Rust Ecosystem Crates

It also covers matching an existing project's Cargo.toml conventions before introducing a competing crate, and the version-verification discipline (never trust a remembered patch number; confirm current versions on crates.io/Context7/Exa).

Out of scope: once a crate is chosen, its detailed API usage belongs to the matching domain skill (rust-web-backend, rust-async-concurrency, rust-error-handling) or direct docs verification (docs.rs/crates.io → Context7 → Exa).

Rust Ecosystem & Crates

Agent Workflow (MANDATORY)

Before ANY crate selection, use TeamCreate to spawn 3 agents:

1. explore-codebase - Read existing Cargo.toml to match established choices
2. research-expert - Confirm the CURRENT version + maintenance status on crates.io via Context7/Exa
3. mcp__context7__query-docs - Pull the chosen crate's current API before writing code

After implementation, run sniper for validation.

Overview — the decision map

Critical Rules

1. ALWAYS verify the current version before writing a Cargo.toml - versions move faster than this skill. Confirm on crates.io or via Context7; never paste a remembered patch number.
2. serde 2.0 is NOT stable - it is under discussion. Depend on serde = "1" today; do not write 2.0.
3. thiserror for libraries, anyhow for applications - never expose anyhow::Error in a library's public API.
4. One async runtime - standardize on tokio; mixing runtimes causes executor conflicts.
5. Match existing choices first - read the project's Cargo.toml before introducing a competing crate.

Architecture

Cargo.toml
├── [dependencies]
│   ├── serde / serde_json        # data
│   ├── tokio (features = [...])  # runtime
│   ├── axum / reqwest            # web in/out
│   ├── sqlx | sea-orm | diesel   # persistence (pick one)
│   ├── thiserror | anyhow        # errors (lib vs app)
│   └── tracing / tracing-subscriber

→ See cargo-toml-stack.md for a complete manifest

Reference Guide

Concepts

Templates

Quick Reference

Error handling split

// Library: typed, matchable errors.
#[derive(thiserror::Error, Debug)]
pub enum StoreError {
    #[error("not found: {0}")]
    NotFound(String),
}

// Application: contextual, any error.
use anyhow::Context;
let cfg = std::fs::read_to_string(path).context("reading config")?;

→ See crate-decision-map.md for the full rationale

Best Practices

DO

• Verify each crate's current version on crates.io before committing it
• Standardize on tokio and enable only the features you use
• Use thiserror in libraries, anyhow in binaries
• Prefer the crate the project already uses over a "better" alternative

DON'T

• Write serde = "2" — it is not stable
• Hardcode a remembered patch version without checking
• Expose anyhow::Error from a library API
• Mix async runtimes in one binary