Rust refactoring and idiomatic patterns guidelines from the Rust Community (formerly rust-refactor). This skill should be used when writing, reviewing, or refactoring Rust code to ensure idiomatic patterns and clean architecture. Triggers on tasks involving Rust types, ownership, error handling, traits, modules, conversions, or iterator patterns.
Comprehensive refactoring and idiomatic patterns guide for Rust applications, maintained by the Rust Community. Contains 44 rules across 8 categories, prioritized by impact to guide automated refactoring and code generation.
Reference these guidelines when:
| Priority | Category | Impact | Prefix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Type Safety & Newtype Patterns | CRITICAL | type- |
| 2 |
| Ownership & Borrowing |
| CRITICAL |
own- |
| 3 | Error Handling Patterns | HIGH | err- |
| 4 | API Design & Traits | HIGH | api- |
| 5 | Module & Visibility | MEDIUM-HIGH | mod- |
| 6 | Conversion Traits | MEDIUM | conv- |
| 7 | Idiomatic Patterns | MEDIUM | idiom- |
| 8 | Iterator & Collections | LOW-MEDIUM | iter- |
type-newtype-units - Use newtype pattern for unit safetytype-newtype-invariants - Encode invariants in newtype constructorstype-non-exhaustive-enums - Use non-exhaustive for extensible enumstype-phantom-data - Use PhantomData for type-level statetype-strong-typing-strings - Replace stringly-typed APIs with strong typestype-builder-required-fields - Use typestate builders for required fieldsown-prefer-borrowing - Prefer borrowing over ownership in parametersown-cow-conditional-clone - Use Cow for conditional ownershipown-accept-borrowed-types - Accept borrowed types over owned referencesown-return-owned-for-flexibility - Return owned types for caller flexibilityown-avoid-unnecessary-clone - Avoid unnecessary clone callsown-lifetime-elision - Leverage lifetime elision ruleserr-use-result-not-panic - Use Result instead of panic! for recoverable errorserr-thiserror-for-libraries - Use thiserror for library error typeserr-anyhow-for-applications - Use anyhow for application error handlingerr-question-mark-propagation - Use the question mark operator for error propagationerr-option-for-absence - Use Option for absence, not sentinel valuesapi-derive-common-traits - Derive common traits for public typesapi-impl-standard-traits - Implement standard traits for ergonomic APIsapi-generic-bounds - Use trait bounds for generic flexibilityapi-sealed-traits - Use sealed traits to prevent external implementationapi-builder-pattern - Use builder pattern for complex constructionapi-extension-traits - Use extension traits to add methods to foreign typesmod-minimize-pub-api - Minimize public API surfacemod-pub-use-reexports - Use pub use for clean module re-exportsmod-split-large-modules - Split large modules into submodulesmod-crate-prefix-imports - Use crate:: prefix for internal importsmod-tests-submodule - Use tests submodule for unit testsconv-impl-from-not-into - Implement From instead of Intoconv-asref-for-flexibility - Accept AsRef for flexible string parametersconv-impl-deref-for-newtypes - Implement Deref for transparent newtype accessconv-tryfrom-for-fallible - Use TryFrom for fallible conversionsconv-inner-function-pattern - Use inner function pattern to reduce monomorphizationidiom-default-trait - Implement Default instead of new() without argumentsidiom-constructor-naming - Follow constructor naming conventionsidiom-let-else - Use let-else for early returns on pattern match failureidiom-struct-update-syntax - Use struct update syntax for partial overridesidiom-destructuring-assignment - Use destructuring for multiple returns and field accessidiom-match-guards - Use match guards for complex conditionsiter-prefer-iterators-over-loops - Prefer iterator methods over manual loopsiter-use-collect-turbofish - Use turbofish for explicit collect typeiter-filter-map-combined - Use filter_map for combined filter and transformiter-avoid-collect-then-iterate - Avoid collecting then iteratingiter-enumerate-for-indices - Use enumerate instead of manual index trackingRead individual reference files for detailed explanations and code examples:
For a single-file comprehensive guide, see AGENTS.md.