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crates.io Publish

Publish or update a Rust crate on crates.io with metadata optimized for discoverability

Instructions

crates.io Publish

Publish a Rust crate to crates.io with metadata configured for developer discoverability.

Tools

| Tool | Method | Docs | |------|--------|------| | cargo | cargo publish | https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/commands/cargo-publish.html | | crates.io API | REST API | https://crates.io/apidocs | | GitHub Actions | cargo publish in CI | https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/publishing.html |

Authentication

  • cargo: cargo login <token>. Get token at https://crates.io/settings/tokens
  • CI: Set CARGO_REGISTRY_TOKEN env var.

Instructions

1. Configure Cargo.toml for discoverability

[package]
name = "your-crate-name"
version = "1.0.0"
edition = "2021"
description = "Verb-first description with primary keyword."
license = "MIT"
repository = "https://github.com/org/rust-sdk"
homepage = "https://yoursite.com/docs/sdk/rust?utm_source=crates-io&utm_medium=registry&utm_campaign=rust-sdk"
documentation = "https://docs.rs/your-crate-name"
readme = "README.md"
keywords = ["keyword1", "keyword2", "keyword3", "keyword4", "keyword5"]
categories = ["api-bindings", "web-programming"]

Rules:

  • keywords: Maximum 5 keywords on crates.io. Choose the 5 highest-value search terms.
  • categories: Must be from the official list at https://crates.io/categories. Pick 1-2 relevant ones.

2. Build and publish

# Dry run to verify
cargo publish --dry-run

# Publish
cargo publish

3. Verify publication

cargo search your-crate-name
# Visit: https://crates.io/crates/your-crate-name
# Docs auto-generated at: https://docs.rs/your-crate-name

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Fix | |-------|-------|-----| | crate version already uploaded | Version exists | Bump version in Cargo.toml | | this crate exists but you don't seem to be an owner | No publish permission | Request ownership via cargo owner --add <user> |

Notes

  • docs.rs: crates.io auto-generates documentation at docs.rs. Ensure your doc comments are complete.
  • README: crates.io renders README.md on the crate page. Include CTA with utm_source=crates-io.
  • Yanking: cargo yank --version 1.0.0 prevents new projects from depending on it but existing lockfiles still resolve.