Tools Reference

Built-in Tools

Tool	Purpose
Read	Read .rs files
Write	Create new Rust files
Edit	Modify Rust code
Bash	Run cargo, rustc, clippy, rustfmt
Glob	Find Rust files (*.rs)
Grep	Search Rust code

Related Skills

• psn:code:rust-cli - Clap CLI development
• psn:code:rust-test - Rust testing
• psn:code:rust-dioxus - Dioxus GUI development
• psn:code:rust-tooling - Lint/format/typecheck
• psn:code:rust-validate - Full validation workflow

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Rust Coding Practices

Modern Rust idioms focused on safety, performance, and clarity.

Parse, Don't Validate

Make invalid states unrepresentable via newtype wrappers:

pub struct Email(String);

impl Email {
    pub fn parse(s: &str) -> Result<Self, EmailError> {
        if s.contains('@') && s.contains('.') {
            Ok(Self(s.to_owned()))
        } else {
            Err(EmailError::InvalidFormat)
        }
    }

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

// Can't construct invalid Email
fn send_email(to: Email, subject: Subject) { ... }

Error Handling

Library Code: thiserror

use thiserror::Error;

#[derive(Debug, Error)]
pub enum ParseError {
    #[error("invalid format: {0}")]
    InvalidFormat(String),

    #[error("missing field: {field}")]
    MissingField { field: &'static str },

    #[error(transparent)]
    Io(#[from] std::io::Error),
}

Application Code: anyhow

use anyhow::{Context, Result};

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

    let config: Config = toml::from_str(&contents)
        .context("failed to parse config")?;

    Ok(config)
}

Builder Pattern

#[derive(Default)]
pub struct RequestBuilder {
    url: Option<String>,
    method: Method,
    headers: HashMap<String, String>,
}

impl RequestBuilder {
    pub fn new() -> Self { Self::default() }

    pub fn url(mut self, url: impl Into<String>) -> Self {
        self.url = Some(url.into());
        self
    }

    pub fn build(self) -> Result<Request, BuildError> {
        let url = self.url.ok_or(BuildError::MissingUrl)?;
        Ok(Request { url, method: self.method, headers: self.headers })
    }
}

Iterators Over Loops

// Functional (prefer)
let results: Vec<_> = items
    .iter()
    .filter(|item| item.is_valid())
    .map(|item| item.process())
    .collect();

// Early exit with Iterator
let results: Result<Vec<_>, _> = items
    .iter()
    .map(|item| process(item))
    .collect(); // Stops on first Err

Smart Pointers

// Box: single ownership, heap allocation
let data: Box<LargeStruct> = Box::new(large_struct);

// Arc: shared ownership, multi-thread
let shared: Arc<Config> = Arc::new(config);

// Mutex: interior mutability, multi-thread
let mutex: Mutex<Vec<i32>> = Mutex::new(vec![]);

Module Organization

// lib.rs
pub mod config;      // Public module
mod internal;        // Private module

pub use config::Config;  // Re-export

Prelude Pattern

// src/prelude.rs
pub use crate::config::Config;
pub use crate::error::{Error, Result};

Flatten API Exports

// docker/mod.rs
mod client;    // private
pub use client::DockerClient;  // docker::DockerClient

.unwrap() Policy

Avoid in library code. Use instead:

• .unwrap_or(default)
• .unwrap_or_default()
• .expect("reason this can't fail")
• .ok_or(Error::Missing)?

Acceptable:

• Tests
• After infallible operations: Regex::new(r"^\d+$").unwrap()

Forbidden

Never commit:

• dbg!() - debug macro
• todo!() - unfinished code
• panic!() for recoverable errors
• .unwrap() on user input or external data
• use foo::* (except use super::* in tests)