Rust Best Practices

Guidance for writing idiomatic, performant, and safe Rust code. This is a development skill, not a review skill -- use it when building, not reviewing.

Quick Reference

Topic	Key Rule	Reference
Ownership	Borrow by default, clone only when you need a separate owned copy	references/coding-idioms.md
Clippy	Run `cargo clippy -- -D warnings` on every commit; configure workspace lints	references/clippy-config.md
Performance	Don't guess, measure. Profile with `--release` first. Watch monomorphization + cache-line alignment at scale	references/performance.md
Generics	Static dispatch by default, dynamic dispatch when you need mixed types	references/generics-dispatch.md
Type State	Encode state in the type system when invalid operations should be compile errors	references/type-state-pattern.md
Documentation	`//` for why, `///` for what and how, `//!` for module/crate purpose	references/documentation.md
Pointers	Choose pointer types based on ownership needs and threading model	references/pointer-types.md
API Design	Unsurprising, flexible, obvious, constrained — encode invariants in types; watch hidden contracts (re-exports, auto-traits)	references/api-design.md
Wild Patterns	Drop guards, extension traits, index pointers, crate preludes — battle-tested idioms from mature crates	references/coding-idioms.md
Ecosystem	Evaluate crates, pick error handling strategy, stay current	references/ecosystem-patterns.md

rust-best-practices

Rust Best Practices

Quick Reference