Imported from ericrisco/rsc-harness (skills/cpp/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add ericrisco/rsc-harness --skill cpp. Copyright stays with the author.

Modern C++

Write, review, modernize, build, and debug C++ the way the C++ Core Guidelines intend: RAII for every resource, ownership made explicit through smart pointers and values, no undefined behavior by construction, and a target-based CMake build proven clean under sanitizers.

Targets C++20/23 for production today. C++23 is ISO/IEC 14882:2024; WG21 froze C++26's technical content on 2026-03-28 (ISO publication follows) — adopt C++26 features only behind confirmed compiler support. Compiler matrix:

Delegate: borrow-checker, Result/Option, cargo, ownership-via-compiler -> rust — C++ buys safety with discipline (RAII + smart pointers + sanitizers); do not conflate the mechanisms. Language-agnostic threat modeling, authz, OWASP-class review -> secure-coding; the C++-specific memory/UB controls (bounds, lifetime, integer overflow, format-string, sanitizers) stay here. Containerizing and shipping the binary -> deployment; this skill stops at the CMake build + a sanitizer-CI note.

Decision rules

Apply these on every C++ edit:

1. Rule of Zero first. Manage resources with members that already do it (vector, string, unique_ptr); write no destructor/copy/move at all. Why: hand-written special members are the #1 source of leaks and double-frees.
2. Value by default. Pass and return by value for small/copyable types; reach for the heap only when you need polymorphism, shared lifetime, or a large/stable address. Why: values can't dangle.
3. Name the owner. Exactly one type owns each resource; everyone else borrows. Why: ambiguous ownership is how use-after-free is born.
4. make_unique/make_shared, never new. So no naked owning pointer ever exists.
5. Never an owning raw pointer. Raw pointers/references are non-owning borrows only.
6. Borrow with span / string_view / const T&. Pass a view, not a copy or an owner, for read access. Why: zero-copy, and the callee provably can't free what it doesn't own.
7. const and constexpr by default. Why: the compiler enforces what you don't mutate and moves work off the hot path.
8. No UB by construction. No use-after-move, OOB index, signed overflow, uninitialized read, or data race.
9. Sanitizers + warnings-as-errors in CI. Build and test under -fsanitize=address,undefined with -Werror.
10. Target-based CMake only. target_link_libraries / target_compile_features, never directory-level include_directories/link_libraries. Why: directory commands leak flags globally and break composition.

Ownership & smart pointers

Pick the type from the need, not from habit:

Default to unique_ptr; only escalate to shared_ptr when ownership is actually shared, and prove the shared case isn't a disguised single owner first — shared_ptr is not "the safe default."

// Bad: naked owning pointer; leaks on the throw, double-frees if you copy the handle.
Widget* w = new Widget(cfg);
configure(w);            // if this throws, w leaks
delete w;

// Good: ownership is the type; freed exactly once, exception-safe, no delete to forget.
auto w = std::make_unique<Widget>(cfg);
configure(*w);

// Bad: parent <-> child shared_ptr cycle -> neither refcount hits zero -> leak forever.
struct Node { std::shared_ptr<Node> parent, child; };

// Good: child owns down, parent observes up. Cycle broken; lock() before use.
struct Node {
    std::shared_ptr<Node> child;   // owns
    std::weak_ptr<Node>   parent;  // observes
};
if (auto p = node.parent.lock()) { /* p is a valid shared_ptr here */ }

When an object must hand out a shared_ptr to itself, derive from std::enable_shared_from_this<T> and call shared_from_this() — never wrap this in a fresh shared_ptr (that creates a second, independent refcount and a guaranteed double-free).

Deeper ownership/move reasoning -> references/move-and-templates.md.

RAII

Tie every resource — heap memory, file, socket, mutex, OS handle — to an object's lifetime; the destructor releases it. Why: cleanup then happens on every exit path (return, exception, break) for free, with no GC and no finally.

Use the standard guards before writing your own:

std::lock_guard  lock(mtx_);            // locks now, unlocks at scope end (C++17 CTAD)
std::scoped_lock locks(a_mtx, b_mtx);   // multiple mutexes, deadlock-free acquisition
std::unique_lock lk(mtx_);              // movable / deferrable, for condition_variable
std::ifstream    in("data.txt");        // closes in its destructor

When you wrap a C resource yourself, make the destructor release and disable copies (Rule of Five or unique_ptr with a custom deleter):

// RAII wrapper for a FILE*: closes once, can't leak, can't double-close.
class File {
public:
    explicit File(const char* path, const char* mode) : f_(std::fopen(path, mode)) {
        if (!f_) throw std::runtime_error("open failed");
    }
    ~File() { if (f_) std::fclose(f_); }
    File(const File&) = delete;                 // not copyable
    File& operator=(const File&) = delete;
    File(File&& o) noexcept : f_(std::exchange(o.f_, nullptr)) {}        // move = steal
    File& operator=(File&& o) noexcept { std::swap(f_, o.f_); return *this; }
    FILE* get() const noexcept { return f_; }
private:
    FILE* f_{};
};
// Even simpler when a deleter suffices — let unique_ptr own it (Rule of Zero):
auto fp = std::unique_ptr<FILE, decltype(&std::fclose)>(std::fopen("d", "r"), &std::fclose);

Move semantics & Rule of Zero/Five

Every expression is an lvalue (has a name, persists) or an rvalue (a temporary, about to die). std::move does not move anything — it casts an lvalue to an rvalue so a move constructor/assignment can steal its guts instead of copying. After you move from an object, it is valid but unspecified: only assign to it or destroy it; reading it is use-after-move (a real bug ASan/UBSan won't catch — clang-tidy will).

