Beehave

Beehave

Related skills: ai-navigation for the movement leaves drive, state-machine for core-engine FSM, limboai for a heavier C++ BT+HSM alternative, godot-brainstorming for choosing an AI approach.

Addon: Beehave · version v2.9.2 · Godot 4.1+ · MIT · source: https://github.com/bitbrain/beehave · written in GDScript (no official C# API — this skill is GDScript-only by design).

1. When to use Beehave

Choose Beehave when your project is GDScript-only, you want a behavior tree without a custom engine build, and you value a simple node-in-scene-tree authoring workflow. Beehave trees live entirely in the scene tree — every composite, decorator, and leaf is a regular Node child. For a heavier C++/C# solution with HSM integration, use the limboai skill instead. For plain state machines without a BT, use the built-in state-machine skill.

C# note: Beehave has no official C# API (zero .cs files in addons/beehave/). From C# you can call the GDScript API via Godot cross-language interop (GetNode<Node>(...).Call("tick", actor, blackboard)), but Beehave provides no typed C# classes.

2. Install & enable

1. Godot AssetLib → search "Beehave" → Download → Reload project.
   Or copy the addons/beehave/ folder from the GitHub release into res://addons/beehave/.
2. Enable the plugin: Project → Project Settings → Plugins → tick Beehave.
   Two autoloads are registered: BeehaveGlobalMetrics and BeehaveGlobalDebugger.
3. Optional — copy script_templates/ from the addon into the project root for leaf scaffolding templates.

3. Tree composition

A Beehave tree is built from three kinds of nodes, all placed as regular scene-tree children:

Composite quick reference

Decorator quick reference

Minimal scene-tree example

# Scene tree:
#   Enemy (CharacterBody2D)
#     BeehaveTree               ← tick_rate = 1, process_thread = PHYSICS
#       SelectorComposite
#         SequenceComposite     ← "attack if in range"
#           IsInRangeCondition
#           AttackAction
#         PatrolAction          ← fallback

# BeehaveTree exports:
# @export var enabled: bool = true
# @export var tick_rate: int = 1          (1 = every frame; 3 = every 3 frames)
# @export var process_thread: ProcessThread = PHYSICS
# @export var blackboard: Blackboard      (auto-created if not set)
# @export_node_path var actor_node_path   (defaults to parent node)

# Access the tree from code if you need manual control:
@onready var bt: BeehaveTree = $BeehaveTree

func _ready() -> void:
    # Reduce tick cost: evaluate AI every 3 physics frames
    bt.tick_rate = 3
    # Default process_thread is PHYSICS — switch to IDLE if actor uses _process
    bt.process_thread = BeehaveTree.ProcessThread.IDLE

tick_rate note: tick_rate = 1 evaluates every frame; tick_rate = 3 every 3 frames. Increase for distant/background NPCs to save CPU. Default process thread is PHYSICS — if the actor script uses _process instead of _physics_process, set process_thread = IDLE to keep them in sync.

4. The leaf contract

Leaves hold your game logic. Subclass ActionLeaf for multi-tick work or ConditionLeaf for single-frame checks, then override tick(actor, blackboard).

# IsInRangeCondition.gd
class_name IsInRangeCondition
extends ConditionLeaf

@export var detection_range: float = 150.0

func tick(actor: Node, blackboard: Blackboard) -> int:
    # Beehave types `actor` as Node; cast to your concrete type for 2D members.
    var body := actor as Node2D
    var target: Node2D = blackboard.get_value("target")
    if body == null or not is_instance_valid(target):
        return FAILURE
    var in_range := body.global_position.distance_to(target.global_position) <= detection_range
    return SUCCESS if in_range else FAILURE

