's include paths) come next and should be included with the < and > symbols, e.g. #include <png.h>. The block of third-party headers should also be followed by an empty line for separation.

  • Godot and third-party headers should be included in the file that requires them, i.e. in the .h header if used in the declarative code or in the .cpp if used only in the imperative code.

Example:

/**************************************************************************/
/*  my_new_file.h                                                         */
/**************************************************************************/
/*                         This file is part of:                          */
/*                             GODOT ENGINE                               */
/*                        https://godotengine.org                         */
/**************************************************************************/
/* Copyright (c) 2014-present Godot Engine contributors (see AUTHORS.md). */
/* Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur.                  */
/*                                                                        */
/* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining  */
/* a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the        */
/* "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including    */
/* without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,    */
/* distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to     */
/* permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to  */
/* the following conditions:                                              */
/*                                                                        */
/* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be         */
/* included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.        */
/*                                                                        */
/* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,        */
/* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF     */
/* MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. */
/* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY   */
/* CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,   */
/* TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE      */
/* SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                 */
/**************************************************************************/

#ifndef MY_NEW_FILE_H
#define MY_NEW_FILE_H

#include "core/hash_map.h"
#include "core/list.h"
#include "scene/gui/control.h"

#include <png.h>

...

#endif // MY_NEW_FILE_H

/**************************************************************************/
/*  my_new_file.cpp                                                       */
/**************************************************************************/
/*                         This file is part of:                          */
/*                             GODOT ENGINE                               */
/*                        https://godotengine.org                         */
/**************************************************************************/
/* Copyright (c) 2014-present Godot Engine contributors (see AUTHORS.md). */
/* Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Juan Linietsky, Ariel Manzur.                  */
/*                                                                        */
/* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining  */
/* a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the        */
/* "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including    */
/* without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,    */
/* distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to     */
/* permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to  */
/* the following conditions:                                              */
/*                                                                        */
/* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be         */
/* included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.        */
/*                                                                        */
/* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,        */
/* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF     */
/* MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. */
/* IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY   */
/* CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,   */
/* TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE      */
/* SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                 */
/**************************************************************************/

#include "my_new_file.h"

#include "core/math/math_funcs.h"
#include "scene/gui/line_edit.h"

#include <zlib.h>
#include <zstd.h>

Java

Godot's Java code (mostly in platform/android) is also enforced via clang-format, so see the instructions above to set it up. Keep in mind that this style guide only applies to code written and maintained by Godot, not third-party code such as the java/src/com/google subfolder.

Python

Godot's SCons buildsystem is written in Python, and various scripts included in the source tree are also using Python.

For those, we use the Ruff linter and code formatter.

Using ruff locally

First of all, you will need to install Ruff. Ruff requires Python 3.7+ to run.

Installation

Here's how to install ruff:

pip3 install ruff --user

You then have different possibilities to apply ruff to your changes:

Manual usage

You can apply ruff manually to one or more files with the following command:

ruff -l 120 <path/to/file(s)>

  • -l 120 means that the allowed number of characters per line is 120. This number was agreed upon by the developers.

  • The path can point to several files, either one after the other or using wildcards like in a typical Unix shell.

Pre-commit hook

For ease of use, we provide hooks for Git with the pre-commit Python framework that will run ruff automatically on all your commits with the correct version of ruff. To set up:

pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

You can also run the hook manually with pre-commit run.

Note

Previously, we supplied a hook in the folder misc/hooks. If you copied the script manually, these hooks should still work, but symlinks will be broken. If you are using the new system, run rm .git/hooks/* to remove the old hooks that are no longer needed.

Editor integration

Many IDEs or code editors have beautifier plugins that can be configured to run ruff automatically, for example, each time you save a file. For details, you can check Ruff Integrations.

Comment style guide

This comment style guide applies to all programming languages used within Godot's codebase.

  • Begin comments with a space character to distinguish them from disabled code.

  • Use sentence case for comments. Begin comments with an uppercase character and always end them with a period.

  • Reference variable/function names and values using backticks.

  • Wrap comments to ~100 characters.

  • You can use TODO:, FIXME:, NOTE:, or HACK: as admonitions when needed.

Example:

// Compute the first 10,000 decimals of Pi.
// FIXME: Don't crash when computing the 1,337th decimal due to `increment`
//        being negative.

Don't repeat what the code says in a comment. Explain the why rather than how.

Bad:

// Draw loading screen.
draw_load_screen();

You can use Javadoc-style comments above function or macro definitions. It's recommended to use Javadoc-style comments only for methods which are not exposed to scripting. This is because exposed methods should be documented in the class reference XML instead.

Example:

/**
 * Returns the number of nodes in the universe.
 * This can potentially be a very large number, hence the 64-bit return type.
 */
uint64_t Universe::get_node_count() {
    // ...
}

For member variables, don't use Javadoc-style comments but use single-line comments instead:

class Universe {
    // The cached number of nodes in the universe.
    // This value may not always be up-to-date with the current number of nodes
    // in the universe.
    uint64_t node_count_cached = 0;
};