Features

Designed for performance and highly optimized. See the Benchmarks.
Well-documented, type-safe API, and a comprehensive User guide.
Entity relationships as a first-class feature.
Extensible event system with filtering and custom event types.
Fast batch operations for mass manipulation.
No systems. Just queries. Use your own structure (or the Tools).
World serialization and deserialization with ark-serde.
Zero dependencies, 100% test coverage.

Installation

To use Ark in a Go project, run:

go get github.com/mlange-42/ark

Usage

Below is the classical Position/Velocity example that every ECS shows in the docs.

See the User Guide, API docs and examples for details.

package main
import (
	"math/rand/v2"
	"github.com/mlange-42/ark/ecs"
)
// Position component
type Position struct {
	X, Y float64
}
// Velocity component
type Velocity struct {
	DX, DY float64
}
func main() {
	// Create a new World
	world := ecs.NewWorld()
	// Create a component mapper
	// Save mappers permanently and re-use them for best performance
	mapper := ecs.NewMap2Position, Velocity
	// Create entities with components
	for range 1000 {
		_ = mapper.NewEntity(
			&Position{X: rand.Float64()  100, Y: rand.Float64()  100},
			&Velocity{DX: rand.NormFloat64(), DY: rand.NormFloat64()},
		)
	}
	// Create a filter
	// Save filters permanently and re-use them for best performance
	filter := ecs.NewFilter2Position, Velocity	// Time loop
	for range 5000 {
		// Get a fresh query and iterate it
		query := filter.Query()
		for query.Next() {
			// Component access through the Query
			pos, vel := query.Get()
			// Update component fields
			pos.X += vel.DX
			pos.Y += vel.DY
		}
	}
}

Tools

ark-serde provides JSON serialization and deserialization for Ark's World.
ark-tools provides systems, a scheduler, and other useful stuff for Ark.
ark-pixel provides OpenGL graphics and live plots via the Pixel game engine.

Cite as

Lange, M. & contributors (2025): Ark – An archetype-based Entity Component System for Go. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14994239, GitHub repository: https://github.com/mlange-42/ark

License

Ark and all its sources and documentation are distributed under the MIT license and the Apache 2.0 license, as your options.

--- Tranlated By Open Ai Tx | Last indexed: 2026-03-03 ---