Installation

Host-only development

Required:

• Rust and Cargo 1.92 or newer;
• Git when cargo ferry new should initialize a repository.

Published-release flow (available after the coordinated crates are released):

cargo install cargo-ferry
cargo ferry new weather

Install from this checkout for contributor development:

cargo install --locked --path crates/cargo-ferry
cargo ferry --version
cargo ferry new weather --runtime-source path --runtime-path "$PWD/crates/rustferry"

Normal generation writes an exact registry dependency and does not contain a developer checkout path. Contributors can select --runtime-source workspace or --runtime-source path --runtime-path ABSOLUTE_PATH. CARGO_FERRY_RUNTIME_PATH remains an optional development override; it must be UTF-8, absolute, canonicalizable, and contain Cargo.toml. Invalid inputs fail before files are written. The current repository is pre-release: neither cargo-ferry nor rustferry 0.1.0 is claimed available from crates.io.

Checking a generated Slint/Skia application on Linux also requires pkg-config and the system Fontconfig development package (libfontconfig1-dev on Debian and Ubuntu). RustFerry reports the underlying Cargo diagnostic when either prerequisite is missing.

PowerShell equivalent:

cargo install --path crates/cargo-ferry
cargo ferry --version
cargo ferry new weather --runtime-source path --runtime-path (Resolve-Path crates/rustferry).Path

Android artifacts

Android builds require an Android SDK platform, Build Tools (aapt2, d8, zipalign, apksigner), an NDK with LLVM, Java/Javac, and each configured Rust Android target. A connected device and ADB are not build prerequisites.

Use:

cargo ferry doctor --all

Then follow Android setup. cargo-ferry does not invoke sudo, accept licenses, or silently download executables.

iOS Simulator artifacts

iOS builds require macOS, full Xcode with an iPhone Simulator SDK, and aarch64-apple-ios-sim for Apple Silicon builds. A booted Simulator, Apple account, physical iPhone, and development signing are not build-only prerequisites.

Follow iOS setup. Physical-device builds have separate signing/provisioning requirements and a separate validation level.

Shell completions

Generate definitions to a file appropriate for your shell:

cargo ferry completions zsh > cargo-ferry.zsh

Supported shell names come from Clap; run cargo ferry completions --help for the active list.