**elegant (ELEctron Generation AND Tracking)** is a flexible accelerator simulation code used at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) for circular and one-pass machines. It supports 6-D tracking, canonical and numerical integration, and a wide range of beamline elements. The code is fully compliant with the Self-Describing Data Sets (SDDS) file protocol, allowing users to prepare scripts for automated and flexible simulations. Elegant is particularly well-suited for multistage and concurrent simulations on multiple workstations. The paper introduces elegant's architecture and flow, emphasizing its command-driven nature and the use of SDDS files for input and output. It details various capabilities, including altering accelerator elements, saving element information, orbit and trajectory computation, optics calculations, optimization, and tracking. The paper also covers the output files generated by elegant and the SDDS Toolkit for data processing and display. Several examples of complex projects performed with elegant are provided, such as the design of the APS Positron Accumulator Ring (PAR), dog-leg lattices, top-up safety tracking, and the bunch compressor for the Low Energy Undulator Test Line (LEUTL). These examples demonstrate elegant's versatility and effectiveness in addressing real-world accelerator design and commissioning challenges.**elegant (ELEctron Generation AND Tracking)** is a flexible accelerator simulation code used at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) for circular and one-pass machines. It supports 6-D tracking, canonical and numerical integration, and a wide range of beamline elements. The code is fully compliant with the Self-Describing Data Sets (SDDS) file protocol, allowing users to prepare scripts for automated and flexible simulations. Elegant is particularly well-suited for multistage and concurrent simulations on multiple workstations. The paper introduces elegant's architecture and flow, emphasizing its command-driven nature and the use of SDDS files for input and output. It details various capabilities, including altering accelerator elements, saving element information, orbit and trajectory computation, optics calculations, optimization, and tracking. The paper also covers the output files generated by elegant and the SDDS Toolkit for data processing and display. Several examples of complex projects performed with elegant are provided, such as the design of the APS Positron Accumulator Ring (PAR), dog-leg lattices, top-up safety tracking, and the bunch compressor for the Low Energy Undulator Test Line (LEUTL). These examples demonstrate elegant's versatility and effectiveness in addressing real-world accelerator design and commissioning challenges.