claude-code-rust 3.0.0

A native Rust terminal interface for Claude Code
Documentation
claude-code-rust-3.0.0 has been yanked.

Claude Code Rust

A native Rust terminal interface for Claude Code. Drop-in replacement for Anthropic's stock Node.js/React Ink TUI, built for performance and a better user experience.

CI License: AGPL-3.0-or-later MSRV

About

Claude Code Rust replaces the stock Claude Code terminal interface with a native Rust binary built on Ratatui. It connects to the same Claude API through the ACP (Agent Client Protocol) Rust SDK, spawning Zed's @zed-industries/claude-code-acp adapter as a child process. Core Claude Code functionality - tool calls, file editing, terminal commands, and permissions - works unchanged.

Requisites

  • Rust 1.88.0+ (install via rustup, required for source builds and Cargo installs)
  • Node.js 18+ with npx (for the ACP adapter)
  • Existing Claude Code authentication (~/.claude/config.json)

Install

npm (global, recommended)

npm install -g claude-code-rust

The npm package installs a claude-rs command and downloads the matching prebuilt release binary for your platform during postinstall.

Cargo (crates.io)

cargo install claude-code-rust

If claude-rs is not found after Cargo install, add your Cargo bin directory to PATH and restart the terminal:

  • Windows: %USERPROFILE%\\.cargo\\bin (or your custom CARGO_HOME\\bin)
  • macOS/Linux: $HOME/.cargo/bin

Usage

claude-rs

Why

The stock Claude Code TUI runs on Node.js with React Ink. This causes real problems:

  • Memory: 200-400MB baseline vs ~20-50MB for a native binary
  • Startup: 2-5 seconds vs under 100ms
  • Scrollback: Broken virtual scrolling that loses history
  • Input latency: Event queue delays on keystroke handling
  • Copy/paste: Custom implementation instead of native terminal support

Claude Code Rust fixes all of these by compiling to a single native binary with direct terminal control via Crossterm.

Architecture

Three-layer design:

Presentation (Rust/Ratatui) - Single binary with an async event loop (Tokio) handling keyboard input and ACP messages concurrently. Virtual-scrolled chat history with syntax-highlighted code blocks.

Protocol (ACP over stdio) - Spawns the Zed ACP adapter as a child process and communicates via JSON-RPC over stdin/stdout. Bidirectional streaming for user messages and response chunks. ACP futures are !Send, so all protocol code runs in a tokio::task::LocalSet with mpsc channels to the UI.

Agent (Zed ACP Adapter) - TypeScript/npm package by Zed Industries. Manages Claude API authentication, reads ~/.claude/config.json, and handles tool execution.

Known Limitations

  • Token usage and cost tracking are currently unavailable because the ACP adapter does not emit usage events yet.
  • Session resume via --resume is currently blocked on an upstream ACP adapter release containing the Windows path encoding fix.
  • /login and /logout are intentionally not offered in command discovery for this release.

Status

This project is pre-1.0 and under active development. See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to get involved.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later. This license was chosen because Claude Code is not publicly available, and this project is not intended as an alternative distribution of Anthropic's proprietary implementation.

By using this software, you agree to the terms of the AGPL-3.0. If you modify this software and make it available over a network, you must offer the source code to users of that service.

Disclaimer

This project is an unofficial terminal UI for Claude Code and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Anthropic. Use it at your own risk. For official Claude documentation, see https://claude.ai/docs.