Rust Best Practices

Comprehensive guide for writing high-quality, idiomatic, and highly optimized Rust code. Contains 193 rules across 14 categories, prioritized by impact to guide LLMs in code generation and refactoring. Quick reference below; the reasoning behind each rule family lives in the per-source digests under references/ (adapted from BeautifulRust, MIT).

When to Apply

Reference these guidelines when:

• Writing new Rust functions, structs, or modules
• Implementing error handling or async code
• Designing public APIs for libraries
• Reviewing code for ownership/borrowing issues
• Optimizing memory usage or reducing allocations
• Tuning performance for hot paths
• Refactoring existing Rust code

Rule Categories by Priority

Priority	Category	Impact	Prefix	Rules
1	Ownership & Borrowing	CRITICAL	own-	14
2	Error Handling	CRITICAL	err-	14
3	Memory Optimization	CRITICAL	mem-	15
4	API Design	HIGH	api-	17
5	Async/Await	HIGH	async-	16
6	Compiler Optimization	HIGH	opt-	12
7	Naming Conventions	MEDIUM	name-	17
8	Type Safety	MEDIUM	type-	11
9	Testing	MEDIUM	test-	15
10	Documentation	MEDIUM	doc-	11
11	Performance Patterns	MEDIUM	perf-	11
12	Project Structure	LOW	proj-	12
13	Clippy & Linting	LOW	lint-	12
14	Anti-patterns	REFERENCE	anti-	16

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Quick Reference

1. Ownership & Borrowing (CRITICAL)