Author: 👋 Hi, I'm CryptoPatrick! I create tools and frameworks for the Rust ecosystem. If you have questions or want to connect, reach out on X/Twitter.
🛎 Status
- v1.0.0 - Production-ready release
- 208+ tests passing across all platforms
- 5 official templates included and maintained
- Multi-platform support - macOS, Linux, Windows
- Fully open-source and community-driven
🤔 What is cargo-x402
cargo-x402 is a template scaffolding tool that helps you create production-ready Rust projects in seconds. It automatically discovers templates from GitHub repositories tagged with x402-template and provides an interactive CLI for creating projects with custom parameters.
Instead of manually setting up boilerplate code, copying files, and configuring projects, cargo-x402 handles it all instantly—and it's customizable for your needs.
Use Cases
- Rapid Prototyping: Start API projects in seconds with batteries included
- Standardized Architecture: Enforce consistent project structure across teams
- Best Practices: Include production-grade patterns (logging, observability, database)
- Full-Stack Development: Scaffold complete applications (frontend + backend)
- CLI Tools: Create command-line utilities with proper argument parsing
- Microservices: Deploy production-ready services with observability built-in
📐 Architecture
- 🔄 Overall Workflow
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ User Command: cargo-x402 create │
│ (Interactive or Direct) │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌──────────────────────▼───────────────────────────────────┐
│ Discovery Module │
│ • Check local cache (< 1 hour) │
│ • If stale, query GitHub API for x402-template topic │
│ • Cache results locally │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ Interactive Selection │
│ (or use --template flag) │
│ User chooses template │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ Parameter Input │
│ (Project name, options) │
│ Validation & prompts │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ Download & Extract │
│ Template from GitHub │
│ Clone to temp directory │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ Validate x402.toml │
│ Schema validation │
│ Parameter verification │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ Liquid Rendering │
│ Substitute parameters │
│ Process conditionals │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ Project Creation │
│ Copy files to destination │
│ Clean up .git directory │
│ Initialize git repo │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ Success! ✓ │
│ Ready to develop │
│ Next steps displayed │
└─────────────────────────────┘
- 🔍 Discovery & Caching Flow
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ cargo-x402 list (or discover templates) │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌────────▼────────┐
│ Check Local │
│ Cache (1hr) │
└────────┬────────┘
│
┌───────────┴───────────┐
│ │
┌──────▼──────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐
│ Cache Valid │ │Cache Stale │
│ Return! │ │or Missing │
│ (Fast) │ │ │
└─────────────┘ ┌────▼──────────┐
│ Query GitHub │
│ API (topic) │
└────┬──────────┘
│
┌───────▼────────┐
│ Parse Results │
│ Extract Metadata
│ (name, description,
│ owner, stars) │
└───────┬────────┘
│
┌───────▼────────┐
│ Update Cache │
│ + timestamp │
└───────┬────────┘
│
┌───────▼────────┐
│ Display List │
│ to User │
└────────────────┘
- 📝 Template Creation Flow
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Selected Template Details │
│ • Name, description, URL │
│ • x402.toml manifest │
│ • Parameters (string, boolean, enum) │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ 1. Download Template │
│ • Clone from GitHub │
│ • Temporary directory │
│ • Extract files │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ 2. Parse x402.toml │
│ • Read manifest │
│ • Extract parameters │
│ • Validate schema │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ 3. Prompt for Parameters │
│ (or use defaults) │
│ • Validate input │
│ • Type checking │
│ • Regex patterns │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ 4. Render with Liquid │
│ • Variable substitution │
│ • Conditionals │
│ • File processing │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ 5. Create Project Directory │
│ • Create output folder │
│ • Check for collisions │
│ • Copy rendered files │
└─────────────┬────────────────┘
│
┌─────────────▼────────────────┐
│ 6. Finalization │
│ • Remove .git (template) │
│ • Initialize new .git │
│ • First commit │
│ • Display success │
└─────────────────────────────┘
- ⚙️ Module Architecture
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ cargo-x402 CLI │
│ (src/main.rs) │
└────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┘
│
┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
│ │ │
┌────▼─────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐ ┌─────▼──────┐
│ Discovery│ │ Schema │ │ Template │
│ Module │ │ Validation │ │ Render │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ • GitHub │ │ • x402.toml │ │ • Liquid │
│ • Cache │ │ • Validator │ │ • File │
│ • Topics │ │ • Parameter │ │ copy │
│ │ │ types │ │ │
└────┬─────┘ └──────┬──────┘ └─────┬──────┘
│ │ │
└────────────────┼────────────────┘
│
┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
│ │ │
┌────▼──────┐ ┌──────▼──────┐ ┌─────▼──────┐
│ Commands │ │ Interactive │ │ Error │
│ │ │ Prompts │ │ Handling │
│ • list │ │ │ │ │
│ • create │ │ • Dialoguer │ │ • Error │
│ │ │ • Colored │ │ types │
│ │ │ output │ │ • Helpful │
│ │ │ • Validation│ │ messages │
└───────────┘ └─────────────┘ └────────────┘
📷 Features
Core Capabilities
- Template Discovery: Automatic discovery from GitHub via
