AI-powered Rust development assistant with meta-cognition framework
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.
Traditional AI assistance for Rust:
User: "My trading system reports E0382"
AI: "Use .clone()" ← Surface fix, ignores domain constraints
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()
- 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
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.)
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).
npx skills add ZhangHanDong/rust-skillsInstall via CoWork, a Rust-based skills management tool:
# Install CoWork
cargo install cowork
# Method 1: Direct install
cowork install ZhangHanDong/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 skillsSkills.toml configuration:
[project]
name = "my-rust-project"
[skills.install]
rust-skills = "ZhangHanDong/rust-skills"
[security]
trusted_authors = ["ZhangHanDong"]CoWork (
cofor short) provides version management, dependency resolution, lock files, and security auditing. See CoWork documentation for more details.
git clone https://github.com/ZhangHanDong/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-routeror specific skills. Background agents fall back to inline execution automatically.
For Claude Code users who want the complete experience with hooks, background agents, and auto meta-cognition triggering.
# Step 1: Add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add ZhangHanDong/rust-skills
# Step 2: Install the plugin
/plugin install rust-skills@rust-skillsNote: Step 1 only adds the marketplace (plugin source). Step 2 actually installs the rust-skills plugin with all features enabled.
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ZhangHanDong/rust-skills.git
# Launch with plugin directory
claude --plugin-dir /path/to/rust-skills| 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 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
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.jsonOr create manually:
mkdir -p .claude
cat > .claude/settings.local.json << 'EOF'
{
"permissions": {
"allow": [
"Bash(agent-browser *)"
]
}
}
EOFSee .claude/settings.example.json for reference.
- OpenCode: See .opencode/INSTALL.md
- Codex: See .codex/INSTALL.md
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 |
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
| 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 |
rust-router- Master router for all Rust questions (invoked first)rust-learner- Fetch latest Rust/crate version infocoding-guidelines- Coding conventions lookup
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
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}/- 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
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
- Architecture (中文)
- Functional Overview (中文)
- Hook Mechanism (中文)
- Prompt Engineering (中文)
- Meta-Cognition Example: E0382
Contributions are welcome! Please read our contributing guidelines before submitting PRs.
MIT License - see LICENSE for details.