diff --git a/gpu/src/instance.zig b/gpu/src/instance.zig
index 96fd43dd..3efe79f8 100644
--- a/gpu/src/instance.zig
+++ b/gpu/src/instance.zig
@@ -1,12 +1,7 @@
 const ChainedStruct = @import("types.zig").ChainedStruct;
 
-pub const Instance = enum(usize) {
-    _,
+pub const Instance = *opaque {};
 
-    // TODO: verify there is a use case for nullable value of this type.
-    pub const none: Instance = @intToEnum(Instance, 0);
-
-    pub const Descriptor = extern struct {
-        next_in_chain: *const ChainedStruct,
-    };
+pub const InstanceDescriptor = extern struct {
+    next_in_chain: *const ChainedStruct,
 };
diff --git a/gpu/src/interface.zig b/gpu/src/interface.zig
index fbdf8544..263c169b 100644
--- a/gpu/src/interface.zig
+++ b/gpu/src/interface.zig
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 const Instance = @import("instance.zig").Instance;
+const InstanceDescriptor = @import("instance.zig").InstanceDescriptor;
 
 /// Verifies that a gpu.Interface implementation exposes the expected function declarations.
 pub fn Interface(comptime Impl: type) type {
-    assertDecl(Impl, "createInstance", fn (descriptor: *const Instance.Descriptor) callconv(.Inline) Instance);
+    assertDecl(Impl, "createInstance", fn (descriptor: *const InstanceDescriptor) callconv(.Inline) ?Instance);
     return Impl;
 }
 
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ pub fn Export(comptime Impl: type) type {
     _ = Interface(Impl); // verify implementation is a valid interface
     return struct {
         // WGPU_EXPORT WGPUInstance wgpuCreateInstance(WGPUInstanceDescriptor const * descriptor);
-        export fn wgpuCreateInstance(descriptor: *const Instance.Descriptor) Instance {
+        export fn wgpuCreateInstance(descriptor: *const InstanceDescriptor) ?Instance {
             return Impl.createInstance(descriptor);
         }
     };
@@ -25,9 +26,9 @@ pub fn Export(comptime Impl: type) type {
 
 /// A no-operation gpu.Interface implementation.
 pub const NullInterface = Interface(struct {
-    pub inline fn createInstance(descriptor: *const Instance.Descriptor) Instance {
+    pub inline fn createInstance(descriptor: *const InstanceDescriptor) ?Instance {
         _ = descriptor;
-        return Instance.none;
+        return null;
     }
 });
 
diff --git a/gpu/src/main.zig b/gpu/src/main.zig
index 35ed0350..fd833ff5 100644
--- a/gpu/src/main.zig
+++ b/gpu/src/main.zig
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ pub const ComputePassEncoder = @import("compute_pass_encoder.zig").ComputePassEn
 pub const ComputePipeline = @import("compute_pipeline.zig").ComputePipeline;
 pub const Device = @import("device.zig").Device;
 pub const ExternalTexture = @import("external_texture.zig").ExternalTexture;
-pub const Instance = @import("instance.zig").Instance;
+pub usingnamespace @import("instance.zig");
 pub const PipelineLayout = @import("pipeline_layout.zig").PipelineLayout;
 pub const QuerySet = @import("query_set.zig").QuerySet;
 pub const Queue = @import("queue.zig").Queue;