cloudwu/skynet

A lightweight online game framework

C

14,170

2,237 commits

updated Sep 29, 2026

See the code

README

skynet logo

Skynet is a multi-user Lua framework supporting the actor model, often used in games.

It is heavily used in the Chinese game industry, but is also now spreading to other industries, and to English-centric developers. To visit related sites, visit the Chinese pages using something like Google or Deepl translate.

The community is friendly and almost all contributors can speak English, so English speakers are welcome to ask questions in Discussion, or submit issues in English.

Build

For Linux, install autoconf first for jemalloc:

git clone https://github.com/cloudwu/skynet.git
cd skynet
make 'PLATFORM'  # PLATFORM can be linux, macosx, freebsd, openbsd now

Or:

export PLAT=linux
make

For FreeBSD , use gmake instead of make.

Test

Run these in different consoles:

./skynet examples/config	# Launch first skynet node  (Gate server) and a skynet-master (see config for standalone option)
./3rd/lua/lua examples/client.lua 	# Launch a client, and try to input hello.

About Lua version

Skynet now uses a modified version of lua 5.5.0 ( https://github.com/ejoy/lua/tree/skynet55 ) for multiple lua states.

Official Lua versions can also be used as long as the Makefile is edited.

How To Use

cloudwu/skynet

A lightweight online game framework

C

14,170

2,237 commits

updated Sep 29, 2026

See the code

README

skynet logo

Skynet is a multi-user Lua framework supporting the actor model, often used in games.

It is heavily used in the Chinese game industry, but is also now spreading to other industries, and to English-centric developers. To visit related sites, visit the Chinese pages using something like Google or Deepl translate.

The community is friendly and almost all contributors can speak English, so English speakers are welcome to ask questions in Discussion, or submit issues in English.

Build

For Linux, install autoconf first for jemalloc:

git clone https://github.com/cloudwu/skynet.git
cd skynet
make 'PLATFORM'  # PLATFORM can be linux, macosx, freebsd, openbsd now

Or:

export PLAT=linux
make

For FreeBSD , use gmake instead of make.

Test

Run these in different consoles:

./skynet examples/config	# Launch first skynet node  (Gate server) and a skynet-master (see config for standalone option)
./3rd/lua/lua examples/client.lua 	# Launch a client, and try to input hello.

About Lua version

Skynet now uses a modified version of lua 5.5.0 ( https://github.com/ejoy/lua/tree/skynet55 ) for multiple lua states.

Official Lua versions can also be used as long as the Makefile is edited.

How To Use

Project health

Overall

4.3/10

Maintained

10/10

Code review

5/10
OpenSSF Scorecard

Significant stargazers

(top 24 of 26)

Jiangwen Su

35 followers · starred Oct 2014

Jiawen Geng

366 followers · starred Oct 2020

Tim Shen

206 followers · starred Dec 2014

Yunxing Dai

177 followers · starred Aug 2013