affaan-m/ecc

rust-patterns

Idiomatic Rust patterns, ownership, error handling, traits, concurrency, and best practices for building safe, performant applications.

View source

See it in action

Author example

Source example: borrow or own a normalized string

Complete Cow-based normalization function borrows unchanged text and owns the replacement when spaces are found. Integrate into a Rust crate with your own call site; no independent allocation or performance benchmark is claimed.

Example input

use std::borrow::Cow;

fn normalize(input: &str) -> Cow<'_, str> {
    if input.contains(' ') {
        Cow::Owned(input.replace(' ', "_"))
    } else {
        Cow::Borrowed(input) // Zero-cost when no mutation needed
    }
}
License

Complete original source block(s), unchanged; enclosing Markdown fences omitted for a single block or retained between grouped blocks. Editorial title and prerequisite summary added. Source code and assertions were not executed.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Affaan Mustafa

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
Author example

Source example: build a server configuration

Complete original ServerConfig and builder types, default connection count, fluent setter and usage comment. Requires a Rust crate/call site; no network listener is started and the code is not an executed server example.

Example input

struct ServerConfig {
    host: String,
    port: u16,
    max_connections: usize,
}

impl ServerConfig {
    fn builder(host: impl Into<String>, port: u16) -> ServerConfigBuilder {
        ServerConfigBuilder { host: host.into(), port, max_connections: 100 }
    }
}

struct ServerConfigBuilder { host: String, port: u16, max_connections: usize }

impl ServerConfigBuilder {
    fn max_connections(mut self, n: usize) -> Self { self.max_connections = n; self }
    fn build(self) -> ServerConfig {
        ServerConfig { host: self.host, port: self.port, max_connections: self.max_connections }
    }
}

// Usage: ServerConfig::builder("localhost", 8080).max_connections(200).build()
License

Complete original source block(s), unchanged; enclosing Markdown fences omitted for a single block or retained between grouped blocks. Editorial title and prerequisite summary added. Source code and assertions were not executed.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Affaan Mustafa

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
Author example

Source example: share a counter across threads

Complete original Arc/Mutex thread block and joins. Place executable statements inside a Rust function/crate. The author retains expect calls for poisoned locks and panicked workers; no independently observed final counter or fault-handling guarantee is claimed.

Example input

use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex};

let counter = Arc::new(Mutex::new(0));
let handles: Vec<_> = (0..10).map(|_| {
    let counter = Arc::clone(&counter);
    std::thread::spawn(move || {
        let mut num = counter.lock().expect("mutex poisoned");
        *num += 1;
    })
}).collect();

for handle in handles {
    handle.join().expect("worker thread panicked");
}
License

Complete original source block(s), unchanged; enclosing Markdown fences omitted for a single block or retained between grouped blocks. Editorial title and prerequisite summary added. Source code and assertions were not executed.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Affaan Mustafa

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
Author example

Source example: bounded message channel

Complete original sync_channel block, cloned senders, explicit drop and receiver loop. Requires a Rust function/crate; received order is scheduling-dependent. Printed messages are source code, not captured output.

Example input

use std::sync::mpsc;

let (tx, rx) = mpsc::sync_channel(16); // Bounded channel with backpressure

for i in 0..5 {
    let tx = tx.clone();
    std::thread::spawn(move || {
        tx.send(format!("message {i}")).expect("receiver disconnected");
    });
}
drop(tx); // Close sender so rx iterator terminates

for msg in rx {
    println!("{msg}");
}
License

Complete original source block(s), unchanged; enclosing Markdown fences omitted for a single block or retained between grouped blocks. Editorial title and prerequisite summary added. Source code and assertions were not executed.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Affaan Mustafa

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

How to use

  1. Copy the installation command and review the source package before installing it in your own agent environment.
  2. Check the source document for required tools, credentials and supported hosts.
  3. Describe your input and desired deliverable; review the output against the source material.
npx skills add https://github.com/affaan-m/ecc --skill rust-patterns

Before you start

  • Installation does not include a model subscription, API allowance or permission to access your files.
  • Repository stars and installation counts describe activity, not an independent quality or security test.
Original skill document

Rendered from the source repository. Headings, examples, code, tables, links, and referenced images are preserved.

Rust Development Patterns

Idiomatic Rust patterns and best practices for building safe, performant, and maintainable applications.

