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name: rust-crate-publishing-readiness description: Prepare Rust crates for publishing with Cargo metadata, versioning, README and license checks, package dry-runs, feature verification, docs.rs readiness, examples, changelog notes, and secret-safe release gates. Use before cargo publish, crate release PRs, or sharing a reusable Rust library. license: MIT compatibility: Codex, Claude Code, and other Agent Skills-compatible clients. metadata: version: "0.1.0" displayName: Rust Crate Publishing Readiness category: Rust tags: rust,cargo,publishing,release,library

Rust Crate Publishing Readiness

Use this skill before publishing or sharing a Rust crate. It focuses on the consumer-facing package, not on deployment of a running service.

Core Workflow

1. Verify package metadata, license, README, repository, and categories.
2. Check public API, feature flags, examples, and docs from a consumer's view.
3. Run tests, docs, formatting, and feature-matrix checks.
4. Run cargo package or cargo publish --dry-run.
5. Inspect packaged contents for missing files and accidental secrets.
6. Publish only from a clean, tagged, intentional release state.

Read Next

Task	Load
Prepare a crate release PR	guidelines.md, workflows/prepare-crate-release.md
Review Cargo metadata and package contents	references/publishing-patterns.md
Diagnose dry-run failures	references/publishing-patterns.md

Source Notes

Guidance is transformed and paraphrased from Herbert Wolverson, Advanced Hands-On Rust, especially Chapter 15 on sharing libraries and the earlier chapters on tests, docs, benchmarks, and features. Examples are original skeletons.