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For contributors

This page gives a public-safe view of the architecture. Build and contribution instructions will follow the public engine-source release.

Last verified against the architecture charter and public repository: 2026-07-16.

Source not released

The public repository currently contains this website, not the engine source or binaries. There is no public build, test, or pull-request workflow for the engine yet, so this page does not invent one.

Architecture at a glance​

reTS is organized as a layered system:

  • A faithful core — the reversed Command & Conquer engine behavior, pinned by tests that treat the original engine's behavior as ground truth.
  • Opt-in layers on top — tooling, configurable limits, modern presentation, and native modding/scripting — each gated so it never weakens the accuracy bar.

Only completed slices of the engine core carry the verified claim. The upper layers are separate roadmap dimensions and do not count as faithful-engine completion merely because their designs exist. Verified slices already span a broad cross-section of engine areas — combat, economy, movement, presentation, audio, UI, and netcode among them — each pinned independently as it clears the oracle bar, not delivered as a single monolithic milestone.

How reTS is built​

reTS is developed with an AI-assisted, verification-first workflow: every system is made introspectable, pinned by tests whose expected values come from the original engine's behavior, and exposed to AI agents through a fixed, four-tool MCP capability gateway — rather than a growing tool per system — so discovery cost stays constant as coverage grows. See The MCP capability gateway for how that surface is shaped and how a system joins it. The same discipline extends to this documentation — public docs are checked against the same ground truth to detect and prevent silent drift.

When contributor guides publish​

Once the clean public source release exists, this section can document the actual repository layout, toolchain, test commands, contribution boundaries, and review process. Until then, the Devblog is the public narrative of milestones and design decisions.