mcpbeat Sign in

Rust Best Practices Agent Skill

Use when writing, modifying, or reviewing Rust code. ALWAYS invoke before Rust edits; covers Microsoft Pragmatic Rust guidance for error handling, API design, performance, and idiomatic patterns.

2k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
2
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
242
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/majiayu000/spellbook --skill rust-best-practices

The instruction itself

11 sections, as written by the author

Rust Best Practices

Based on Microsoft Pragmatic Rust Guidelines and Rust community standards.

Core Principles

  • Leverage the type system — Use types to make invalid states unrepresentable
  • Embrace ownership — Work with the borrow checker, not against it
  • Explicit over implicit — Be clear about fallibility, mutability, and lifetimes
  • Zero-cost abstractions — Use iterators, generics, and traits without runtime cost
  • Fail fast, recover gracefully — Validate early, handle errors explicitly

Error Handling

Use thiserror for Libraries

use thiserror::Error;

#[derive(Error, Debug)]
pub enum MyError {
    #[error("IO error: {0}")]
    Io(#[from] std::io::Error),
    #[error("Parse error at line {line}: {message}")]
    Parse { line: usize, message: String },
    #[error("Not found: {0}")]
    NotFound(String),
}

Use anyhow for Applications

use anyhow::{Context, Result};

fn main() -> Result<()> {
    let config = load_config()
        .context("Failed to load configuration")?;
    run_app(config)?;
    Ok(())
}

Never Panic in Libraries

// ❌ BAD
pub fn get_item(index: usize) -> &Item {
    &self.items[index]  // Panics on out-of-bounds
}

// ✅ GOOD
pub fn get_item(&self, index: usize) -> Option<&Item> {
    self.items.get(index)
}

// ✅ GOOD - when you need Result
pub fn get_item(&self, index: usize) -> Result<&Item, Error> {
    self.items.get(index).ok_or(Error::NotFound(index))
}

API Design

Use Builder Pattern for Complex Configs

pub struct Client {
    url: String,
    timeout: Duration,
    retries: u32,
}

impl Client {
    pub fn builder(url: impl Into<String>) -> ClientBuilder {
        ClientBuilder {
            url: url.into(),
            timeout: Duration::from_secs(30),
            retries: 3,
        }
    }
}

pub struct ClientBuilder {
    url: String,
    timeout: Duration,
    retries: u32,
}

impl ClientBuilder {
    pub fn timeout(mut self, timeout: Duration) -> Self {
        self.timeout = timeout;
        self
    }

    pub fn retries(mut self, retries: u32) -> Self {
        self.retries = retries;
        self
    }

    pub fn build(self) -> Client {
        Client {
            url: self.url,
            timeout: self.timeout,
            retries: self.retries,
        }
    }
}

Use Newtype Pattern

// ❌ BAD - primitive obsession
fn create_user(name: String, email: String, age: u32) -> User { ... }

// ✅ GOOD - newtype wrappers
pub struct Username(String);
pub struct Email(String);
pub struct Age(u32);

impl Email {
    pub fn new(email: impl Into<String>) -> Result<Self, ValidationError> {
        let email = email.into();
        if email.contains('@') {
            Ok(Self(email))
        } else {
            Err(ValidationError::InvalidEmail)
        }
    }
}

fn create_user(name: Username, email: Email, age: Age) -> User { ... }

Accept impl Trait for Flexibility

// ❌ BAD - overly specific
pub fn process(items: Vec<String>) { ... }

// ✅ GOOD - accept any iterable
pub fn process(items: impl IntoIterator<Item = impl AsRef<str>>) {
    for item in items {
        println!("{}", item.as_ref());
    }
}

References

Other skills for the same job

different authors, same section of the catalogue
MCP Builder
by anthropics
vendor ×13

Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use when building MCP servers to integrate external APIs or services, whether in Python (FastMCP) or Node/TypeScript (MCP SDK).

30k tokens scripts
Changelog Generator
by frostant
×9

Automatically creates user-facing changelogs from git commits by analyzing commit history, categorizing changes, and transforming technical commits into clear, customer-friendly release notes. Turns hours of manual changelog writing into minutes of automated generation.

774 tokens
Finishing A Development Branch
by ZhanlinCui
×7

Use when implementation is complete, all tests pass, and you need to decide how to integrate the work - guides completion of development work by presenting structured options for merge, PR, or cleanup

1k tokens
MCP Builder
by JayZeeDesign
×7

Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use when building MCP servers to integrate external APIs or services, whether in Python (FastMCP) or Node/TypeScript (MCP SDK).

37k tokens scripts
Vercel React Native Skills
by vercel-labs
vendor ×6

React Native and Expo best practices for building performant mobile apps. Use when building React Native components, optimizing list performance, implementing animations, or working with native modules. Triggers on tasks involving React Native, Expo, mobile performance, or native platform APIs.

39k tokens
Vercel React Best Practices
by ratacat
×5

React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering. This skill should be used when writing, reviewing, or refactoring React/Next.js code to ensure optimal performance patterns. Triggers on tasks involving React components, Next.js pages, data fetching, bundle optimization, or performance improvements.

34k tokens
Next Best Practices
by vercel-labs
vendor ×4

Next.js best practices - file conventions, RSC boundaries, data patterns, async APIs, metadata, error handling, route handlers, image/font optimization, bundling

20k tokens
Using Git Worktrees
by ZhanlinCui
×4

Use when starting feature work that needs isolation from current workspace or before executing implementation plans - creates isolated git worktrees with smart directory selection and safety verification

1k tokens

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take majiayu000/spellbook-rust-best-practices from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.