audit-rust

name

audit-rust

description

Use when auditing or profiling complex Rust CLIs, libraries, Tokio services, Tauri backends, Cargo workspaces, local-first single binaries, or SQLite-backed applications, especially for toolchain baselines, crate boundaries, structural lifecycle, ownership, errors, concurrency, CPU and memory evidence, database migrations and query plans, unsafe or FFI safety, quality gates, and architecture-document alignment.

Rust Audit

Overview

Audit Rust engineering from repository evidence. Select only the audit profiles required by the task; do not load architecture, performance, memory, SQLite, concurrency, and FFI review into every audit. This workflow is read-only by default; use implement-rust for requested changes. For an existing local diff, code-review remains the read-only Git-change review coordinator; for an immutable repository, range, PR, release candidate, or review package, repo-review remains the review coordinator. Either may invoke this skill for a bounded Rust specialist subreview.

Rule Priority

Resolve conflicts in this order:

1. The user's current explicit request.
2. The nearest applicable AGENTS.md or repository guidance.
3. Existing project code, toolchain, and architecture.
4. Project documentation and interface contracts.
5. This skill.
6. External reference repositories.

Do not rewrite a working local design merely to resemble an external project.

Workflow

1. Read repository guidance, run git status --short, and inspect only relevant manifests, entry points, modules, docs, tests, benches, migrations, CI, and runtime configuration. When delegated, record the exact Rust paths or diff and keep the caller as review coordinator.
2. Determine workspace/crate boundaries, library and binary entries, feature flags, MSRV, edition, runtime/thread model, error/tracing style, database linkage, migration strategy, quality commands, and unsafe/FFI/native dependencies that apply to the task.
3. Select one or more audit profiles:
   • Architecture/baseline: crate/module/API ownership, dependencies, toolchain policy, structural lifecycle, docs, and legacy exceptions.
   • Ownership/errors: resource lifetime, copying/retention, typed errors, panic/log/retry boundaries.
   • Concurrency/runtime: Tokio/blocking work, tasks, channels, locks, backpressure, cancellation, panic propagation, and shutdown.
   • Performance/memory: representative workload, release baseline, CPU, allocation, RSS, I/O, binary/compile cost, caches, mmap, allocator/native/OS retention.
   • SQLite: runtime/linkage, connections, transactions, WAL, migrations, schema, indexes, plans, maintenance, backup, and recovery.
   • Unsafe/FFI: invariants, ABI/layout, pointer ownership, callbacks, threads, panic containment, alloc/free symmetry, and native cleanup.
4. Classify applicable standards as portable governance, organization baseline, new-project template, repository contract, or documented legacy exception. Never turn a version snapshot or example tree into a universal rule.
5. Consume current repo-context output or build a targeted inventory of analogous APIs, modules, database access, background tasks, tests, benchmarks, migrations, callers, and architecture docs.
6. Map governing invariants, resource owners, shutdown/cancellation paths, error boundaries, workload, baseline, and validation gaps for the selected profiles only.
7. When an in-scope selected-profile change adds, reuses, moves, renames, or deletes a structural surface, audit every affected manifest, registration, export, feature, test, migration, generated file, deployment path, architecture document, and index; search for stale references.
8. Validate hypotheses with non-mutating repository-defined commands and representative data. Do not substitute cargo check for release, benchmark, concurrency, migration, or runtime evidence.
9. Stop when the selected profiles are supported by evidence. Mark unselected profiles out of scope rather than partially reviewing them.
10. Report severity-ranked findings with impact, exact location, evidence, remediation direction, Not verified gaps, and the selected/excluded profile boundary. In specialist mode, return findings to the coordinating code-review or repo-review; do not stage, commit, post comments, or take over final review ownership.

Modes

• Focused profile audit: one or two selected risk surfaces with bounded evidence and commands.
• Combined risk audit: multiple interacting profiles, such as Tokio plus SQLite or unsafe plus performance, with explicit integration risks.
• Baseline audit: compare toolchain, workspace, directory, naming, validation, documentation, and legacy-exception policy against real project evidence.
• Performance experiment review: define workload, baseline, measurement, one-factor experiment, and comparable before/after evidence; route experiment edits to implement-rust.
• Scoped specialist subreview: inspect only the Rust paths or diff delegated by code-review or repo-review; return domain findings without taking review coordination or Git/GitHub ownership.

