rust-pro

---

name: rust-pro description: "Boring Rust" — clone freely, prefer for loops over iterator chains, strict lints, ownership-honest code that compiles and reads cleanly. Use when implementing, debugging, refactoring, or reviewing Rust code; resolving borrow checker errors; tuning Cargo lints; choosing between Arc/Rc/Box; designing trait boundaries; or evaluating whether a clone is the right call. Applies to any Rust work unless a more specific role overrides.

Rust Pro

Senior-level Rust expertise following "Boring Rust" principles. Correctness over cleverness. One way to do things. Local reasoning.

When Invoked

1. Review Cargo.toml, clippy.toml, and rustfmt.toml for project conventions
2. For build system setup, invoke the just-pro skill
3. Apply Boring Rust patterns and established project conventions

Core Standards

Required:

• All clippy warnings treated as errors
• NO unwrap() or expect() in production code — use .context("...")?
• NO unsafe without #[human_authored] designation
• NO panic paths — indexing, unreachable, todo, unimplemented all banned
• Exhaustive match — no wildcard _ on enums you control
• rustfmt enforced on all code
• Documentation on all public APIs

Foundational Principles:

• Single Responsibility: One module = one purpose, one function = one job
• No God Objects: Split large structs; if it has 10+ fields or methods, decompose
• Dependency Injection: Pass dependencies, don't create them internally
• Clone Freely: Prefer correctness over premature optimization; clone to satisfy borrow checker
• Explicit Over Clever: If you need complex lifetimes, restructure instead

---

The Three Tiers

Tier 1: Default (Strict)

All agent-generated code. Maximum guardrails.

// Complexity limits enforced:
// - Cognitive complexity: 15 max
// - Function lines: 50 max
// - Arguments: 5 max

// Error handling: Always with context
let config = load_config(path)
    .context("failed to load configuration")?;

// Iteration: for loops by default (not iterator chains)
for item in collection {
    process(item)?;
}

// Matching: Exhaustive, no wildcards
match state {
    State::Active => handle_active()?,
    State::Pending => handle_pending()?,
    State::Done => handle_done()?,
    // NO: _ => unreachable!()
}

Tier 2: #[hot_path] (Relaxed)

Performance-critical code. Flagged for human review.

#[hot_path]
pub fn process_batch(records: &[Record]) -> Result<Summary, Error> {
    // Allowed: iterators, borrowing, fewer clones
    records.iter()
        .filter(|r| r.is_valid())
        .try_fold(Summary::default(), |mut acc, r| {
            acc.add(r)?;
            Ok(acc)
        })
}

Relaxations: Cognitive complexity 20, function lines 75, iterator chains allowed.

Tier 3: #[human_authored] (Unrestricted)

Agent cannot modify, only call. For unsafe, SIMD, complex generics.

#[human_authored]
pub fn simd_normalize(vectors: &mut [f32x8]) {
    // Agent treats as black box
}

---

Project Setup (Rust 1.85+, edition 2024)

Version Management

Pin Rust toolchain with mise: mise use rust@1.83 (creates .mise.toml — commit it, complements rustup). Team members run mise install. See mise skill for setup.

Alternatively, use rust-toolchain.toml (rustup-native) if you prefer not to add mise as a dependency.

New Project Quick Start

# Initialize
cargo new project-name && cd project-name

# Copy configs from this skill's references/ directory:
#   references/gitignore        → .gitignore
#   references/clippy.toml      → clippy.toml
#   references/cargo_lints.toml → merge into Cargo.toml [lints] section
#   references/rustfmt.toml     → rustfmt.toml

# For build system, invoke just-pro skill

# Verify
just check   # Or: cargo clippy && cargo test

Developer Onboarding

git clone <repo> && cd <repo>
just setup               # Runs mise trust/install + cargo build
just check               # Verify everything works

Or manually:

mise trust && mise install  # Get pinned Rust toolchain
cargo build                 # Get dependencies

Why Boring Rust? Agent-generated code that compiles is usually correct. Complex patterns cause agents to produce incorrect or unmaintainable code.