When to Use

  • Writing new Rust code
  • Reviewing Rust code
  • Refactoring existing Rust code
  • Designing crate structure and module layout

How It Works

This skill enforces idiomatic Rust conventions across six key areas: ownership and borrowing to prevent data races at compile time, Result/? error propagation with thiserror for libraries and anyhow for applications, enums and exhaustive pattern matching to make illegal states unrepresentable, traits and generics for zero-cost abstraction, safe concurrency via Arc<Mutex<T>>, channels, and async/await, and minimal pub surfaces organized by domain.

Core Principles

1. Ownership and Borrowing

Rust's ownership system prevents data races and memory bugs at compile time.

rust
// Good: Pass references when you don't need ownership
fn process(data: &[u8]) -> usize {
    data.len()
}

// Good: Take ownership only when you need to store or consume
fn store(data: Vec<u8>) -> Record {
    Record { payload: data }
}

// Bad: Cloning unnecessarily to avoid borrow checker
fn process_bad(data: &Vec<u8>) -> usize {
    let cloned = data.clone(); // Wasteful — just borrow
    cloned.len()
}

Use Cow for Flexible Ownership

rust
use std::borrow::Cow;

fn normalize(input: &str) -> Cow<'_, str> {
    if input.contains(' ') {
        Cow::Owned(input.replace(' ', "_"))
    } else {
        Cow::Borrowed(input) // Zero-cost when no mutation needed
    }
}

Error Handling

Use Result and ? — Never unwrap() in Production

rust
// Good: Propagate errors with context
use anyhow::{Context, Result};

fn load_config(path: &str) -> Result<Config> {
    let content = std::fs::read_to_string(path)
        .with_context(|| format!("failed to read config from {path}"))?;
    let config: Config = toml::from_str(&content)
        .with_context(|| format!("failed to parse config from {path}"))?;
    Ok(config)
}

// Bad: Panics on error
fn load_config_bad(path: &str) -> Config {
    let content = std::fs::read_to_string(path).unwrap(); // Panics!
    toml::from_str(&content).unwrap()
}

Library Errors with thiserror, Application Errors with anyhow

rust
// Library code: structured, typed errors
use thiserror::Error;

#[derive(Debug, Error)]
pub enum StorageError {
    #[error("record not found: {id}")]
    NotFound { id: String },
    #[error("connection failed")]
    Connection(#[from] std::io::Error),
    #[error("invalid data: {0}")]
    InvalidData(String),
}

// Application code: flexible error handling
use anyhow::{bail, Result};

fn run() -> Result<()> {
    let config = load_config("app.toml")?;
    if config.workers == 0 {
        bail!("worker count must be > 0");
    }
    Ok(())
}

Option Combinators Over Nested Matching

rust
// Good: Combinator chain
fn find_user_email(users: &[User], id: u64) -> Option<String> {
    users.iter()
        .find(|u| u.id == id)
        .map(|u| u.email.clone())
}

// Bad: Deeply nested matching
fn find_user_email_bad(users: &[User], id: u64) -> Option<String> {
    match users.iter().find(|u| u.id == id) {
        Some(user) => match &user.email {
            email => Some(email.clone()),
        },
        None => None,
    }
}

Enums and Pattern Matching

Model States as Enums

rust
// Good: Impossible states are unrepresentable
enum ConnectionState {
    Disconnected,
    Connecting { attempt: u32 },
    Connected { session_id: String },
    Failed { reason: String, retries: u32 },
}

fn handle(state: &ConnectionState) {
    match state {
        ConnectionState::Disconnected => connect(),
        ConnectionState::Connecting { attempt } if *attempt > 3 => abort(),
        ConnectionState::Connecting { .. } => wait(),
        ConnectionState::Connected { session_id } => use_session(session_id),
        ConnectionState::Failed { retries, .. } if *retries < 5 => retry(),
        ConnectionState::Failed { reason, .. } => log_failure(reason),
    }
}

Exhaustive Matching — No Catch-All for Business Logic

rust
// Good: Handle every variant explicitly
match command {
    Command::Start => start_service(),
    Command::Stop => stop_service(),
    Command::Restart => restart_service(),
    // Adding a new variant forces handling here
}

