Rust Advanced: Patterns, Conventions & Pitfalls

This skill defines rules, conventions, and architectural decisions for building production Rust applications. It is intentionally opinionated to prevent common pitfalls and enforce patterns that scale.

For detailed API documentation of any crate mentioned here, use other appropriate tools (documentation lookup, web search, etc.) — this skill focuses on how and why to use these patterns, not full API surfaces.

Ownership & Borrowing Rules

Interior mutability — decision flowchart

Need shared mutation?
  YES → Single-threaded or multi-threaded?
    Single-threaded → Is T: Copy?
      YES → Cell<T> (zero overhead, no borrow tracking)