Project structure

A Dacha project keeps two things apart: the data the engine reads, and the TypeScript you write. Most of the layout is a suggestion. The file name suffixes are not.

The layout

• Directorydata/

  • data.json the game, written by the editor
  • Directoryassets/ textures, audio, fonts

    • …
• Directorysrc/

  • index.ts collects your classes and starts the engine
  • import-all.ts the glob helper index.ts uses
  • Directoryevents/

    • index.ts your event types
  • Directorygame/

    • Directorycomponents/

      • movement.component.ts
    • Directorysystems/

      • movement.system.ts
  • Directoryui/ the HTML overlay, optional

    • …
• dacha-workbench.config.cjs
• vite.config.ts
• tsconfig.json
• index.html

Nothing forces the game and ui split, or one file per class. Group the code however suits the project.

data/assets/ is Vite’s publicDir in the starter project, so files there are served from the site root. An asset at data/assets/player.png is referenced as player.png in a sprite.

File name suffixes matter

src/index.ts globs your source for these endings and hands what it finds to the engine:

Suffix	Declares
*.component.ts	A component
*.system.ts	A system
*.behavior.ts	A behavior

A file named correctly is collected into the game. A file named movement.ts is not. The class it defines never reaches the engine, and nothing catches that at build time. You find out when the game runs. The class must also be the default export.

Four more suffixes exist, for shaders, filter effects, asset kinds and inspector widgets. How scripts are found covers all seven, and explains why being collected is not the same as running.

The two configuration files

data/data.json is the game. The engine reads it at runtime, and the editor writes it as you work. It is generated, but it is not build output. Commit it, along with the assets under data/ that it references.

dacha-workbench.config.cjs holds the editor’s own settings: where the configuration lives, where assets live, which patterns to scan for, and how autosave behaves. The engine never reads it. Every key is documented in the configuration reference.