// Bad: Wildcard hides new variants
match command {
    Command::Start => start_service(),
    _ => {} // Silently ignores Stop, Restart, and future variants
}

Traits and Generics

Accept Generics, Return Concrete Types

rust
// Good: Generic input, concrete output
fn read_all(reader: &mut impl Read) -> std::io::Result<Vec<u8>> {
    let mut buf = Vec::new();
    reader.read_to_end(&mut buf)?;
    Ok(buf)
}

// Good: Trait bounds for multiple constraints
fn process<T: Display + Send + 'static>(item: T) -> String {
    format!("processed: {item}")
}

Trait Objects for Dynamic Dispatch

rust
// Use when you need heterogeneous collections or plugin systems
trait Handler: Send + Sync {
    fn handle(&self, request: &Request) -> Response;
}

struct Router {
    handlers: Vec<Box<dyn Handler>>,
}

// Use generics when you need performance (monomorphization)
fn fast_process<H: Handler>(handler: &H, request: &Request) -> Response {
    handler.handle(request)
}

Newtype Pattern for Type Safety

rust
// Good: Distinct types prevent mixing up arguments
struct UserId(u64);
struct OrderId(u64);

fn get_order(user: UserId, order: OrderId) -> Result<Order> {
    // Can't accidentally swap user and order IDs
    todo!()
}

// Bad: Easy to swap arguments
fn get_order_bad(user_id: u64, order_id: u64) -> Result<Order> {
    todo!()
}

Structs and Data Modeling

Builder Pattern for Complex Construction

rust
struct ServerConfig {
    host: String,
    port: u16,
    max_connections: usize,
}

impl ServerConfig {
    fn builder(host: impl Into<String>, port: u16) -> ServerConfigBuilder {
        ServerConfigBuilder { host: host.into(), port, max_connections: 100 }
    }
}

struct ServerConfigBuilder { host: String, port: u16, max_connections: usize }

impl ServerConfigBuilder {
    fn max_connections(mut self, n: usize) -> Self { self.max_connections = n; self }
    fn build(self) -> ServerConfig {
        ServerConfig { host: self.host, port: self.port, max_connections: self.max_connections }
    }
}

// Usage: ServerConfig::builder("localhost", 8080).max_connections(200).build()

Iterators and Closures

Prefer Iterator Chains Over Manual Loops

rust
// Good: Declarative, lazy, composable
let active_emails: Vec<String> = users.iter()
    .filter(|u| u.is_active)
    .map(|u| u.email.clone())
    .collect();

// Bad: Imperative accumulation
let mut active_emails = Vec::new();
for user in &users {
    if user.is_active {
        active_emails.push(user.email.clone());
    }
}

Use collect() with Type Annotation

rust
// Collect into different types
let names: Vec<_> = items.iter().map(|i| &i.name).collect();
let lookup: HashMap<_, _> = items.iter().map(|i| (i.id, i)).collect();
let combined: String = parts.iter().copied().collect();

// Collect Results — short-circuits on first error
let parsed: Result<Vec<i32>, _> = strings.iter().map(|s| s.parse()).collect();

Concurrency

Arc<Mutex<T>> for Shared Mutable State

rust
use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex};

let counter = Arc::new(Mutex::new(0));
let handles: Vec<_> = (0..10).map(|_| {
    let counter = Arc::clone(&counter);
    std::thread::spawn(move || {
        let mut num = counter.lock().expect("mutex poisoned");
        *num += 1;
    })
}).collect();

for handle in handles {
    handle.join().expect("worker thread panicked");
}

Channels for Message Passing

rust
use std::sync::mpsc;

let (tx, rx) = mpsc::sync_channel(16); // Bounded channel with backpressure

for i in 0..5 {
    let tx = tx.clone();
    std::thread::spawn(move || {
        tx.send(format!("message {i}")).expect("receiver disconnected");
    });
}
drop(tx); // Close sender so rx iterator terminates

for msg in rx {
    println!("{msg}");
}

Async with Tokio

rust
use tokio::time::Duration;

async fn fetch_with_timeout(url: &str) -> Result<String> {
    let response = tokio::time::timeout(
        Duration::from_secs(5),
        reqwest::get(url),
    )
    .await
    .context("request timed out")?
    .context("request failed")?;

    response.text().await.context("failed to read body")
}

// Spawn concurrent tasks
async fn fetch_all(urls: Vec<String>) -> Vec<Result<String>> {
    let handles: Vec<_> = urls.into_iter()
        .map(|url| tokio::spawn(async move {
            fetch_with_timeout(&url).await
        }))
        .collect();

    let mut results = Vec::with_capacity(handles.len());
    for handle in handles {
        results.push(handle.await.unwrap_or_else(|e| panic!("spawned task panicked: {e}")));
    }
    results
}

