Cargo Backend

You may install packages directly from Cargo Crates even if there isn't an asdf plugin for it.

The code for this is inside the mise repository at ./src/backend/cargo.rs.

Dependencies

This relies on having cargo installed. You can either install it on your system via rustup:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Or you can install it via mise:

mise use -g rust

Usage

The following installs the latest version of eza and sets it as the active version on PATH:

$ mise use -g cargo:eza
$ eza --version
eza - A modern, maintained replacement for ls
v0.17.1 [+git]
https://github.com/eza-community/eza

The version will be set in ~/.config/mise/config.toml with the following format:

[tools]
"cargo:eza" = "latest"

Using Git

You can install any package from a Git repository using the mise command. This allows you to install a particular tag, branch, or commit revision:

# Install a specific tag
mise use cargo:https://github.com/username/demo@tag:<release_tag>

# Install the latest from a branch
mise use cargo:https://github.com/username/demo@branch:<branch_name>

# Install a specific commit revision
mise use cargo:https://github.com/username/demo@rev:<commit_hash>

This will execute a cargo install command with the corresponding Git options.

Settings

Set these with mise settings set [VARIABLE]=[VALUE] or by setting the environment variable listed.

Some Cargo settings are only meaningful when mise runs cargo install. If cargo-binstall installs a prebuilt binary, Cargo build settings and cargo install behavior do not affect that artifact. Set cargo.binstall = false when you need Cargo settings to control the install.

When mise uses external cargo-binstall, it disables cargo-binstall's compile strategy. If cargo-binstall reports that no prebuilt artifact is available (exit code 94), mise runs cargo install itself. Other cargo-binstall errors do not trigger this fallback. When cargo.binstall_only = true, Cargo tools without an explicit Git source must be installed by cargo-binstall: mise does not fall back to cargo install, and options that require cargo install produce an error. Explicit Git sources are unaffected because they always use cargo install --git and are never eligible for cargo-binstall.

By default, mise disables external cargo-binstall's use of the third-party cargo-quickinstall artifact host. This is separate from crate-author GitHub releases and artifacts declared in package.metadata.binstall. Together with the always-disabled compile strategy, the default external cargo-binstall flag is --disable-strategies compile,quick-install. Set cargo.binstall_quickinstall = true to allow quick-install; mise then passes --disable-strategies compile. This setting does not affect mise's native cargo.binstall_native path, which does not use quickinstall. Set cargo.binstall = false to disable binstall entirely.

Tool Options

The following tool-options are available for the cargo backend—these go in [tools] in mise.toml.

When cargo-binstall is available, mise uses it for registry installs unless a tool option needs cargo install to build from source.

For options that do not skip cargo-binstall, mise disables cargo-binstall's compile strategy and runs cargo install itself only when cargo-binstall exits with code 94 to report that no prebuilt artifact is available.

install_env

Set environment variables for the cargo install or cargo-binstall command:

[tools]
"cargo:eza" = { version = "latest", install_env = { CARGO_NET_GIT_FETCH_WITH_CLI = "true" } }

features

Install additional components (passed as cargo install --features):

[tools]
"cargo:cargo-edit" = { version = "latest", features = "add" }
"cargo:sqlx-cli" = { version = "latest", features = ["postgres", "rustls"] }

This option requires cargo install; mise skips cargo-binstall when it is set.

default-features

Disable default features (passed as cargo install --no-default-features):

[tools]
"cargo:cargo-edit" = { version = "latest", default-features = false }

Setting this to false requires cargo install; mise skips cargo-binstall in that case.

bin

Select the CLI bin name to install when multiple are available (passed as cargo install --bin):

[tools]
"cargo:https://github.com/username/demo" = { version = "tag:v1.0.0", bin = "demo" }

This option is supported by cargo-binstall, so it does not cause mise to skip cargo-binstall.

crate

Select the crate name to install when multiple are available (passed as cargo install --git=<repo> <crate>):

[tools]
"cargo:https://github.com/username/demo" = { version = "tag:v1.0.0", crate = "demo" }

This option does not cause mise to skip cargo-binstall when applicable. Git installs already use cargo install.

locked

Use Cargo.lock (passes cargo install --locked) when building CLI. This is the default behavior, pass false to disable:

[tools]
"cargo:https://github.com/username/demo" = { version = "latest", locked = false }

This option does not cause mise to skip cargo-binstall; it affects mise's cargo install fallback when cargo-binstall reports that no prebuilt artifact is available.