AbstractWe describe the design and implementation of system architecture to support object introspection in C++. In this system, information is collected by parsing class declarations, and is used to build a supporting environment for object introspection. Our approach is non‐intrusive because it requires no changes in the original class declarations and libraries; hence, binary compatibility between objects before and after the addition of introspective capability is ensured. This is critical if one wants to integrate third‐party class libraries, which are often supplied as black boxes and allow no modification, into highly dynamic applications. We present two applications: the first is automatic I/O support for C++ objects, and the other is interactive exercise of dynamically loaded C++ class libraries. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.