erlrustnif

A rebar3 template for building Erlang NIF (Native Implemented Function) projects with Rust using Rustler.

Scaffold Erlang/Rust hybrid projects with a single rebar3 command.

Installation

Option 1: global rebar3 plugin

Add the following to your global rebar3 configuration at ~/.config/rebar3/rebar.config:

{plugins, [
    {erlrustnif, {git, "https://github.com/JayKickliter/erlrustnif.git", {branch, "main"}}}
]}.

Option 2: manual installation

Copy the template directory to your rebar3 templates location:

cp -r priv/templates/erlrustnif ~/.config/rebar3/templates/

Creating a new project

rebar3 new erlrustnif myproject
cd myproject
rebar3 compile
rebar3 eunit

What You Get

Each generated project includes:

• Erlang module with NIF loader and public API
• Rust NIF implementation using Rustler framework
• EUnit tests
• GitHub Actions workflows for macOS and Linux
• Automatic Rust compilation via rebar3
• Code quality tools: dialyzer, erlfmt, clippy, rustfmt

Key Features

Rust crates are named {{name}}-native to avoid naming collisions in workspaces.

Automatically detects the platform (Linux, macOS, Windows) and generates appropriate library extensions.

Pre-compile hooks automatically build Rust code with cargo build --release, copy the compiled library to priv/ with .so extension, and load the NIF on module initialization.

The Erlang module automatically discovers the compiled native library from multiple locations, working both in development and when installed as a package.

Includes testing, code quality checks, CI/CD pipelines, and documentation generation.

Requirements

Generated projects require:

• Erlang/OTP: 27 or later
• Rust: Stable toolchain
• rebar3: 3.24.0 or later

License

Dual licensed under Apache License 2.0 or MIT license at your option.