By name: cpp-core-guidelines description: Master navigation for C++ Core Guidelines by Bjarne Stroustrup and Herb Sutter. Use when writing, reviewing, or modernizing C++ code to follow Core Guidelines rules across functions, classes, resource management, concurrency, templates, and more.
C++ Core Guidelines Master
Entry point for C++ Core Guidelines. Route to domain-specific skills based on the task.
Guideline Sections
| Section | Rules | Skill | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| P Philosophy | 13 | -- | High-level principles |
| I Interfaces | 16 | cpp-interfaces |
Explicit interfaces, pre/postconditions, not_null, span |
| F Functions | 43 | cpp-functions |
Parameter passing, return types, lambdas, noexcept |
| C Classes | 100+ | cpp-classes |
Regular types, constructors, destructors, virtual, inheritance |
| Enum Enumerations | 8 | cpp-enumerations |
enum class, strong typing |
| R Resource management | 21 | cpp-resource-management |
RAII, smart pointers, ownership |
| ES Expressions | 58 | cpp-expressions |
Initialization, casts, loops, arithmetic, macros |
| Per Performance | 20 | cpp-performance |
Optimization principles, memory layout |
| CP Concurrency | 38 | cpp-concurrency |
Threads, mutexes, atomics, coroutines |
| E Error handling | 21 | cpp-error-handling |
Exceptions, noexcept, RAII safety |
| Con Constants | 5 | cpp-constants |
const correctness, constexpr |
| T Templates | 53 | cpp-templates |
Concepts, TMP, generic design |
| CPL C-style | 3 | cpp-modernize |
Prefer C++ over C |
| SF Source files | 14 | cpp-source-files |
Headers, includes, namespaces |
| SL Standard Library | -- | -- | Standard library usage |
Quick Decision Guide
- Writing new C++ code: Load
cpp-functions,cpp-classes,cpp-resource-management - Reviewing code: Load
cpp-clang-tidyfor checker configuration, then domain skill - Modernizing legacy code: Load
cpp-modernize - Fixing concurrency bugs: Load
cpp-concurrency - Performance tuning: Load
cpp-performance - Error handling design: Load
cpp-error-handling - Template/generic code: Load
cpp-templates
Philosophy (P section)
Core principles guiding all rules:
- P.1 Express ideas directly in code
- P.2 Write in ISO Standard C++
- P.3 Express intent
- P.4 Ideally, a program should be statically type safe
- P.5 Prefer compile-time checking to run-time checking
- P.8 Don't leak any resources
- P.9 Don't waste time or space
- P.10 Prefer immutable data to mutable data
- P.12 Use supporting tools as appropriate
Clang-Tidy Integration
For checker configuration and mapping, load cpp-clang-tidy.
Key check groups: cppcoreguidelines-*, bugprone-*, modernize-*, performance-*, readability-*.