Push & Pull

In Archean, items and fluids don't move by themselves. Every transfer between two components follows a Push/Pull model: one side must actively initiate the action, and the other side must accept it.

Understanding this system is essential to building functional setups. Each component's wiki page indicates its Push/Pull mode in the info table at the top.

The Three Roles

Initiate

A component that initiates an action actively starts the transfer. It will push items/fluids to whatever is connected to its output, or pull from whatever is connected to its input.

Accept

A component that accepts an action is passive. It can receive a push or respond to a pull, but it will never start a transfer on its own.

Forward

A component that forwards an action passes it through to the other side. It doesn't store anything — it simply relays the push or pull action from one port to the other.

Forwarders are transparent: if something pushes into one side of a Bridge, the Bridge pushes into whatever is on the other side. Same for pulls.

How It Works

• Push: The source sends items/fluids to the destination. The source decides what and when to send.
• Pull: The destination requests items/fluids from the source. The destination decides what and when to retrieve.

A connection only works when one side initiates and the other side accepts (or forwards to something that accepts). Two passive components connected together will never transfer anything.

A Common Mistake

Consider this setup: Mining Drill → Container → Crusher

The Drill initiates push, so rocks arrive in the Container. But the Container only accepts — it will never push anything out on its own. And the Crusher only accepts push — it won't pull from the Container either. Result: rocks pile up in the Container and nothing reaches the Crusher.

Solutions

Mining Drill → Crusher → Container The Drill pushes rocks to the Crusher, which accepts them, processes them, and pushes the resulting ores to the Container.

Mining Drill → Container → Item Conveyor → Crusher → Container The Item Conveyor is an initiator — it actively pulls from the first Container and pushes to the Crusher. This is useful when you want to buffer rocks or control the flow rate.

Reading Component Pages

Every component page shows its Push/Pull mode in the info table:

Some components combine roles — for example, the Crusher accepts push on its input (rocks in) and initiates push on its output (ores out).