throughline-cpp

The Google C++ Style Guide expressed as a throughline source — a standalone, grounded requirements graph that a consuming project composes with tl from throughline 3.11.0 or later.

This repository holds no code. It is a directory of small YAML items with permanent UIDs, validated by tl check. Consumers import it under a namespace and reference its rules as cpp:SR-0001.

It is one of a family of orthogonal language and concern sources: compose it alongside a concern source (e.g. throughline-backend) so a project's C++ code is grounded in both at once.

Status

9

sections and

67

style rules, published to [`docs/spec.md`](docs/spec.md):

• INT-0001 — the root intent (why the guide exists), normative: false.
• Each major guide section as a user_requirement that derives_from the intent.
• Every individual rule as a system_requirement that implements its section, carrying the guide reference in attrs.source_ref.

The counts above are rendered from the live graph by the tl:count directive, so they cannot drift.

Editions — dated tags

The guide is a living document. A material revision is cut as a dated tag on this repo (e.g. v2026-08); a consumer pins the ref it wants.

Composing it

[[sources]]
namespace = "cpp"
url = "https://github.com/rhodium-org/throughline-cpp"
ref = "v2026-08"

Then reference a rule from your own items:

links:
- target: cpp:SR-0011           # Google C++ Style Guide: mark single-argument constructors explicit
  type: satisfies

tl check in the consuming project composes this source and resolves the reference. A tl older than 3.11.0 reports it as namespace-unresolved.

Local checks

pip install throughline
tl check --strict     # the graph must stay sound
tl docs --check       # docs/spec.md must match the graph

Provenance

The Google C++ Style Guide is © Google, licensed CC BY 3.0. See NOTICE and https://google.github.io/styleguide/cppguide.html. This repository is Apache-2.0 for its structure and tooling; the reproduced rule text remains Google's.