Rust Skills

March 21, 2026 · View on GitHub

AI-powered Rust development assistant with meta-cognition framework

What is Rust Skills?

Rust Skills is a Claude Code plugin that transforms how AI assists with Rust development. Instead of giving surface-level answers, it traces through cognitive layers to provide domain-correct architectural solutions.

The Problem

Traditional AI assistance for Rust:

User: "My trading system reports E0382"
AI: "Use .clone()"  ← Surface fix, ignores domain constraints

The Solution

Rust Skills with meta-cognition:

User: "My trading system reports E0382"

AI (with Rust Skills):
├── Layer 1: E0382 = ownership error → Why is this data needed?
│       ↑
├── Layer 3: Trade records are immutable audit data → Should share, not copy
│       ↓
├── Layer 2: Use Arc<TradeRecord> as shared immutable value
│       ↓
└── Recommendation: Redesign as Arc<T>, not clone()

Features

Meta-Cognition Framework: Three-layer cognitive model (Domain → Design → Mechanics)
Real-time Information: Fetch latest Rust versions and crate info via background agents
Dynamic Skills: Auto-generate skills from your Cargo.toml dependencies
Domain Extensions: FinTech, ML, Cloud-Native, IoT, Embedded, Web, CLI support
Coding Guidelines: Complete Rust coding conventions and best practices

Installation

Rust Skills supports two installation modes:

Plugin Mode (Claude Code): Full features including hooks, agents, and auto meta-cognition
Skills-only Mode: Works with any coding agent that supports skills (Claude Code, Vercel AI, etc.)

Skills-only Install (Recommended)

The simplest way to get started. Works with any coding agent that supports skills, including Claude Code, Vercel's add-skills, and others.

Skills now include inline fallback logic — when agent files are not available, skills execute directly using built-in tools (actionbook, agent-browser, WebFetch).

Option A: NPX (Easiest)

npx skills add actionbook/rust-skills

Option B: CoWork CLI

Install via CoWork, a Rust-based skills management tool:

# Install CoWork
cargo install cowork

# Method 1: Direct install
cowork install actionbook/rust-skills

# Method 2: Config-based install (recommended for teams)
cowork config init                    # Create .cowork/Skills.toml
# Edit Skills.toml to add rust-skills (see below)
cowork config install                 # Install all configured skills

Skills.toml configuration:

[project]
name = "my-rust-project"

[skills.install]
rust-skills = "actionbook/rust-skills"

[security]
trusted_authors = ["ZhangHanDong"]

CoWork (co for short) provides version management, dependency resolution, lock files, and security auditing. See CoWork documentation for more details.

Option C: Manual Copy

git clone https://github.com/actionbook/rust-skills.git
cp -r rust-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/

Note: Skills-only mode does not include hooks, so meta-cognition won't trigger automatically. You can manually call /rust-router or specific skills. Background agents fall back to inline execution automatically.

Claude Code Plugin Install (Full Features)

For Claude Code users who want the complete experience with hooks, background agents, and auto meta-cognition triggering.

Option A: Marketplace

# Step 1: Add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add actionbook/rust-skills

# Step 2: Install the plugin
/plugin install rust-skills@rust-skills

Note: Step 1 only adds the marketplace (plugin source). Step 2 actually installs the rust-skills plugin with all features enabled.

Option B: Full Plugin (Local)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/actionbook/rust-skills.git

# Launch with plugin directory
claude --plugin-dir /path/to/rust-skills

Feature Comparison

Feature	Plugin (Marketplace)	Plugin (Local)	Skills-only (NPX/CoWork/Manual)
All 31 Skills	✅	✅	✅
Auto meta-cognition trigger	✅	✅	❌ (manual invoke)
Hook-based routing	✅	✅	❌
Background agents	✅	✅	✅ (inline fallback)
Easy updates	✅	❌	✅ (NPX/CoWork)
Works with other agents	❌	❌	✅

Permission Configuration

Background agents require permission to run agent-browser. Configure in your project:

# Copy example config
cp /path/to/rust-skills/.claude/settings.example.json .claude/settings.local.json

Or create manually:

mkdir -p .claude
cat > .claude/settings.local.json << 'EOF'
{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Bash(agent-browser *)"
    ]
  }
}
EOF

See .claude/settings.example.json for reference.

Other Platforms

OpenCode: See .opencode/INSTALL.md
Codex: See .codex/INSTALL.md

Dependent Skills

Rust Skills relies on these external tools for full functionality:

Tool	Description	GitHub
actionbook	MCP server for website action manuals. Used by agents to fetch structured web content (Rust releases, crate info, documentation).	actionbook/actionbook
agent-browser	Browser automation tool for fetching real-time web data. Fallback when actionbook is unavailable.	vercel-labs/agent-browser

Meta-Cognition Framework

Core Concept

Don't answer directly. Trace through cognitive layers first.

