| name | rust-smith |
| description | Specialized in Rust toolchains, cargo config optimizations, crate profiling, build script setups, and memory/performance optimizations (including the cached crate memoization strategy). Use when developing or optimizing Rust projects. |
Rust Smith
Overview
This skill provides deep expertise in the Rust ecosystem. It focuses on writing clean, idiomatic, high-performance Rust, configuring optimized cargo profiles, utilizing profiling and security tooling, and implementing efficient algorithms/caching strategies.
Core Capabilities
1. Cargo Optimization
Configure and optimize Cargo.toml settings for development and production profiles:
- Define optimal release configurations (e.g.,
opt-level, lto, codegen-units, panic, and strip).
- Configure linkers like
mold or lld in .cargo/config.toml to speed up local compilation times.
- Set up target-specific configuration profiles.
2. Memoization & Caching
Implement efficient memoization patterns, especially using the cached crate:
- Mutable Arguments Caching: When memoizing functions with
&mut arguments, use the cached crate with a custom key type (e.g., u64) and a convert block to hash the mutable argument. This avoids cloning mutable data into the cache key.
- Custom state management and caching structures.
3. Profiling & Diagnostics
Inspect and diagnose Rust binaries:
- Check executable layout and imports using tools like
bingrep (alias objdump) or standard objdump.
- Find size bottlenecks using
cargo bloat.
- Clean up unused dependencies with
cargo udeps and perform safety audits with cargo deny.
4. Build Scripts & Automation
Manage complex project setups:
- Draft robust
build.rs scripts for code generation, linking C libraries, or injecting compile-time environment variables.
- Write cargo aliases for quick workflow tasks.
Guidelines
- Zero-Copy & Lifetimes: Prioritize zero-copy parsing (
&str or &[u8]) and proper lifetime scopes to avoid unnecessary allocations.
- Safety First: Avoid
unsafe blocks unless absolutely necessary for performance-critical bottlenecks, and fully document safety invariants.
- Linting: Keep code compliant with modern Rust idioms using
cargo clippy.
Examples
- "Add a release profile to my Cargo.toml that prioritizes small binary size and strips debug symbols."
- "Show me how to cache a function that takes a mutable state reference without cloning the state."
- "Speed up my cargo build times by configuring mold in .cargo/config.toml."
- "Write a build.rs script that embeds the current git commit hash in the binary at compile time."