---

Build System

Invoke the just-pro skill for build system setup. It covers:

• Simple repos vs monorepos
• Hierarchical justfile modules
• Rust-specific templates

Why just? Consistent toolchain frontend between agents and humans.

---

Quality Assurance

Auto-Fix First:

just fix             # Or: cargo clippy --fix && cargo fmt

Verification:

just check           # Or: cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings && cargo test

Use --all-targets to lint tests, examples, and benches too.

---

Quick Reference

Error Handling

// Libraries: thiserror for typed errors
#[derive(Debug, thiserror::Error)]
pub enum ConfigError {
    #[error("missing field: {field}")]
    MissingField { field: &'static str },

    #[error("failed to read file")]
    Io(#[from] std::io::Error),
}

// Applications: anyhow with context
pub fn load_config(path: &Path) -> anyhow::Result<Config> {
    let content = fs::read_to_string(path)
        .context("failed to read config file")?;

    toml::from_str(&content)
        .context("failed to parse config")
}

// Option handling: explicit, never silent
let user = users.get(&id)
    .ok_or_else(|| Error::NotFound { id: id.clone() })?;

State Machines

pub enum ConnectionState {
    Disconnected,
    Connecting { attempt: u32, started: Instant },
    Connected { session: Session },
}

impl ConnectionState {
    pub fn connect(&mut self) -> Result<(), Error> {
        match self {
            Self::Disconnected => {
                *self = Self::Connecting {
                    attempt: 1,
                    started: Instant::now(),
                };
                Ok(())
            }
            Self::Connecting { .. } => Err(Error::AlreadyConnecting),
            Self::Connected { .. } => Err(Error::AlreadyConnected),
        }
    }
}

Builder Pattern (bon crate)

use bon::Builder;

#[derive(Debug, Builder)]
pub struct ServerConfig {
    #[builder(default = 8080)]
    port: u16,
    host: String,  // Required
    #[builder(default)]
    timeout: Option<Duration>,
}

let config = ServerConfig::builder()
    .host("localhost".to_string())
    .build();

Newtype Pattern

#[derive(Debug, Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
pub struct UserId(String);

impl UserId {
    pub fn new(raw: impl Into<String>) -> Result<Self, ValidationError> {
        let s = raw.into();
        if s.is_empty() {
            return Err(ValidationError::Empty("user_id"));
        }
        Ok(Self(s))
    }

    pub fn as_str(&self) -> &str { &self.0 }
}

Async (Blessed Subset)

// GOOD: Owned data in, owned data out
pub async fn fetch_user(client: &Client, id: UserId) -> Result<User, Error> {
    let response = client
        .get(format!("/users/{}", id.as_str()))
        .send()
        .await
        .context("request failed")?;

    response.json::<User>().await
        .context("failed to parse response")
}

// GOOD: Structured concurrency
pub async fn fetch_all(client: &Client, ids: Vec<UserId>) -> Result<Vec<User>, Error> {
    futures::future::try_join_all(
        ids.into_iter().map(|id| fetch_user(client, id))
    ).await
}

// BANNED: Complex lifetime bounds in async
async fn bad<'a>(data: &'a [u8]) -> &'a str { ... }

// BANNED: select!, manual Poll

Test File Separation

// src/parser.rs - production code only, keeps file small
#[cfg(test)]
#[path = "parser_tests.rs"]
mod tests;

// src/parser_tests.rs - can have test relaxations
#![allow(clippy::unwrap_used, clippy::expect_used)]
use super::*;

#[test]
fn test_parser() {
    let result = parse("input").unwrap();
    assert_eq!(result, expected);
}

Project Organization

project/
├── src/
│   ├── lib.rs            # Crate root
│   ├── error.rs          # Error types
│   ├── config.rs         # Production code
│   ├── config_tests.rs   # Tests (if config.rs > 200 lines)
│   └── external/         # Wrappers around external crates
├── Cargo.toml
├── clippy.toml
├── rustfmt.toml
└── justfile

File size targets: Production < 300 LOC (code, excluding comments), Tests < 500 LOC.

