Getting Started

Browse available battery packs

cargo bp ls

This searches crates.io for published battery packs and lists what’s available:

                                              Battery Packs

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│> backend-service    0.1.1    Opinionated battery pack for resilient async backend services│
│  ci                 0.1.5    Battery pack for CI/CD workflows in Rust projects            │
│  cli                0.6.2    Battery pack for building CLI applications in Rust           │
│  error              0.6.4    Error handling done well — anyhow for apps, thiserror for …  │
│  logging            0.5.2    Battery pack for logging and tracing in Rust                 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↑↓/jk Navigate | Enter Select | q Quit

Inspect a battery pack

cargo bp show ci

This shows you what’s inside — curated crates, features, and templates. Use p to preview a template’s rendered output before committing to it.

ci-battery-pack 0.1.5

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Features:                                                                                 │
│  benchmarks → criterion                                                                  │
│  fuzzing → arbitrary, libfuzzer-sys                                                      │
│  xtask → xflags, xshell                                                                 │
│                                                                                          │
│Templates:                                                                                │
│  benchmarks - Criterion bench scaffold + Bencher CI                                      │
│  clippy-sarif - Clippy with GitHub PR annotations via SARIF                              │
│  full - Full CI setup with optional benchmarks, fuzzing, mdbook, spellcheck, and xtask   │
│  fuzzing - cargo-fuzz scaffold + CI workflows                                            │
│  mdbook - mdBook scaffold + GitHub Pages deployment                                      │
│  mutation-testing - Mutation testing with cargo-mutants                                   │
│  spellcheck - crate-ci/typos config + CI workflow                                        │
│  stress-test - nextest stress test workflow                                               │
│  trusted-publishing - release-plz with OIDC trusted publishing                           │
│  xtask - cargo-xtask scaffold with codegen --check                                       │
│                                                                                          │
│Actions:                                                                                  │
│> Open on crates.io                                                                       │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
↑↓/jk Navigate | Enter Open/Select | Esc/q Quit

Add crates from a battery pack

cargo bp add cli

This opens an interactive picker where you toggle the crates and features you want:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 ▼ Features: (pick any number)
 > [ ] ✦ config [etcetera]
   [ ] ✦ indicators [console, indicatif]
   [ ] ✦ search [ignore, regex]

 ▼ Dependencies: (11 items selected)
   [x] anstream (1.0.0)
   [x] anstyle (1.0.14)
   [x] anyhow (1)
   [x] clap (4, features: derive)
   [x] dialoguer (0.11)
   [x] human-panic (2.0.8)
   [ ] console (0.15)
   [ ] indicatif (0.17)
   …

 ▼ Actions: (pick any number)
   [ ] Add `simple` template — Minimal CLI with argument parsing
   [ ] Add `subcmds` template — CLI with subcommands
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 cli-battery-pack v0.6.2  ↑↓/jk Navigate | Space Toggle | p Preview

When you confirm, the selected crates are added to your Cargo.toml:

[package.metadata.battery-pack]
cli-battery-pack = "0.6.2"

[dependencies]
anyhow = "1"
clap = { version = "4", features = ["derive"] }
dialoguer = "0.11"
human-panic = "2.0.8"
# ... and so on

The [package.metadata.battery-pack] section records which battery packs you’ve installed. The actual crates are real entries in [dependencies] that you use directly.

Features and categories

Some battery packs group crates into features you can opt into:

cargo bp add cli -F indicators

Others use categories to present alternatives — “pick one HAL for your chip family” or “pick an allocator”. The interactive picker shows these as radio buttons (pick one) or checkboxes (pick any). See Our Battery Packs for examples.

Start a new project from a template

cargo bp new cli

You’ll be prompted for a project name and directory. The result is a ready-to-go Rust project with the battery pack’s recommended crates and structure already in place.

See Templates for template options, merge behavior, placeholders, and non-interactive mode.

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