# AttackAction.gd
class_name AttackAction
extends ActionLeaf

@export var attack_duration: float = 0.5

func tick(actor: Node, blackboard: Blackboard) -> int:
    var elapsed: float = blackboard.get_value("attack_elapsed", 0.0)
    elapsed += get_physics_process_delta_time()

    if elapsed >= attack_duration:
        blackboard.erase_value("attack_elapsed")
        # `actor` is typed Node; guard game-specific methods (or cast to your actor type).
        if actor.has_method("play_attack_animation"):
            actor.call("play_attack_animation")
        return SUCCESS

    blackboard.set_value("attack_elapsed", elapsed)
    return RUNNING

func after_run(actor: Node, blackboard: Blackboard) -> void:
    # Clean up any per-run state when the tree interrupts this action
    blackboard.erase_value("attack_elapsed")

Return codes (defined on BeehaveNode):

• SUCCESS — action complete / condition met.
• FAILURE — action failed / condition not met; parent composite decides what to do next.
• RUNNING — action needs more frames; tree will call tick() again next frame (ActionLeaf only — ConditionLeaf should never return RUNNING).

Optional overrides:

• before_run(actor, blackboard) — called once before the first tick of a run.
• after_run(actor, blackboard) — called when the child finishes (SUCCESS/FAILURE) or is interrupted.
• interrupt(actor, blackboard) — called when the tree interrupts a running node.

5. Blackboard

The Blackboard node is a shared key/value store passed to every tick() call. BeehaveTree auto-creates an internal one if you don't assign an external Blackboard node.

# Share one Blackboard across multiple BeehaveTrees on the same actor.
# Assign the same exported Blackboard node to each tree in the Inspector.

# Read / write from any leaf's tick():
func tick(actor: Node, blackboard: Blackboard) -> int:
    # Write
    blackboard.set_value("target", actor.get_nearest_enemy())

    # Read with default
    var speed: float = blackboard.get_value("move_speed", 200.0)

    # Conditional check
    if blackboard.has_value("stunned"):
        return FAILURE

    # Erase (sets key to null; has_value returns false after erase)
    blackboard.erase_value("temp_flag")

    return SUCCESS

Named namespaces: every method accepts an optional blackboard_name: String parameter (default "default"). Use this to keep separate namespaces on one Blackboard node without name collisions (e.g., per-enemy state vs. shared world state).

Built-in expression leaves: BlackboardSetAction, BlackboardEraseAction, BlackboardHasCondition, and BlackboardCompareCondition let you manipulate the Blackboard entirely via Inspector exports (no GDScript required). Expressions run via Godot's Expression.execute([], blackboard) — so you can call get_value("key") directly in the expression string.

6. Visual debugger

Beehave ships an EditorDebuggerPlugin that adds a 🐝 Beehave tab to the bottom editor panel while your game is running:

1. Run the project from the Godot editor.
2. Open the Debugger panel → click the 🐝 Beehave tab.
3. Select a tree from the list to activate live visualization — active nodes are highlighted each tick.
4. Optional: click the detach button to float the panel, or set Project Settings → beehave/debugger/start_detached = true to always start detached.

To track per-tree CPU cost in the Performance panel, set custom_monitor = true on the BeehaveTree node. This registers beehave [microseconds]/process_time_<actor_name>-<id> as a Performance monitor.

For a walkthrough of writing custom decorators and conditions, see references/custom-nodes.md.

Implementation checklist

• addons/beehave/ copied into project; plugin enabled in Project Settings → Plugins
• BeehaveTree added as a child of the actor; actor_node_path set (or left blank to default to parent)
• process_thread matches actor's loop: PHYSICS for _physics_process, IDLE for _process
• tick_rate tuned — increase for background NPCs (e.g., 3) to reduce per-frame cost
• Every tick() override returns SUCCESS, FAILURE, or RUNNING — never void/null
• ConditionLeaf subclasses never return RUNNING
• Per-run state written to the Blackboard, not stored on the leaf node itself (leaf nodes are shared)
• after_run or interrupt cleans up any Blackboard keys the action wrote
• External Blackboard node exported and shared when multiple BeehaveTree nodes need the same data
• Visual debugger checked at runtime to verify tick flow before shipping AI logic