.. _c2py:

c2py
****

``c2py`` is a lightweight C++20 library that provides the runtime support for the Python bindings generated by ``clair-c2py``.

The binding files emitted by ``clair-c2py`` (``*.wrap.cxx`` / ``*.wrap.hxx``) are built on top of ``c2py``, which supplies:

* the type converters between C++ and Python (see :ref:`converters`),
* the dynamic-dispatch machinery for overloaded functions,
* the object model for wrapped C++ classes, and
* helpers such as ``c2py::pyref`` for manipulating Python objects from C++.

It depends only on the Python and NumPy C API and can be compiled with any C++20 compiler, independently of the LLVM/Clang version used by ``clair-c2py``.

.. note::

   The generated bindings are designed to be produced automatically rather than written by hand. The low-level ``c2py`` runtime API is therefore not part of the user-facing documentation.