Zig Guide

Applies to: Zig 0.13+, Systems Programming, CLIs, Embedded, Game Engines, C/C++ Replacement

Core Principles

1. Explicit Over Implicit: No hidden control flow, no hidden allocations, no operator overloading, no implicit conversions
2. Allocator Passing: Every function that allocates receives an std.mem.Allocator as a parameter; never use a global allocator
3. Errors Are Values: Use error unions (!) with try, catch, and errdefer; never silently discard errors
4. Comptime Over Runtime: Move computation to compile time with comptime; use it for generics, validation, and code generation
5. Safety With Escape Hatches: Keep runtime safety enabled by default; disable only in measured hot paths with a justifying comment

Guardrails

Code Style

• Run zig fmt before every commit (non-negotiable)
• camelCase functions/variables, PascalCase types/structs/enums, SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE module constants
• Prefer snake_case for file names (my_module.zig)