A Rust port of the core of the claude-code-templates CLI: component installation (agents, commands, mcps, settings, hooks, skills), verified at byte-for-byte parity with the Node.js CLI.

Everything else (dashboards, sandbox, global agents, stats, health-check, interactive setup) is delegated to the existing Node CLI for now — see Delegation.

Install

Released as a standalone binary from GitHub Releases (tagged cli-rust-v*), separate from the existing claude-code-templates npm package so nothing about the current npx experience changes.

Available now (v0.1.0 preview):

Channel	Command
Shell script	`curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/davila7/claude-code-templates/main/cli-rust/dist/install.sh \| sh`
cargo-binstall	`cargo binstall --git https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates claude-code-templates`
From source	`cargo install --path cli-rust`

The --git form reads the prebuilt-binary metadata straight from this repo, so no crates.io publish is required. (A plain cargo binstall claude-code-templates / cargo install claude-code-templates would need the crate published to crates.io — optional, later.)

Planned (not wired up yet):

Channel	Command
Homebrew tap	`brew install davila7/tap/cct`
npm (new name)	`npx @davila7/cct`

The npm path (when enabled) ships a tiny JS shim (npm/cct/bin/cct.js) that execs the prebuilt binary for the current platform, pulled in as an optionalDependency (@davila7/cct-<os>-<arch>). The existing claude-code-templates npm package stays on Node until the binary is proven.

Usage

cct --agent deep-research-team/research-synthesizer   # install an agent
cct --mcp devtools/elasticsearch                       # merge into .mcp.json
cct --setting api/custom-headers --hook monitoring/desktop-notification-on-stop
cct --skill creative-design/algorithmic-art            # recursive skill tree
cct --agent a,b --command c -d ./project -y            # batch into a directory

Opt out of anonymous telemetry with CCT_NO_TRACKING=1 (also disabled when CI=true).

Architecture

src/
  main.rs          dispatch: native install path vs Node delegation
  cli.rs           clap flag surface (mirrors the commander options)
  constants.rs     GitHub raw/API bases, tracking URLs, version
  github.rs        raw fetch + recursive contents-API tree (skills)
  tracking.rs      fire-and-forget analytics (3 endpoints, detached threads)
  merge.rs         .mcp.json / settings / hooks merge semantics (+ unit tests)
  python_compat.rs Windows python3->python shim
  commands/
    install.rs     installIndividual* + installMultipleComponents
    delegate.rs    forward argv to the Node CLI
  util/{fs_ext,paths}.rs

Parity-critical details preserved: 2-space JSON with trailing newline, shift_remove (not swap-remove) so key order matches JS delete, permissions.{allow,deny,ask} Set-union, hook array concatenation, category dropping in target filenames, .py/.sh sidecar downloads, skills via the GitHub contents API.

Delegation

Non-install flags forward verbatim to the Node CLI:

CCT_NODE_BIN — path to cli-tool/bin/create-claude-config.js (run with node) or an executable. Used for local testing.
Fallback: npx -y claude-code-templates@latest <args>.

CCT_NODE_BIN=../cli-tool/bin/create-claude-config.js cct --list-agents

Develop

cargo build                 # debug build
cargo test                  # unit tests (merge semantics)
cargo build --release       # optimized binary at target/release/cct

Parity check vs Node

RDIR=$(mktemp -d); NDIR=$(mktemp -d)
ARGS="--agent deep-research-team/research-synthesizer --mcp devtools/elasticsearch -y"
CCT_NO_TRACKING=1 target/release/cct $ARGS -d "$RDIR"
CCT_NO_TRACKING=1 node ../cli-tool/bin/create-claude-config.js $ARGS -d "$NDIR"
diff -r "$RDIR" "$NDIR" && echo "IDENTICAL"

Release

v0.1.0 preview (GitHub Releases + curl + cargo-binstall)

Merge this branch to main (so the workflow and install.sh exist there).
Tag and push: git tag cli-rust-v0.1.0 && git push origin cli-rust-v0.1.0. .github/workflows/build-rust-cli.yml builds all 5 targets and uploads cct-<target>.tgz to the GitHub Release (contents: write is granted).

Verify the channels:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/davila7/claude-code-templates/main/cli-rust/dist/install.sh | sh
cargo binstall --git https://github.com/davila7/claude-code-templates claude-code-templates

The tag must keep the cli-rust-v prefix — both the binstall metadata (Cargo.toml) and install.sh's tag filter depend on it.

Later channels (when enabled)

Homebrew tap: create davila7/homebrew-tap, drop in dist/homebrew/cct.rb, fill the sha256 per asset (shasum -a 256 cct-<target>.tgz).
npm (new name): node npm/build-packages.mjs <version> <dist-dir> (accepts the release .tgzs), then publish each npm/platforms/* and npm/cct under a new name (e.g. @davila7/cct) — leaves claude-code-templates untouched.