The 16 Odù Domains

Sacred patterns mapped to programming concepts

In Yoruba tradition, the Odù Ifá are 256 sacred patterns used in divination. Ifá-Lang uses the 16 principal Odù (Ojú Odù) as the foundation for its standard library, mapping each pattern to a fundamental programming domain.

Each Odù is represented by a 4-bit binary pattern, creating a natural hierarchy for organizing code.

Core 16 Odù

Ogbe 1111
The Initiator
System & Lifecycle — CLI arguments, environment variables, OS info, program initialization
Aliases: sys os
Òy?`kú 0000
The Finisher
Exit & Cleanup — Program termination, sleep, graceful shutdown
Aliases: exit
Ìwòrì 0110
The Observer
Time & DateTime — Timestamps, duration, scheduling
Aliases: time datetime
Òdí 1001
The Guardian
File I/O — Read, write, file system operations
Aliases: fs io
Ìrosù 1100
The Speaker
Console I/O — Print, input, logging, error output
Aliases: fmt log
?`w?´nrín 0011
The Changer
Random — Random number generation, shuffling
Aliases: rand
?`bàrà 1000
The Builder
Math+ — Addition, multiplication, exponents, trigonometry
Aliases: math
?`kànràn 0001
The Warner
Errors — Error handling, panic, assertions
Aliases: err panic
Ògúndá 1110
The Warrior
Collections — Arrays, lists, vectors, process management
Aliases: vec list
?`sá 0111
The Runner
Concurrency — Parallel operations (sum, sort, min/max) via rayon
Aliases: async thread
Ìká 0100
The Controller
Strings — String manipulation, regex, JSON/CSV serialization
Aliases: str string
Òtúúrúp?`n 0010
The Reducer
Math- — Subtraction, division, modulo with checked arithmetic
Aliases: div
Òtúrá 1011
The Traveler
Networking — HTTP GET/POST, JSON fetch, URL encoding
Aliases: net http
Ìr?t?` 1101
The Keeper
Cryptography — SHA256, Base64, UUID, secure random bytes
Aliases: crypto hash
?`??´ 1010
The Artist
UI & Canvas — ASCII graphics, terminal UI, drawing
Aliases: tui term
?`fún 0101
The Judge
Permissions — Capability checking, access control, reflection
Aliases: perm auth

Special Domains

Coop / Àj??e
The Bridge
FFI Bridge — Python/Rust interop, reactive bindings, cross-language calls
Aliases: ffi bridge coop
?p?l?
The Oracle
Divination — Compound Odù, probabilistic computing, weighted random
Aliases: opele oracle

Infrastructure Layer

Cpu
Parallel computing with rayon
Aliases: cpu parallel
Gpu
GPU compute with wgpu
Aliases: gpu compute
Storage
Key-value store, database operations
Aliases: storage kv db
Ohun
Audio I/O with rodio
Aliases: ohun audio sound

Application Stacks

Backend
HTTP server, ORM, REST APIs
Aliases: backend server
Frontend
HTML, CSS generation, web UI
Aliases: frontend html web
ML
Machine learning, tensors, neural networks
Aliases: ml tensor ai
GameDev
Game engine, ECS, sprites
Aliases: gamedev game engine
IoT
Embedded systems, GPIO, sensors
Aliases: iot gpio embedded