AUTHOR=Sciarra Alessandro , Elfner Hannah TITLE=SMASH as an event generator for heavy-ion collisions JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2024 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2024.1502621 DOI=10.3389/fphy.2024.1502621 ISSN=2296-424X ABSTRACT=In this article we present an overview of the SMASH hadronic transport approach that is applied for non-equilibrium dynamics of hadrons in heavy-ion collisions. We will give an overview about the ingredients of the approach and the applications for the dynamical description of heavy-ion collisions and for calculations of fundamental properties of the hadron gas. The main emphasis of the article will be the infrastructure for sustainable software development that we have developed over the last 10 years including extensive unit tests and continuous integration. We will also provide one section about the performance of the code and how it can be analyzed and improved in the future.