# Rust Serde

> Serde as the boundary where untrusted input becomes a domain type — rename_all, default, skip_serializing_if, flatten, the four enum representations, deny_unknown_fields, and try_from validation. Use when deriving Serialize or Deserialize, when choosing an enum wire representation, when a JSON or YAML shape does not match the Rust type, or when the user asks how to validate deserialized data.

- Skill: `rewrite-rs/rust-serde` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add rewrite-rs/rust-serde`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/rewrite-rs/rust-serde/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: rewrite-rs (https://skillmd.com/u/rewrite-rs)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/rewrite-rs/rust-serde

---


# Rust Serde

A `#[derive(Deserialize)]` is a claim that anything it accepts is already valid
for the domain — the parse is the only place that claim is cheap to enforce.

## Deserialization is a parse

The type you deserialize into is the type the rest of the program trusts, so it
is the last place validation is cheap. A `Config` that deserializes with a
`String` port and checks it in `run()` has moved the failure past every layer
that could have reported it usefully. What the validated type should be is
`/type-driven-design`; this skill owns the boundary that type crosses.

## `#[serde(try_from = "...")]` is the mechanism

Deserialize into a raw shape, convert with `TryFrom` into the validated type,
and the conversion failure becomes a deserialization error — the read fails,
not the first use of the value. The error must implement `std::error::Error`.

```rust
#[derive(serde::Deserialize)]
struct RawConfig {
    workers: u32,
}

#[derive(serde::Deserialize)]
#[serde(try_from = "RawConfig")]
struct WorkerCount(u32);

#[derive(Debug)]
struct ZeroWorkers;

impl std::fmt::Display for ZeroWorkers {
    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
        write!(f, "workers must be at least one")
    }
}

impl std::error::Error for ZeroWorkers {}

impl TryFrom<RawConfig> for WorkerCount {
    type Error = ZeroWorkers;

    fn try_from(raw: RawConfig) -> Result<Self, Self::Error> {
        if raw.workers == 0 { Err(ZeroWorkers) } else { Ok(WorkerCount(raw.workers)) }
    }
}
```

## Naming across the boundary

`#[serde(rename_all = "camelCase")]` on the type, not `rename` on every field:
the Rust name follows Rust convention, the attribute carries the wire convention,
so neither side distorts the other.

## Optionality has three meanings, and they are different

- `#[serde(default)]` — the field may be absent and has a sensible zero;
  `T::default()` fills it, and an explicit null is still an error.
- `Option<T>` — absent and null both land in `None`, erasing the distinction;
  when the code must say which it means, the field is not a bare `Option`.
- `#[serde(skip_serializing_if = "Option::is_none")]` — do not emit the key at
  all on the way out.

Getting these wrong produces a round-trip that is not one — the bug that shows
up in a system you do not run, failing on a payload you produced.

## The four enum representations

| Representation | On the wire | Constraint |
|---|---|---|
| External — the default | `{"Named": "x"}`: a one-key wrapper around the variant | the wrapper key is noise when the payload already says what it is |
| Internal — `tag = "type"` | `{"type": "Named", "name": "x"}`: the tag inside the variant | cannot hold a newtype variant over a non-struct |
| Adjacent — `tag` plus `content` | `{"type": "Named", "value": "x"}`: tag and payload as siblings | the tag key is reserved in the envelope — a wire shape that already spends it at the top level cannot use this representation |
| Untagged | the variant shape as-is, no marker | tries every variant in order and reports a useless error when all fail — last resort, never for input you must diagnose |

External is the default; internal and adjacent are what a self-describing
message needs; untagged is for a shape no representation fits.

## `deny_unknown_fields` is a decision, not a default

Denying catches typos in a config file the user writes — a silently ignored
key is a support ticket. Accepting lets a producer add a field without
breaking every consumer. Choose per type: a config file usually denies, a
message from a service you do not control usually accepts.

## `flatten` and what it costs

It composes a shared struct into several types without repeating the fields,
and it costs twice: it disables `deny_unknown_fields` on the containing type,
and it forces buffering during deserialization. Worth it for composition, not
for saving four lines.

## Errors from the boundary

A deserialization failure is user-facing input error, not a bug: it carries the
reason — and, in JSON, a line and column once the failure sits in a nested
field — and it goes into the crate error type as its own kind, not a
stringified message. Shaping that kind is `/rust-errors`.

## Deferrals

What the validated type should be is `/type-driven-design`; whether it is
public API is `/rust-api-design`; custom derive mechanics are `/rust-macros`;
numeric range validation is the numerics companion of `/type-driven-design`.

## Verification

Run at the lint level the target repo configures; the fallback applies only
when the repo configures no lints at all:

```bash
cargo test                   # round-trip tests: serialize, deserialize, compare
cargo clippy --all-targets   # at the level the repo configures
```

Plus the check the compiler cannot do: for every type crossing a wire, a test
that a real payload from the other side deserializes — a round-trip that only
round-trips your own output proves the type agrees with itself.