Building StructScope - Making memory layout analysis easier for systems developers
I’ve been working on StructScope, a local-first tool for inspecting and analyzing memory layout in C, C++, and Rust projects.
The idea started from a fairly common systems programming problem: understanding struct layout, alignment, padding, cache-line behavior, and ABI differences usually requires a mix of compiler flags, manual inspection, platform-specific knowledge, and trial-and-error experimentation.
StructScope is designed to make that process more visible and easier to reason about directly from source code.
The tool parses struct-like definitions and reports:
byte offsets
field sizes
alignment requirements
internal and trailing padding
cache-line split risks
platform-specific ABI differences
layout inefficiencies and optimization suggestions
A major focus has been keeping the workflow local-first and compiler-independent, so developers can inspect layouts quickly without setting up platform-specific build pipelines just to answer relatively small but important low-level questions.
Recent work has focused on improving:
ABI-aware layout computation
diagnostics and visualization
cross-platform layout comparison
rule-based optimization guidance
parser resilience and error recovery
workspace-scale scanning performance
editor and CLI workflows
StructScope is aimed at systems programming, embedded development, protocol design, performance engineering, and low-level infrastructure work where memory layout decisions have real operational impact.
With it's first launch on 20/05/2026, it’s becoming a much more capable analysis tool with each iteration. I’d genuinely appreciate feedback from systems developers, embedded engineers, compiler/tooling developers, or anyone working close to the hardware/software boundary.
Have a look and feel free to leave feedback at
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