Agent-Skills.md

Agent Skills: Opaque Pointer Pattern

Opaque Pointer Pattern pattern for C development

UncategorizedID: mgreenly/ikigai/patterns/opaque-pointer

Repository

mgreenly/ikigai
mgreenlyLicense: MIT-0
1

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pnpm dlx add-skill https://github.com/mgreenly/ikigai/tree/HEAD/.claude/library/patterns/opaque-pointer

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.claude/library/patterns/opaque-pointer/SKILL.md

Skill Metadata

Name
patterns/opaque-pointer
Description
Opaque Pointer Pattern pattern for C development

Opaque Pointer Pattern

Declare struct in header without defining fields. Implementation hidden in .c file. Callers only see pointer, never fields.

ikigai Application

Header:

typedef struct ik_scrollback ik_scrollback_t;  // Forward declaration
res_t ik_scrollback_create(void *ctx, ik_scrollback_t **out);

Implementation in .c:

struct ik_scrollback {
    // Fields hidden from callers
};

Benefits:

  • Callers can't depend on internal fields
  • Change internals without recompiling callers
  • Enforces use of accessor functions

ikigai usage: Most context types could use this. Currently structs are defined in headers. Consider for stable public APIs.