Scaffold Rust Project

Generate a production-ready Rust project following established CI/CD patterns. Read the scaffold-project skill first for standard files (README, AGENTS.md, LICENSE, CONTRIBUTING.md, llms.txt).

When to Use

Creating a new Rust CLI tool, library, or workspace
Adding CI/CD to an existing Rust project missing workflows
Standardizing a Rust project to match org conventions

Generated Files

`.github/workflows/ci.yml`

name: CI

on:
  pull_request:
    branches: [main]
  workflow_call:

permissions:
  contents: read

concurrency:
  group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.ref }}
  cancel-in-progress: true

env:
  CARGO_TERM_COLOR: always

jobs:
  check:
    name: Check
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
      - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
      - run: cargo check --workspace

  clippy:
    name: Clippy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
        with:
          components: clippy
      - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
      - run: cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings

  fmt:
    name: Format
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
        with:
          components: rustfmt
      - run: cargo fmt --all -- --check

  test:
    name: Test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
      - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
      - run: cargo test --workspace

`.github/workflows/release.yml`

name: Release

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
  workflow_dispatch:

concurrency:
  group: release
  cancel-in-progress: false

jobs:
  ci:
    if: github.actor != 'sr[bot]'
    uses: ./.github/workflows/ci.yml

  release:
    needs: ci
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write
    steps:
      - name: Generate app token
        id: app-token
        uses: actions/create-github-app-token@v1
        with:
          app-id: ${{ secrets.SR_RELEASER_APP_ID }}
          private-key: ${{ secrets.SR_RELEASER_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          repositories: ${{ github.event.repository.name }}

      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          token: ${{ steps.app-token.outputs.token }}

      - uses: urmzd/sr@v8
        id: sr
        with:
          github-token: ${{ steps.app-token.outputs.token }}

    outputs:
      released: ${{ steps.sr.outputs.released }}
      tag: ${{ steps.sr.outputs.tag }}
      version: ${{ steps.sr.outputs.version }}

  build:
    needs: release
    if: needs.release.outputs.released == 'true'
    name: Build (${{ matrix.target }})
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.runner }}
    permissions:
      contents: write
    env:
      GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
    strategy:
      matrix:
        include:
          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
            runner: ubuntu-latest
            cross: false
          - target: aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
            runner: ubuntu-latest
            cross: true
          - target: x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
            runner: ubuntu-latest
            cross: false
          - target: aarch64-unknown-linux-musl
            runner: ubuntu-latest
            cross: true
          - target: x86_64-apple-darwin
            runner: macos-15-intel
            cross: false
          - target: aarch64-apple-darwin
            runner: macos-15
            cross: false
          - target: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
            runner: windows-latest
            cross: false
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          ref: ${{ needs.release.outputs.tag }}

      - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
        with:
          targets: ${{ matrix.target }}

      - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
        with:
          key: ${{ matrix.target }}

      - name: Install musl-tools
        if: matrix.target == 'x86_64-unknown-linux-musl'
        run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y musl-tools

      - name: Install cross
        if: matrix.cross
        run: cargo install cross --locked

      - name: Build
        shell: bash
        run: |
          BIN_NAME="${{ github.event.repository.name }}"
          if [ "${{ matrix.cross }}" = "true" ]; then
            cross build --release --target ${{ matrix.target }}
          else
            cargo build --release --target ${{ matrix.target }}
          fi

      - name: Upload to release
        shell: bash
        run: |
          BIN_NAME="${{ github.event.repository.name }}"
          TAG="${{ needs.release.outputs.tag }}"
          if [ -f "target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/${BIN_NAME}.exe" ]; then
            cp "target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/${BIN_NAME}.exe" "${BIN_NAME}-${{ matrix.target }}.exe"
            gh release upload "$TAG" "${BIN_NAME}-${{ matrix.target }}.exe" --clobber
          else
            cp "target/${{ matrix.target }}/release/${BIN_NAME}" "${BIN_NAME}-${{ matrix.target }}"
            chmod +x "${BIN_NAME}-${{ matrix.target }}"
            gh release upload "$TAG" "${BIN_NAME}-${{ matrix.target }}" --clobber
          fi

  # Uncomment for crates.io publishing:
  # publish:
  #   needs: release
  #   if: needs.release.outputs.released == 'true'
  #   runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  #   permissions:
  #     id-token: write
  #     contents: read
  #   steps:
  #     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
  #       with:
  #         ref: ${{ needs.release.outputs.tag }}
  #     - uses: dtolnay/rust-toolchain@stable
  #     - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@v2
  #     - id: auth
  #       uses: rust-lang/crates-io-auth-action@v1
  #     - name: Publish
  #       env:
  #         CARGO_REGISTRY_TOKEN: ${{ steps.auth.outputs.token }}
  #       run: cargo publish --allow-dirty

`sr.yaml`

See sync-release skill for full sr.yaml reference.

git:
  tag_prefix: "v"
  floating_tag: true

commit:
  types:
    minor: [feat]
    patch: [fix, perf, refactor]
    none: [docs, revert, chore, ci, test, build, style]

changelog:
  file: CHANGELOG.md

packages:
  - path: .
    version_files:
      - Cargo.toml
    stage_files:
      - Cargo.lock
    publish:
      type: cargo
      workspace: true    # iterate [workspace].members in declaration order

For workspaces, sr auto-discovers member Cargo.toml files from the root. List [workspace].members in dependency order (leaf crates first) so cargo publish reaches crates.io in the right order.

Common Commands

Cargo is the native build system:

cargo fmt --all           # format
cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings  # lint
cargo test --workspace    # test
cargo build --release     # build
cargo run -- <args>       # run

Set up git hooks during init: git config core.hooksPath .githooks && cargo fetch

Gotchas

Always use --workspace for clippy/test/check in multi-crate repos
cross is only needed for ARM targets (aarch64-*); x86 musl just needs musl-tools
macos-15-intel for x86_64 Darwin, macos-15 for aarch64 Darwin
List [workspace].members in dependency order (leaf crates first) — the cargo publisher iterates in that order, and crates.io index propagation (~30-60s) is handled via retry inside sr
Use -p <crate-name> for cargo build when the workspace has multiple binaries (publish is handled by the typed publisher)
cancel-in-progress: false on release workflow to prevent partial releases

Workspace Member Files

Each publishable workspace member (crates/<name>/) must have:

File	Content
`LICENSE`	Copy of root `LICENSE`
`README.md`	Crate name heading, description from `Cargo.toml`, link to workspace repo

When scaffolding a new workspace member, generate both files. See scaffold-project for the README template.

Skip examples/ members — they are not published to crates.io.

scaffold-rust