Layer 3: Domain Constraints (WHY)
├── Domain rules determine design choices
└── Example: Financial systems require immutable, auditable data

Layer 2: Design Choices (WHAT)
├── Design patterns and architectural decisions
└── Example: Use Arc<T> for shared immutable data

Layer 1: Language Mechanics (HOW)
├── Rust language features and compiler rules
└── Example: E0382 is a symptom of ownership design issues

Routing Rules

User Signal	Entry Layer	Trace Direction	Primary Skill
E0xxx errors	Layer 1	Trace UP ↑	m01-m07
"How to design..."	Layer 2	Bidirectional	m09-m15
"[Domain] app development"	Layer 3	Trace DOWN ↓	domain-*
Performance issues	Layer 1→2	Up then Down	m10-performance

Skills Overview

Core Skills

rust-router - Master router for all Rust questions (invoked first)
rust-learner - Fetch latest Rust/crate version info
coding-guidelines - Coding conventions lookup

Layer 1: Language Mechanics (m01-m07)

Skill	Core Question	Triggers
m01-ownership	Who should own this data?	E0382, E0597, move, borrow
m02-resource	What ownership pattern fits?	Box, Rc, Arc, RefCell
m03-mutability	Why does this data need to change?	mut, Cell, E0596, E0499
m04-zero-cost	Compile-time or runtime polymorphism?	generic, trait, E0277
m05-type-driven	How can types prevent invalid states?	newtype, PhantomData
m06-error-handling	Expected failure or bug?	Result, Error, panic, ?
m07-concurrency	CPU-bound or I/O-bound?	async, Send, Sync, thread

Layer 2: Design Choices (m09-m15)

Skill	Core Question	Triggers
m09-domain	What role does this concept play?	DDD, entity, value object
m10-performance	Where's the bottleneck?	benchmark, profiling
m11-ecosystem	Which crate fits this task?	crate selection, dependencies
m12-lifecycle	When to create, use, cleanup?	RAII, Drop, lazy init
m13-domain-error	Who handles this error?	retry, circuit breaker
m14-mental-model	How to think about this correctly?	learning Rust, why
m15-anti-pattern	Does this pattern hide design issues?	code smell, common mistakes

Layer 3: Domain Constraints (domain-*)

Skill	Domain	Core Constraints
domain-fintech	FinTech	Audit trail, precision, consistency
domain-ml	Machine Learning	Memory efficiency, GPU acceleration
domain-cloud-native	Cloud Native	12-Factor, observability, graceful shutdown
domain-iot	IoT	Offline-first, power management, security
domain-web	Web Services	Stateless, latency SLA, concurrency
domain-cli	CLI	UX, config precedence, exit codes
domain-embedded	Embedded	No heap, no_std, real-time

Commands

Command	Description
`/rust-features [version]`	Get Rust version features
`/crate-info <crate>`	Get crate information
`/docs <crate> [item]`	Get API documentation
`/sync-crate-skills`	Sync skills from Cargo.toml dependencies
`/update-crate-skill <crate>`	Update specific crate skill
`/clean-crate-skills`	Clean local crate skills

Dynamic Skills

Generate skills on-demand from your project dependencies:

# Enter your Rust project
cd my-rust-project

# Sync all dependencies
/sync-crate-skills

# Skills are created at ~/.claude/skills/{crate}/

Features

On-demand generation: Created from Cargo.toml dependencies
Local storage: ~/.claude/skills/
Version tracking: Each skill records crate version
Workspace support: Parses all workspace members

How It Works

User Question
     │
     ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           Hook Layer                     │
│  400+ keywords trigger meta-cognition    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
     │
     ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           rust-router                    │
│  Identify entry layer + domain           │
│  Decision: dual-skill loading            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
     │
     ├──────────────┬──────────────┐
     ▼              ▼              ▼
┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐
│ Layer 1  │  │ Layer 2  │  │ Layer 3  │
│ m01-m07  │  │ m09-m15  │  │ domain-* │
└──────────┘  └──────────┘  └──────────┘
     │
     ▼
Domain-correct architectural solution

@pinghe - context: fork support suggestion (#4)
@DoiiarX - OpenCode installation fix (#6)

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Rust Skills

What is Rust Skills?

The Problem

The Solution

Features

Installation

Skills-only Install (Recommended)

Option A: NPX (Easiest)

Option B: CoWork CLI

Option C: Manual Copy

Claude Code Plugin Install (Full Features)

Option A: Marketplace

Option B: Full Plugin (Local)

Feature Comparison

Permission Configuration

Other Platforms

Dependent Skills

Meta-Cognition Framework

Core Concept

Routing Rules

Skills Overview

Core Skills

Layer 1: Language Mechanics (m01-m07)

Layer 2: Design Choices (m09-m15)

Layer 3: Domain Constraints (domain-*)

Commands

Dynamic Skills

Features

How It Works

Documentation

Contributing

Acknowledgments

License

Links