godot-master

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: godot-master
description: "Consolidated expert library for professional Godot 4.7+ game and application development. Orchestrates 92 Domain Skills through architectural workflows, anti-pattern catalogs, performance budgets, and Server API patterns. Use when: (1) starting a new Godot project, (2) designing game or app architecture, (3) building entity/component systems, (4) debugging performance or physics issues, (5) choosing between 2D/3D approaches, (6) implementing multiplayer, (7) optimizing draw calls or script time, (8) porting between platforms, (9) migrating from 4.6 to 4.7. Primary entry point for ALL Godot development tasks. Keywords: Godot 4.7, AreaLight3D, HDR, Asset Store, godot-master."
---

# Godot Master: Lead Architect Knowledge Hub

Every section earns its tokens by focusing on **Knowledge Delta** — the gap between what the base model already knows and what a senior Godot engineer knows from shipping real products.

## Library target — Godot 4.7+

All Domain Skill mirrors target **Godot 4.7+** (stable). For **any engine version upgrade** (1.x/2.x legacy → 3→4 → hop-by-hop 4.x), use **[godot-version-migration](https://github.com/thedivergentai/gd-agentic-skills/blob/main/skills/godot-version-migration/SKILL.md)** — do not treat this hub as a migration changelog.

Cross-cutting 4.7 reminders while routing: **AreaLight3D** / HDR → [3D Lighting](references/3d-lighting.md); Asset Store vs Asset Library → export/platform modules; RichTextLabel ImageUnit, input device ID constants, Jolt behavior → migration hub module notes.

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## 🧠 Part 1: Expert Thinking Frameworks

### "Who Owns What?" — The Architecture Sanity Check
Before writing any system, answer these three questions for EVERY piece of state:
- **Who owns the data?** (The `StatsComponent` owns health, NOT the `CombatSystem`)
- **Who is allowed to change it?** (Only the owner via a public method like `apply_damage()`)
- **Who needs to know it changed?** (Anyone listening to the `health_changed` signal)

If you can't answer all three for every state variable, your architecture has a coupling problem. This is not OOP encapsulation — this is Godot-specific because the **signal system IS the enforcement mechanism**, not access modifiers.

### The Godot "Layer Cake"
Organize every feature into four layers. Signals travel UP, never down:
```
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  PRESENTATION (UI / VFX)     │  ← Listens to signals, never owns data
├──────────────────────────────┤
│  LOGIC (State Machines)      │  ← Orchestrates transitions, queries data
├──────────────────────────────┤
│  DATA (Resources / .tres)    │  ← Single source of truth, serializable
├──────────────────────────────┤
│  INFRASTRUCTURE (Autoloads)  │  ← Signal Bus, SaveManager, AudioBus
└──────────────────────────────┘
```
**Critical rule**: Presentation MUST NOT modify Data directly. Infrastructure speaks exclusively through signals. If a `Label` node is calling `player.health -= 1`, the architecture is broken.

### The Signal Bus Tiered Architecture
- **Global Bus (Autoload)**: ONLY for lifecycle events (`match_started`, `player_died`, `settings_changed`). Debugging sprawl is the cost — limit events to < 15.
- **Scoped Feature Bus**: Each feature folder has its own bus (e.g., `CombatBus` only for combat nodes). This is the compromise that scales.
- **Direct Signals**: Parent-child communication WITHIN a single scene. Never across scene boundaries.

### 🔗 The "Smart Interconnect" Mandate
Expert systems are defined not by their isolation, but by their **Payload Synthesis**.
- **Physics → Performance**: `PhysicsServer2D` and `RenderingServer` bypass `SceneTree` node overhead. Use for 1,000+ bullets or particles to achieve O(1) processing.
- **Animation → Physics**: `AnimationTree.get_root_motion_position()` converts animation displacement into physics `velocity`, preventing "foot sliding" in complex movement.
- **Data → Reactivity**: Serialized `Resource` objects (like `Stats`) emit