• Rule of Zero (default): manage nothing by hand; let the compiler generate all five special members. This is correct for the vast majority of types.
• Rule of Five: the moment you write one of destructor / copy-ctor / copy-assign / move-ctor / move-assign, you must reason about all five. If you're writing them, you probably should have used a unique_ptr/vector member and gone back to Rule of Zero.
• Move ops must be noexcept. Why: std::vector reallocation only moves elements instead of copying them when the move is noexcept — otherwise it silently falls back to copies for the strong exception guarantee.

std::vector<std::string> v;
v.push_back(std::move(name));   // transfers the buffer; `name` is now empty-but-valid
// Bad: use-after-move — `name` holds an unspecified state here.
log(name);                      // don't. Reassign name first, or just don't read it.

Return local objects by value and let RVO / copy elision remove the copy — do not return std::move(local), which pessimizes by blocking elision. Take a forwarding reference T&& plus std::forward<T>(x) only in generic code that must preserve value category.

Worked Rule-of-Five, perfect forwarding, CTAD, and C++20 concepts -> references/move-and-templates.md.

Avoiding UB (essentials)

Undefined behavior is the compiler's permission to assume the bug can't happen and optimize on that assumption — so the symptom is often a distant crash or a "works in Debug, breaks in Release." Pair static analysis (clang-tidy, cppcheck) with dynamic sanitizers; they catch disjoint bug classes.

Combine ASan + UBSan in one build (-fsanitize=address,undefined); run TSan alone (it's incompatible with ASan). Always add -fno-omit-frame-pointer -g for readable reports.

// Bad: returns a dangling reference into a destroyed temporary -> use-after-free, ASan fires.
const std::string& name() { std::string s = build(); return s; }   // s dies at return

// Good: return by value; RVO makes it free.
std::string name() { return build(); }

The full catalog (lifetime, OOB, signed overflow, strict-aliasing, uninitialized, data races, use-after-move), which sanitizer surfaces each, the canonical fix, and a "reading an ASan report" walkthrough -> references/undefined-behavior.md.

Modern CMake (essentials)

Target-based only. State requirements on the target, never globally:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.21)
project(app LANGUAGES CXX)

set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS ON)   # feeds clang-tidy / clangd

include(FetchContent)                   # FetchContent ships with CMake since 3.11
FetchContent_Declare(Catch2
    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2.git
    GIT_TAG        v3.7.1)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(Catch2)      # its targets work just like find_package targets

add_executable(app src/main.cpp)
target_compile_features(app PRIVATE cxx_std_23)     # request the standard on the target
target_compile_options(app PRIVATE -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Werror)
target_link_libraries(app PRIVATE Catch2::Catch2WithMain)

Full template (src/include/tests layout, CMakePresets.json with debug/asan/release presets, fmt + GoogleTest via FetchContent, per-compiler warning + sanitizer flags, install/export) -> references/cmake.md.

Standard-library idioms

Reach for the library before hand-rolling:

#include <algorithm>
#include <ranges>
#include <expected>   // C++23
#include <format>     // C++20

// Ranges over raw index loops — no off-by-one, no manual bounds.
auto evens = nums | std::views::filter([](int n){ return n % 2 == 0; });
std::ranges::sort(v);

// std::expected (C++23) over out-params / sentinel returns / exceptions for expected failure.
std::expected<Config, std::string> load(std::string_view path);
if (auto cfg = load(p)) use(*cfg); else log(cfg.error());

std::optional<User> find(int id);            // "maybe absent", not a magic -1 / nullptr
std::span<const int> view(v);                // borrow a contiguous range, no copy, no owner
auto [it, inserted] = m.try_emplace(k, val); // structured bindings
enum class Color { Red, Green };             // scoped, no implicit int conversions
std::string msg = std::format("{} of {}", i, n);  // type-safe, no printf format-string UB

Prefer at() or a range-checked view when the index isn't provably in bounds; operator[] on a bad index is UB, not an exception.

Testing & tooling

• Tests: Catch2 or GoogleTest pulled via FetchContent (above); run them with ctest.
• Static analysis: clang-tidy -p build (reads compile_commands.json) and cppcheck — they catch use-after-move, missing noexcept, and lifetime bugs the compiler won't.
• Dynamic analysis: run the test target under ASan+UBSan so tests prove no UB on covered paths.
• Format: clang-format -i with a checked-in .clang-format.
• Local gate: ./scripts/verify.sh from the project root runs format + an ASan/UBSan, warnings-as-errors build + ctest + optional tidy/cppcheck. Missing tools are skipped, not failed.

Anti-patterns

Quick reference

Project grounding (02-DOCS)

In a project with a 02-DOCS/ layer (the harness Karpathy wiki), read 02-DOCS/wiki/stack/cpp.md first and stay consistent with it. If it is missing or stale, write this project's real choices there — std version and compiler matrix, CMake layout and presets, the sanitizer/warning policy, the ownership/error conventions — index it in 02-DOCS/wiki/index.md (the Knowledge map; root CLAUDE.md keeps only a pointer to it), and bump its Updated date in the same change as any convention change. No 02-DOCS/ layer? Skip silently (optionally suggest harness). Conventions are recorded, not gated — never block the task on this.