The Command Line Tool

The gd command can be installed using go install, this command is a drop in replacement for the go command for working with graphics.gd projects.

go install graphics.gd/cmd/gd@release

Run this command again whenever you update graphics.gd (it doesn’t currently stay in sync with your project version).

The gd command is also fully compatible with standard GDScript-based Godot projects and can be used to initialise cross-platform export configurations and to easily launch projects on Web, Android and iOS (on any platform). To use it this way, run it inside the directory where project.godot is located.

Quick Rundown

gd       # launch the Godot editor to manage assets and design the UI.
gd run   # run the project in debug mode.
gd build # export the project as a release depending upon GOOS and GOARCH.
gd test  # run your Go tests.

Why a new command?

The gd command takes care of all the build flags and configuration files needed to setup Go + Godot so that things will “just work” in the same way that the go command does.

If you are already well versed in Godot and GDExtension, or you want to use your own build tools, you can use the go command to build the shared library yourself:

CC="zig cc" go build -o example.so -buildmode=c-shared

What does the gd command do?

Everything you would have to setup for yourself if you were using go directly:

• downloads and installs dependencies for you on supported platforms.
• creates a graphics directory to house the godot project.
• creates a blank project.godot and main.tscn.
• creates the .gdextension library and enables it.
• outputs Go binaries into the graphics directory.
• sets up a .gitignore to ignore these compiled Go libraries.
• creates export presets that export into releases.
• sets the correct zig flags when cross-compiling.
• uses vpk to bundle the project into a self-updating release.
• sets up Go tests to run correctly within the Godot runtime.
• builds projects for Android and iOS without their SDKs installed.