Project structure

Inko projects follow a simple structure: an src/ directory containing your modules, and a test/ directory containing your unit tests. Source files use the .inko extension, and should use lowercase names. For example, the source code for std.string resides in src/std/string.inko.

Build files go in the build/ directory. Inko creates this directory for you if needed. This directory should not be tracked using your version control system of choice.

Third-party dependencies are stored in a dep/ directory. This directory is managed using Inko's package manager, and you shouldn't put files in it yourself.

Libraries

If you are creating a library, its main module should be placed at src/NAME.inko where NAME is the name of the library. For example, if you're creating a library for interacting with SQLite, you should place the main module at src/sqlite.inko. This way users can import it using import sqlite when adding your library as a dependency.

If you need to introduce additional modules, place them in a directory in src, named after the library (e.g. src/sqlite/statement.inko).

Executables

Executables are created by compiling files directly located in the src/ directory, with the executable file using the base name of the source file. For example, src/hello.inko is compiled to an executable located at build/debug/hello (or build/release/hello when using inko build --release).

These source files must define the async type Main which in turn must define the async method main:

type async Main {
  fn async main {
    # ...
  }
}

To build multiple executables, create multiple files in the src/ directory. For example, if your project contains the files src/hello.inko and src/world.inko then running inko build produces two executables: hello and world.

When building a library, don't define the Main type, and use inko check instead of inko build to type-check your project.

Example layout

Here's an example of a typical Inko project:

.
├── inko.pkg
├── LICENSE
├── Makefile
├── README.md
├── src
│   ├── kvi
│   │   ├── config.inko
│   │   ├── logger.inko
│   │   ├── map.inko
│   │   ├── num.inko
│   │   ├── resp.inko
│   │   └── server.inko
│   └── kvi.inko
└── test
    └── kvi
        ├── test_config.inko
        ├── test_logger.inko
        ├── test_map.inko
        ├── test_num.inko
        ├── test_resp.inko
        └── test_server.inko