Hard Rules

• Do not add or recommend a public trait, global state, runtime, thread pool, cache, pool, repository/service/manager layer, or database abstraction before proving the consumer, lifecycle, replacement, test, or deployment need.
• Do not hard-code the latest stable Rust release or universal MSRV. Read the repository's pinned toolchain and support policy.
• Do not impose one apps/, crates/, domain/, application/, infrastructure/, or frontend-mirrored directory tree. Split by stable responsibility or deployment boundary, not file count.
• Give every file, socket, mmap, connection, transaction, statement, rows iterator, task, subscription, lock, channel, buffer, cache, and index reader/writer a clear owner and bounded lifetime when that surface is selected.
• Do not label every clone, Arc, Mutex, unwrap, large file, or full table scan as a finding. Prove context, frequency, reachability, and impact.
• Keep expected failures recoverable and typed. Libraries do not exit the process; expected input/business errors do not panic; boundary layers translate errors without duplicate logs.
• Do not make synchronous code async merely because Tokio exists. Keep blocking file, CPU, native, and SQLite work off executor threads; bound tasks/channels; define backpressure, timeout, cancellation, panic, and shutdown.
• Optimize only from a representative workload and comparable release baseline. Do not introduce inline, unsafe, SIMD, allocator changes, mmap, pools, SmallVec, interning, caches, or parallel iteration on intuition alone.
• Distinguish leaks from live references, caches, allocator retention, mmap, SQLite page cache, native allocations, and OS file cache. RSS alone is not leak proof.
• Inspect actual SQLite runtime/linkage. Verify critical queries with representative data and EXPLAIN QUERY PLAN; treat WAL as one-writer concurrency; handle busy/locked outcomes; never delete -wal or -shm manually.
• Do not default to auto_vacuum=FULL, run VACUUM without free-space/outage analysis, or raise cache/mmap settings without measurement. Keep network calls and long computation outside transactions.
• Choose rusqlite or SQLx from actual runtime, connection, transaction, checking, and deployment needs; never migrate because one is newer or marketed as async.
• Keep every unsafe block minimal and document its safety invariant. Verify FFI ownership, length, alignment, lifetime, ABI, callback/re-entry, panic, thread, allocator, and cleanup behavior.
• Apply stricter templates to new projects only when adopted. Migrate established projects incrementally at real change boundaries; never rename mechanically for visual consistency.
• Do not edit, stage, commit, post review comments, or deliver code in audit mode. Route approved remediation to implement-rust. code-review owns local dirty-tree review and commit readiness; repo-review owns immutable repository/range/PR review coordination; code-delivery alone owns Git mutation.
• Do not claim profiles were reviewed when their workload, runtime, target, dataset, or tool support was unavailable. Mark the exact gap Not verified.

Do Not Use For

• Repository orientation without a Rust task; use repo-context.
• Rust implementation, modification, refactoring, or porting; use implement-rust.
• Root-cause diagnosis before a fix is known; use diagnose.
• Whole-diff review, dirty-tree classification, staging plans, commit grouping, or commit readiness; use code-review. Under its orchestration, this skill may inspect a bounded changed Rust surface as a read-only specialist without taking over coordination.
• Coordinating an entire repository, branch range, PR, release candidate, or review package; use repo-review, which may delegate a bounded Rust surface here.
• Commit, push, squash, branch cleanup, or remote proof; use code-delivery only when the user explicitly requests delivery.
• Security-only audit after the Rust surface is mapped; use audit-security.
• A frontend-only change with no Rust or SQLite boundary.

Output Contract

Start with selected profiles and severity-ranked findings. For each finding, report impact, exact location, evidence, remediation direction, and validation gap. Then summarize project class; coordinating owner when this is a scoped specialist subreview; guidance/manifests/code/migrations/docs/tests/commands inspected; existing candidates; ownership and invariants; selected profile evidence; structural lifecycle; workload and before/after data where applicable; explicitly excluded profiles; and Not found or Not verified gaps.

Skill Maintenance

Keep this entry procedural. When triggers, modes, or rules change, update references, agents/openai.yaml, eval cases, README/install indexes, and run python3 scripts/validate-skills.py --skill audit-rust.

References

• Read architecture-and-modules.md for workspace, crate, module, binary, domain, trait, and dependency boundaries.
• Read project-baseline-and-lifecycle.md for baseline classification, legacy policy, reuse-first discovery, and structural lifecycle.
• Read ownership-and-resources.md for ownership, clone, Arc, resources, buffers, caches, and lifecycle.
• Read errors-and-api-design.md for invariants, API types, errors, panic, retry, logging, and boundary translation.
• Read async-and-concurrency.md for runtime, blocking work, tasks, channels, locks, timeouts, cancellation, shutdown, and Loom.
• Read performance.md for workloads, baselines, CPU, allocation, I/O, binary, compile-time, and benchmark decisions.
• Read memory.md for RSS, allocation, retention, caches, mmap, SQLite pages, and leak classification.
• Read sqlite.md for linkage, connections, transactions, WAL, migrations, schema, indexes, plans, maintenance, backup, and recovery.
• Read testing-and-quality.md for risk-based tests, Cargo gates, Clippy, docs, release builds, Miri, audit, coverage, and benchmarks.
• Read unsafe-and-security.md for unsafe invariants, FFI, native resources, dependencies, secrets, and security checks.
• Read review-checklist.md for common gates and profile-scoped checks.
• Read anti-patterns.md for detectable failure patterns and corrective decisions.
• Read reference-corpus.md for official source evidence, adopted rules, and rejected cargo-cult choices.
• Read usage.md for trigger, routing, and reporting examples.
• Read eval-cases.md for trigger, non-trigger, scenario, quality, and scoring evals.