Environment

Shiva code runs in three environments. Understanding which environment your code runs in is critical.

The Three Environments

Environment	Where	What's Available
Server	FiveM server process	Database, all player data, economy, jobs
Client	Player's FiveM game	Ped manipulation, cameras, NUI, local state
Shared	Both	Pure Lua utilities, models, validation schemas

Directory Convention

my-module/
├── server/     -- runs only on the server
├── client/     -- runs only on each player's game
└── shared/     -- runs in both, no side effects

What Goes Where

Server:

• Database reads/writes
• Player authentication and trust
• Economy, inventory mutations
• Authoritative game state

Client:

• Ped / entity manipulation
• Camera control
• NUI rendering
• Local caching for display

Shared:

• Data models (validation schemas)
• Locale strings
• Config defaults
• Pure utility functions

The Golden Rule

Never trust the client.

The client can send anything. All state mutations must happen on the server after validation. The client only ever receives display data or triggers server-side actions.

fxmanifest.lua

Every module has an fxmanifest.lua that declares which files go to which environment:

fx_version 'cerulean'
game 'gta5'

name 'my-module'
version '1.0.0'

shared_scripts {
    'shared/**/*.lua',
}

server_scripts {
    '@oxmysql/lib/MySQL.lua',
    'server/**/*.lua',
}

client_scripts {
    'client/**/*.lua',
}

See Also

• Concepts: State →
• Developing: Services →