Rust Best Practices Agent Skill

Guide for writing idiomatic Rust code based on Apollo GraphQL's best practices handbook.

Context cost
25.8k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
10 files · 103.3 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
MITthe author’s own terms
Last change
—v1.1.2
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Guide for writing idiomatic Rust code based on Apollo GraphQL's best practices handbook. Use this skill when: (1) writing new Rust code or functions, (2) reviewing or refactoring existing Rust code, (3) deciding between borrowing vs cloning or ownership patterns, (4) implementing error handling with Result types, (5) optimizing Rust code for performance, (6) writing tests or documentation for Rust projects.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

developer toolsrust

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md4.4 kB · preview
--- name: rust-best-practices license: MIT compatibility: Rust 1.70+, Cargo metadata: author: apollographql version: "1.1.2" allowed-tools: Bash(cargo:*) Bash(rustc:*) Bash(rustfmt:*) Bash(clippy:*) Read Write Edit Glob Grep ---
19# Rust Best Practices
20
21Apply these guidelines when writing or reviewing Rust code. Based on Apollo GraphQL's [Rust Best Practices Handbook](https://github.com/apollographql/rust-best-practices).
22
23## Best Practices Reference
24
25Before reviewing, familiarize yourself with Apollo's Rust best practices. Read ALL relevant chapters in the same turn in parallel. Reference these files when providing feedback:
26
27- [Chapter 1 - Coding Styles and Idioms](references/chapter_01.md): Borrowing vs cloning, Copy trait, Option/Result handling, iterators, comments, when to extract a function (duplication vs. wrong abstraction)
28- [Chapter 2 - Clippy and Linting](references/chapter_02.md): Clippy configuration, important lints, workspace lint setup
29- [Chapter 3 - Performance Mindset](references/chapter_03.md): Profiling, avoiding redundant clones, stack vs heap, zero-cost abstractions
30- [Chapter 4 - Error Handling](references/chapter_04.md): Result vs panic, thiserror vs anyhow, error hierarchies
31- [Chapter 5 - Automated Testing](references/chapter_05.md): Test naming, one assertion per test, snapshot testing
32- [Chapter 6 - Generics and Dispatch](references/chapter_06.md): Static vs dynamic dispatch, trait objects
33- [Chapter 7 - Type State Pattern](references/chapter_07.md): Compile-time state safety, when to use it
34- [Chapter 8 - Comments vs Documentation](references/chapter_08.md): When to comment, doc comments, rustdoc
35- [Chapter 9 - Understanding Pointers](references/chapter_09.md): Thread safety, Send/Sync, pointer types
36
37## Quick Reference
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md587 words
Files10
LicenceMIT
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈170
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
25,655
on trigger
The instruction body and 9 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
12.9%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would not fit in the window together.
050k100k150k200k context window

25.8k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

It asks the agent to write files, using whatever file access your client already has. Whether it reaches the network is not declared.

What it asks for
Writes filesyes
Network accessnot declared

Read from the allowed-tools line of this skill’s own SKILL.md. It also asks for Bash, which could do either, so what is not named there is not ruled out. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

10 files, 103.3 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md4.4 kB
  • references/chapter_01.md25.6 kB
  • references/chapter_02.md5.5 kB
  • references/chapter_03.md8.8 kB
  • references/chapter_04.md7.1 kB
  • references/chapter_05.md14.7 kB
  • references/chapter_06.md7.0 kB
  • references/chapter_07.md7.9 kB
  • references/chapter_08.md10.9 kB
  • references/chapter_09.md11.4 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 10 files you can review in full before installing. The MIT licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Rust Best Practices · 25.8k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/apollographql-rust-best-practices/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/rust-best-practices" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/rust-best-practices ] || { mv .claude/skills/rust-best-practices "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/rust-best-practices" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/rust-best-practices"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add apollographql/rust-best-practices

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/rust-best-practices/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/apollographql-rust-best-practices/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/rust-best-practices" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/rust-best-practices ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/rust-best-practices "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/rust-best-practices" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/rust-best-practices" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/rust-best-practices/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version1.1.2
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referenceapollographql/rust-best-practices

Versions

v1.1.2 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.1.2
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.1.2 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

Reviews

—no reviews yet

Nobody has reviewed this skill yet. The rating is the mean of the reviews written here, so there is none until somebody writes the first.

Sign in to review it

A review is tied to an account so it can be answered, edited and taken down by the person who wrote it.

Sign in
Who can post

Anybody with an account, one review each. It carries the version that was current when you wrote it, and the publisher may reply once.

Publisher
Servers1
Claim this skill