rust-development

name	rust-development
description	Expert Rust development guidance covering naming conventions, type safety, error handling, documentation, and best practices based on official Rust guidelines. Use this skill when writing new Rust code, reviewing or modifying existing Rust code, designing Rust APIs or libraries, refactoring Rust codebases, or whenever the user mentions Rust, Cargo, clippy, rustfmt, traits, lifetimes, or `.rs` files.
license	Apache-2.0

Rust Development

This skill enforces new code or code changes to conform to proper Rust guidelines.

When to Use

Activate this skill when:

• Writing new Rust code
• Reviewing or modifying existing Rust code
• Designing Rust APIs, libraries, or applications
• Refactoring Rust codebases

Required Gates (Before Submitting Code)

All code must pass these checks:

cargo +nightly fmt              # format
cargo clippy -- -D warnings     # lint with no warnings
cargo test                      # tests pass
cargo doc --no-deps             # docs build

Code that fails clippy or is not properly formatted should not be committed. See project-and-tooling.md for required lints and rustfmt.toml config.

Reference Files

Load the relevant file when working on the matching topic:

Topic	File
Naming conventions (RFC 430), case rules, conversion methods (as_/to_/into_), getter/iterator method conventions	naming.md
Type safety (newtypes, primitive obsession, bitflags, builders) and trait implementations (Clone, Debug, From/TryFrom, Deref rules, object safety, Serde behind feature flags)	types.md
Error type requirements, thiserror for libraries, anyhow for applications, propagating with ?, let ... else for early returns	error-handling.md
Public-item docs, # Arguments/# Errors/# Panics/# Safety/# Examples sections, #[doc(hidden)] for implementation details	documentation.md
Minimizing unsafe, thread safety, Drop must not fail, avoiding allocations, iterators over indexing, &str over String, Cow	safety-and-performance.md
API design (no out-parameters, intermediate results, constructors as static methods, generics over concrete types, input validation) and forward compatibility (private fields, sealed traits)	api-design.md
Cargo.toml metadata, module organization, feature flags, test organization, property-based testing, required clippy lints, rustfmt.toml, pre-commit checks	project-and-tooling.md

Guidelines Sources

These guidelines are based on:

• Microsoft Rust Guidelines
• Rust API Guidelines
• The Rust Programming Language Book
• Rust community best practices

Code Review Checklist

Required

• Code passes cargo clippy -- -D warnings
• Code is formatted with cargo +nightly fmt
• Tests pass with cargo test

Naming (naming.md)

• Follows RFC 430 case conventions
• Conversions use as_/to_/into_ correctly
• No get_ prefix on simple getters
• Iterator methods follow conventions

Types (types.md)

• Uses newtypes for distinct concepts
• Avoids bool/Option parameters with unclear meaning
• Implements appropriate standard traits
• Error types implement Error + Send + Sync

Safety (safety-and-performance.md)

• Minimizes unsafe code
• Documents safety invariants
• Validates inputs at boundaries

Documentation (documentation.md)

• All public items documented
• Examples compile and demonstrate usage
• Error/panic conditions documented

Performance (safety-and-performance.md)

• Avoids unnecessary allocations
• Uses iterators appropriately
• Takes references where ownership isn't needed

Testing (project-and-tooling.md)

• Unit tests for core logic
• Integration tests for public API
• Edge cases covered