The Common Pipeline Library (CPL) is a set of ISO-C libraries that provide a comprehensive, efficient and robust software toolkit to create automated astronomical data reduction pipelines. Though initially developed as a standardized way to build VLT instrument pipelines, the CPL may be more generally applied to any similar application. The code also provides a variety of general purpose image- and signal-processing functions, making it an excellent framework for the creation of more generic data handling packages. The CPL handles low-level data types (images, tables, matrices, strings, property lists, etc.) and medium-level data access methods (a simple data abstraction layer for FITS files). It also provides table organization and manipulation, keyword/value handling and management, and support for dynamic loading of recipe modules using programs such as EsoRex (ascl:1504.003).

EsoRex (ESO Recipe Execution Tool) lists, configures, and executes Common Pipeline Library (CPL) (ascl:1402.010) recipes from the command line. Its features include automatically generating configuration files, recursive recipe-path searching, command line and configuration file parameters, and recipe product naming control, among many others.