stroustrup_skill

Overview

This skill writes C++ code in the style of Bjarne Stroustrup, emphasizing type safety, RAII-based resource management, and zero-overhead abstractions. It helps design APIs and systems where clarity and predictable performance must coexist. Use it to produce idiomatic, modern C++ that maps directly to hardware and expresses intent clearly.

How this skill works

The skill transforms design intent into C++ that favors compile-time guarantees, clear ownership, and minimal runtime cost. It prefers smart pointers, constexpr, concepts, std::span/string_view, and standard algorithms over manual, error-prone patterns. Code emitted follows RAII for resources, prefers strong types to primitives, and avoids hidden costs or clever obfuscation.

When to use it

• Designing systems or libraries where performance and clarity are both critical
• Creating public APIs that must make illegal states unrepresentable
• Refactoring legacy C++ to modern, safer idioms (RAII, smart pointers, constexpr)
• Writing code that must be predictable in performance and resource usage
• Teaching or documenting C++ best practices grounded in language philosophy

Best practices

• Prefer RAII: tie resource lifetime to object lifetime (use std::ifstream, locks, unique_ptr)
• Make illegal states unrepresentable using strong types and class invariants
• Favor compile-time checks: constexpr, concepts, and type-safe interfaces over runtime assertions
• Avoid raw new/delete and C-style casts; use smart pointers and C++ cast operators
• Use standard library algorithms, views, and ranges instead of hand-rolled loops when appropriate

Example use cases

• Implementing a low-latency networking API that must avoid hidden allocations and preserve ownership semantics
• Designing a configuration subsystem where invalid combinations are prevented by types
• Refactoring file and socket handling to RAII-based wrappers with clear ownership
• Writing a high-performance numeric kernel where zero-overhead abstractions and constexpr optimize hot paths
• Authoring library interfaces that use std::span and string_view for efficient non-owning parameters