Ape is a new open-source Vulkan driver written in the Zig programming language and not dependent upon any Mesa code.
With a pull request today to the Vulkan specification for adding a new "Ape" vendor ID, I was curious about this new Ape Vulkan driver... Turns out it's a new hobbyist, open-source driver being created and nearly Vulkan 1.0 conformance.
Ape is a new open-source driver written as a software implementation akin to Mesa's Lavapipe. But it's not dependent upon Mesa code and it's written entirely in the Zig programming language. With Zig you get the benefits of more predictability and some security guarantees along with the other benefits of this modern programming language alternative to C/C++.
The Ape driver is passing most Vulkan 1.0 tests at this point and is open-source under an MIT license. This is the first time I'm aware of a Vulkan API driver written in the Zig programming language. Those wanting to check it out can find the Ape driver via this Git repository.