BridgeABI

Stable native interfaces without trusting the C++ ABI.

Documentation

BridgeABI is an open-source C++ foundation for loading independently compiled native plugins through a deliberately small C-compatible ABI boundary. It does not pass STL types, exceptions, or allocator ownership across module boundaries.

Status

Phase 2 is underway and includes a deterministic, restricted BridgeABI IDL parser plus a bridgeabi generate CLI that emits versioned C++ ABI function tables. The core runtime remains Phase 1: fixed-layout ABI primitives, versioned plugin entry point, owned-buffer release callbacks, a portable loader, manifest preflight validation, and a complete greeter plugin integration test. Windows x64, Linux x64, macOS x64, and macOS arm64 are the intended initial targets.

Build and run

cmake -S . -B build -DBRIDGEABI_BUILD_TESTS=ON
cmake --build build --config Debug
ctest --test-dir build -C Debug --output-on-failure

The integration test loads the separately built greeter library and prints Hello, BridgeABI.

Generate a function table from the restricted IDL grammar:

./build/bridgeabi generate examples/greeter/greeter.bridgeidl --output generated

ABI rules

Generation creates C ABI headers, C++ host/proxy headers, C++ plugin-boundary headers, JSON descriptors, Markdown documentation, and compatibility snapshots. The public boundary uses fixed-width integers, explicitly sized structures, opaque instance pointers, UTF-8 string_view, and owned_buffer values released by their producer callback. C++ exceptions must be translated to bridge::status before returning through the entry point or function table.

In-process plugins are not sandboxed: loading one grants it the host process's privileges. Process isolation and signature policy are planned later phases.

See Architecture and roadmap.

NuGet prerelease package

The official Windows x64 prerelease package is BridgeABI.Native 0.1.0-preview.2 on NuGet.org.

Build a local Windows x64 BridgeABI.Native prerelease package with:

./scripts/pack-nuget.ps1

This prepares a package but never publishes it. See the package README for consumer setup and platform scope.

Publishing is performed by the guarded GitHub Actions workflow described in NuGet publishing.