Possible to create custom render passes (cycles)?

Wondering if it’s possible to add custom render passes to Cycles exclusively through the Python API. Maybe it would involve some combination of CyclesRenderLayerSettings and RenderPass. But I’m not currently seeing ‘create’ functionality in the docs.

It seems custom Render Engines would be another route to go. But Cycles is still very much a necessity, and rendering twice, in separate engines, would defeat the purpose of the add-on. Shot in the dark, but there isn’t a way to ‘super’ inherit Cycles to a custom render Engine, is there?