x402-templatetopic - Interactive CLI: User-friendly terminal interface with colored output
- Smart Caching: 1-hour cache with manual refresh option
- Parameter Handling: Support for string, boolean, and enum parameters
- Schema Validation: Comprehensive validation of template configuration
- Liquid Templating: Safe variable substitution with conditionals and loops
Template System
- x402.toml Schema: Declarative template configuration
- File Rules: Include/exclude patterns for flexible file management
- Version Constraints: Specify minimum Rust and cargo-x402 versions
- Parameter Validation: Regex patterns and enum options for user input
- Metadata Support: Template name, description, authors, and tags
- GitHub Integration: Seamless discovery and download from GitHub
Developer Experience
- Zero Configuration: Works out of the box
- Progress Indicators: Visual feedback for all operations
- Helpful Error Messages: Clear guidance when something goes wrong
- Smart Defaults: Sensible defaults reduce the number of prompts
- Git Integration: Automatic git repository initialization
- Template Examples: 5 official templates to get started
🚙 Quick Start
Installation
Install from crates.io:
Or build from source:
Your First Project (30 seconds)
Option 1: Interactive Mode
# Start interactive menu
# Follow prompts to:
# 1. Browse available templates
# 2. Select template
# 3. Enter project name and options
# 4. Confirm and create
Option 2: Direct Command
# Create project directly
# Skips template selection and uses defaults
Option 3: List Templates First
# See all available templates
# Show templates matching tags
What You Get
After running cargo-x402 create, you'll have:
my-awesome-api/
├── src/
│ └── main.rs # Ready-to-run code
├── Cargo.toml # Configured dependencies
├── README.md # Project documentation
├── .gitignore # Git configuration
├── .env.example # Environment template
├── Dockerfile # Container support
└── .git/ # Initialized git repo
Everything is ready to build and run:
📦 Templates
Official Templates (v0.2.0)
1. Basic Axum API
Production-ready REST API with Axum framework
Features:
- Health check endpoints
- Request/response handling
- Structured logging
- Error handling
Use for: Quick API prototypes, microservices, REST backends
2. Axum + PostgreSQL
Full-featured API with database support
Features:
- SQLx with Postgres
- Database migrations
- Connection pooling
- CRUD operations
Use for: Data-driven applications, persistent storage requirements
3. Full-Stack (Axum + React)
Complete web application with backend and frontend
Features:
- Axum REST API backend
- React 18 frontend with TypeScript
- Vite build system
- CORS configuration
- Docker Compose setup
Use for: Web applications, SPA + API combos, full-stack projects
4. Microservice with Observability
Production-grade microservice with tracing and metrics
Features:
- Jaeger distributed tracing
- Prometheus metrics
- Structured logging
- JSON output
- Health checks
Use for: Cloud deployments, observability needs, production services
5. CLI Tool
Professional command-line tool template
Features:
- Clap argument parsing
- Colored output
- Progress indicators
- File operations
- Error handling
Use for: CLI utilities, scripts, command-line tools
Create Your Own Template
See TEMPLATE_AUTHOR_GUIDE.md for:
- Template structure and format
- Parameter configuration
- Publishing on GitHub
- Best practices
📚 Documentation
For Users
- QUICKSTART.md - Get started in 10 minutes
- Installation methods
- Your first project
- Common customizations
- FAQs and troubleshooting
For Template Authors
- TEMPLATE_AUTHOR_GUIDE.md - Create custom templates
- Complete template structure guide
- x402.toml manifest specification
- Liquid templating syntax and examples
- Parameter validation and file handling
- Publishing and GitHub discovery
- Best practices and troubleshooting
For Developers
- API Documentation - Full Rustdoc reference
- GitHub Repository - cryptopatrick/cargo-x402
- Official Templates - xForth Templates
🗺️ Roadmap
v0.5.0 ✅ (Current : Production Ready)
- Stable public API
- 5 official maintained templates
- Comprehensive test coverage (208+ tests)
- Full documentation and guides
- Multi-platform support (macOS, Linux, Windows)
v0.6.0 (Work on this will start in december)
- Enhanced template caching and offline mode
- Template repository metadata indexing
- Improved parameter validation with custom validators
- Template dependency resolution
v0.7.0
- Local template support (non-GitHub templates)
- Custom template hooks (pre/post generation)
- Private repository template support
- Performance profiling and optimization
v0.8.0
- Official template marketplace/registry
- IDE integrations (VS Code, IntelliJ)
- Template signing and verification
- Advanced dependency management
🖊 Author
CryptoPatrick - Rust ecosystem tools & frameworks
🐣 Support
Star ⭐ this project if you find it useful!
Report Issues
- Open GitHub Issue
- Include: command, error message, OS/Rust version
Get Help
- Check QUICKSTART.md for common questions
- Review TEMPLATE_AUTHOR_GUIDE.md for template creation
- Search existing GitHub Issues
🤝 Contributing
Found a bug? Want a feature? Have a template idea?
Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for:
- Code style and standards
- Testing requirements
- Submitting PRs
- Development setup
Ways to Contribute
- Report Bugs - Found an issue? Open a GitHub issue
- Suggest Features - Have an idea? Share it in discussions
- Create Templates - Build and publish templates to GitHub
- Improve Docs - Help improve guides and documentation
- Submit Code - Fix bugs or implement features
🗄 License
This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.