Cpp Coding Practices

C++ Coding Practices

Application skill for C++ style learning (from the archived awesome-guidelines style capsules). When project uses LLVM/Chromium/Mozilla variants, follow local baseline first.

Core Principle

C++ quality is header discipline + explicit ownership + readable names, power features only when the call site stays obvious to the next reader.

When to Use / NOT

• C++ libraries, services, native extensions, performance-critical code.
• Setting up clang-format, IWYU, cpplint, clang-tidy in CI.

NOT when:

• C code, use C-specific guides when ingested.
• Generated protobuf/grpc stubs, validate generators, not hand-edits.

Workflow

1. Headers & format, guards, IWYU, 2-space layout (cpp-style-formatting-headers.md).
2. Naming, PascalCase types/functions, snake_case data, k constants (cpp-style-naming-types.md).
3. Ownership, unique_ptr, RAII, no naked new/delete (cpp-style-ownership-raii.md).
4. Classes/API, explicit ctors, struct vs class, short functions (cpp-style-classes-api.md).
5. Verify, clang-format, IWYU, cpplint/clang-tidy on changed translation units.

Red Flags

• Transitive include dependence
• Raw owning pointer parameters
• Virtual calls from constructors
• Implicit conversion constructors
• -inl.h client-visible template splits
• camelCase locals in Google-style trees
• Returning reference/pointer to local

Verification

• clang-format --dry-run / project formatter check
• IWYU fix or include-fixer clean
• cpplint / clang-tidy on changed files
• Capsule checklist on API review

References

• awesome-guidelines/references/cpp-style-learning-note.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/cpp-style-formatting-headers.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/cpp-style-naming-types.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/cpp-style-ownership-raii.md
• awesome-guidelines/references/cpp-style-classes-api.md