Unsafe Code

When Unsafe Is Acceptable

rust
// Acceptable: FFI boundary with documented invariants (Rust 2024+)
/// # Safety
/// `ptr` must be a valid, aligned pointer to an initialized `Widget`.
unsafe fn widget_from_raw<'a>(ptr: *const Widget) -> &'a Widget {
    // SAFETY: caller guarantees ptr is valid and aligned
    unsafe { &*ptr }
}

// Acceptable: Performance-critical path with proof of correctness
// SAFETY: index is always < len due to the loop bound
unsafe { slice.get_unchecked(index) }

When Unsafe Is NOT Acceptable

rust
// Bad: Using unsafe to bypass borrow checker
// Bad: Using unsafe for convenience
// Bad: Using unsafe without a Safety comment
// Bad: Transmuting between unrelated types

Module System and Crate Structure

Organize by Domain, Not by Type

text
my_app/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs
│   ├── lib.rs
│   ├── auth/          # Domain module
│   │   ├── mod.rs
│   │   ├── token.rs
│   │   └── middleware.rs
│   ├── orders/        # Domain module
│   │   ├── mod.rs
│   │   ├── model.rs
│   │   └── service.rs
│   └── db/            # Infrastructure
│       ├── mod.rs
│       └── pool.rs
├── tests/             # Integration tests
├── benches/           # Benchmarks
└── Cargo.toml

Visibility — Expose Minimally

rust
// Good: pub(crate) for internal sharing
pub(crate) fn validate_input(input: &str) -> bool {
    !input.is_empty()
}

// Good: Re-export public API from lib.rs
pub mod auth;
pub use auth::AuthMiddleware;

// Bad: Making everything pub
pub fn internal_helper() {} // Should be pub(crate) or private

Tooling Integration

Essential Commands

bash
# Build and check
cargo build
cargo check              # Fast type checking without codegen
cargo clippy             # Lints and suggestions
cargo fmt                # Format code

# Testing
cargo test
cargo test -- --nocapture    # Show println output
cargo test --lib             # Unit tests only
cargo test --test integration # Integration tests only

# Dependencies
cargo audit              # Security audit
cargo tree               # Dependency tree
cargo update             # Update dependencies

# Performance
cargo bench              # Run benchmarks

Quick Reference: Rust Idioms

IdiomDescription
Borrow, don't clonePass &T instead of cloning unless ownership is needed
Make illegal states unrepresentableUse enums to model valid states only
? over unwrap()Propagate errors, never panic in library/production code
Parse, don't validateConvert unstructured data to typed structs at the boundary
Newtype for type safetyWrap primitives in newtypes to prevent argument swaps
Prefer iterators over loopsDeclarative chains are clearer and often faster
#[must_use] on ResultsEnsure callers handle return values
Cow for flexible ownershipAvoid allocations when borrowing suffices
Exhaustive matchingNo wildcard _ for business-critical enums
Minimal pub surfaceUse pub(crate) for internal APIs

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

rust
// Bad: .unwrap() in production code
let value = map.get("key").unwrap();

// Bad: .clone() to satisfy borrow checker without understanding why
let data = expensive_data.clone();
process(&original, &data);

// Bad: Using String when &str suffices
fn greet(name: String) { /* should be &str */ }

// Bad: Box<dyn Error> in libraries (use thiserror instead)
fn parse(input: &str) -> Result<Data, Box<dyn std::error::Error>> { todo!() }

// Bad: Ignoring must_use warnings
let _ = validate(input); // Silently discarding a Result

// Bad: Blocking in async context
async fn bad_async() {
    std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_secs(1)); // Blocks the executor!
    // Use: tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_secs(1)).await;
}

Remember: If it compiles, it's probably correct — but only if you avoid unwrap(), minimize unsafe, and let the type system work for you.

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