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# MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor

A description of the input and output data of a function.

```
class MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor
```

## Topics

### Creating a input/output descriptor

[`stageInputOutputDescriptor`](/documentation/Metal/MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor/stageInputOutputDescriptor)

### Describing argument layouts

[`attributes`](/documentation/Metal/MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor/attributes)

An array that describes where and how to fetch data for the function.

[`layouts`](/documentation/Metal/MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor/layouts)

An array that describes how the function fetches data.

### Declaring index buffers for indirect compute commands

[`indexBufferIndex`](/documentation/Metal/MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor/indexBufferIndex)

The location of the index buffer for a compute function using indexed thread addressing.

[`indexType`](/documentation/Metal/MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor/indexType)

The data type of the indices stored in the index buffer.

### Resetting the descriptor

[`reset()`](/documentation/Metal/MTLStageInputOutputDescriptor/reset())

Resets the default state for the descriptor.


---

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