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GPGME provides a data abstraction that is used to pass data to the crypto engine, and receive returned data from it. Data can be read from memory or from files, but it can also be provided by a callback function.
The actual cryptographic operations are always set within a context. A context provides configuration parameters that define the behaviour of all operations performed within it. Only one operation per context is allowed at any time, but when one operation is finished, you can run the next operation in the same context. There can be more than one context, and all can run different operations at the same time.
Furthermore, GPGME has rich key management facilities including listing keys, querying their attributes, generating, importing, exporting and deleting keys, and acquiring information about the trust path.
With some precautions, GPGME can be used in a multi-threaded environment, although it is not completely thread safe and thus needs the support of the application.