Responding to Limit Violations

These limits exist to improve code architecture, not to be gamed. When a file or function exceeds its clippy/size limit, the correct response is to decompose by responsibility.

Extract, don't compress:

1. Identify logical sections (validation, transformation, serialization, domain logic)
2. Extract each into a well-named function or submodule — the name documents what the section does
3. Place in a companion file (e.g., order.rs → order/validate.rs, order/transform.rs) or a sibling module

When extraction is costly: Many locals to pass — consider a context struct or builder pattern.

Prohibited responses to limit violations: combining statements onto single lines, removing or shortening comments, compressing whitespace, shortening descriptive names, inlining helpers. The goal is clean architecture, not metric compliance.

---

Banned Patterns

Banned	Why	Alternative
.unwrap()	Panics	.context("...")?
.expect("msg")	Panics	.context("msg")?
array[i]	Panics	.get(i).ok_or(Error::Index)?
unsafe { }	Correctness	#[human_authored] module
impl Trait in params	Hides types	<T: Trait> explicit
macro_rules!	Complexity	Functions or generics
RefCell<T>	Runtime borrow	Restructure with &mut
Complex lifetimes	Agent confusion	Clone or restructure
select!	Cancellation bugs	Structured concurrency
Wildcard _ match	Silent failures	Explicit variants
Iterator chains (Tier 1)	Harder to debug	for loops

---

Anti-Patterns

• clone() to silence borrow checker without understanding why
• Fighting the borrow checker — redesign data flow instead
• Deep trait hierarchies mimicking OOP
• Over-generic code hurting compile times
• #[allow(...)] without // JUSTIFICATION: comment
• Stringly-typed APIs — use enums and newtypes
• Interior mutability (RefCell, Cell) in agent code

---

Blessed Crates

Category	Crate	Notes
Errors (lib)	thiserror	Derive-based
Errors (app)	anyhow	With .context()
Builder	bon	Derive-based
Serialization	serde	Standard
Async runtime	tokio	Blessed subset only
HTTP client	reqwest	High-level
Logging	tracing	Structured
CLI	clap	Derive mode

---

AI Agent Guidelines

Before writing code:

1. Read Cargo.toml for dependencies and lint configuration
2. Check clippy.toml for complexity thresholds
3. Identify existing patterns in the codebase to follow

When writing code:

1. Handle all errors with .context("what you were doing")?
2. Use for loops, not iterator chains (unless #[hot_path])
3. Clone freely to satisfy borrow checker — optimize later
4. Match exhaustively — no wildcard _ on your own enums

Before committing:

1. Run just check (standard for projects using just)
2. Fallback: cargo clippy -- -D warnings && cargo test
3. Ensure no #[allow] without justification comment

---

Troubleshooting

Config File Inheritance

Clippy and rustfmt walk up directory trees looking for config files. A rogue config in a parent directory (like /tmp) can break your project.

Symptoms:

• unknown field errors from clippy
• Wall of "unstable feature" warnings from rustfmt
• Unexpected lint behavior

Fix: Create project-local configs to prevent inheritance:

# clippy.toml - prevents inheriting parent configs
# (empty file is valid)

# rustfmt.toml - minimal stable config
edition = "2024"

Edition 2024

cargo init now defaults to edition 2024. If referencing older templates, update them.

---

References

• references/clippy.toml — Boring Rust clippy configuration
• references/cargo_lints.toml — Cargo.toml [lints] section
• references/rustfmt.toml — Formatting rules
• references/patterns.md — Additional Rust patterns
• references/bevy.md — Bevy ECS patterns (game development)