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# MTLIndirectCommandBuffer

A command buffer containing reusable commands, encoded either on the CPU or GPU.

```
protocol MTLIndirectCommandBuffer : MTLResource
```

## Overview

Use an indirect command buffer to encode commands once and reuse them, and to encode commands on multiple CPU or GPU threads.

Don’t implement this protocol yourself; instead, create an [`MTLIndirectCommandBufferDescriptor`](/documentation/Metal/MTLIndirectCommandBufferDescriptor) instance, configure its properties, and tell the [`MTLDevice`](/documentation/Metal/MTLDevice) to create the indirect command buffer. See [Creating an indirect command buffer](/documentation/Metal/creating-an-indirect-command-buffer).

## Topics

### Determining the maximum number of commands

[`size`](/documentation/Metal/MTLIndirectCommandBuffer/size)

The number of commands contained in the indirect command buffer.

### Retrieving commands

[`indirectRenderCommandAt(_:)`](/documentation/Metal/MTLIndirectCommandBuffer/indirectRenderCommandAt(_:))

Gets the render command at the given index.

[`indirectComputeCommandAt(_:)`](/documentation/Metal/MTLIndirectCommandBuffer/indirectComputeCommandAt(_:))

Gets the compute command at the given index.

[`indirectComputeCommand(at:)`](/documentation/Metal/MTLIndirectCommandBuffer/indirectComputeCommand(at:))

Gets the compute command at the given index.

### Resetting commands

[`reset(_:)`](/documentation/Metal/MTLIndirectCommandBuffer/reset(_:))

Resets a range of commands to their default state.

[`resetWithRange:`](/documentation/Metal/MTLIndirectCommandBuffer/resetWithRange:)

Resets a range of commands to their default state.


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