Rust

mise can install Rust/cargo using rustup under the hood. It installs rustup if it is not already installed, then installs the requested toolchain, components, and targets. By default, mise respects the RUSTUP_HOME and CARGO_HOME environment variables for the home directories and falls back to their standard locations (~/.rustup and ~/.cargo) if they are not set. To isolate mise's rustup/cargo from your other rustup/cargo installations, set the MISE_RUSTUP_HOME and MISE_CARGO_HOME environment variables instead.

These variables can also be set in mise configuration. They are applied to Rust operations in the same mise invocation:

[env]
MISE_RUSTUP_HOME = "{{env.HOME}}/.local/share/rustup"
MISE_CARGO_HOME = "{{env.HOME}}/.local/share/cargo"

Explicit RUSTUP_HOME and CARGO_HOME values in [env] take precedence over their corresponding MISE_ variables.

When the standard Rust homes have not been initialized and no home override is configured, mise can also reuse a package-manager installation of rustup. The original PATH must contain a directory with the rustup, cargo, and rustc proxies, as provided by package managers such as Homebrew, APT, and pacman. An explicit Rust or Cargo home continues to use mise's managed rustup initialization instead of an external proxy directory.

Unlike most tools, Rust toolchains are not stored in ~/.local/share/mise/installs because rustup manages them. mise keeps a symlink there for install tracking, sets the RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN environment variable to the requested version, and asks rustup to install any configured components or targets when you run mise install.

Usage

Install the latest stable toolchain for the current project and verify it:

mise use rust
mise exec -- rustc --version
mise exec -- cargo --version

In a Cargo project, use mise exec -- cargo build or a mise task. Add -g to mise use for a personal default. These examples select the toolchain through mise; they do not require shell activation.

Use the latest beta version of Rust:

mise use rust@beta
mise exec -- cargo build

Use the rolling nightly channel:

mise use rust@nightly
mise exec -- cargo build

The configuration remains nightly, while mise resolves the current Rust channel manifest to a concrete nightly-YYYY-MM-DD toolchain for installation and lockfiles. This keeps the configured channel rolling while making locked installs reproducible. Run mise upgrade rust or mise lock --bump to advance the locked nightly.

To keep a specific nightly instead, configure its date explicitly:

mise use rust@nightly-2026-08-13

An explicitly dated nightly is an exact pin. Commands using --bump, such as mise upgrade --bump rust, can replace that pin with the current nightly.

Use a specific version of Rust:

mise use [email protected]
mise exec -- cargo build

Existing rustup projects

If the project already uses rust-toolchain.toml, enable idiomatic-file discovery instead of duplicating a conflicting Rust version in mise.toml:

mise settings add idiomatic_version_file_enable_tools rust
mise install
mise exec -- rustup show active-toolchain

mise sets RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN for its selected toolchain. Use mise exec when comparing selection with a standalone rustup invocation, since the environment can change which override rustup sees.

Share Cargo builds with Mr Boxington

Mr Boxington (mbx) is a Rust build cache and scheduler. It reuses matching compilations across projects, worktrees, and CI, so a fresh checkout can benefit from work you've already built. Parallel Cargo commands share a CPU and memory budget, and the cache prunes itself. You keep using ordinary Cargo commands; no cache server is needed for local use. See the benchmarks for examples.

Enable the mr_boxington tool option and install mbx as a separate tool:

mise use --tool-option mr_boxington=true rust mr-boxington

This writes the equivalent of:

[tools]
rust = { version = "latest", mr_boxington = true }
mr-boxington = "latest"

Cargo commands run through mbx in mise exec, tasks, activated shells, and mise shims. No mbx setup or postinstall hook is needed. mbx uses its normal mise version selection and lockfile entry, independently of Rust.

mise exec -- cargo build

Editors and coding agents must invoke mise's Cargo shim or use mise exec. Direct calls to rustup's Cargo proxy or a toolchain's Cargo binary bypass mise. Safe mode ignores the opt-in from project-scoped Rust entries.

An explicit [wrappers.cargo] configuration takes precedence over this option. The generic command wrapper configuration remains available when Rust is managed outside mise.

Tool Options

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

mr_boxington

Set mr_boxington = true to wrap Cargo with Mr Boxington. Defaults to false. Requires mr-boxington in the active tool configuration; merely having mbx on PATH is not sufficient. Keep its version in a separate [tools] entry.

The option applies to the first platform-supported Rust version in the selected configuration. Set it to false in a project's Rust entry to disable an inherited opt-in. An explicitly configured Cargo wrapper is unaffected.

install_env

Set environment variables for rustup install commands:

[tools]
rust = { version = "latest", install_env = { RUSTUP_DIST_SERVER = "https://static.rust-lang.org" } }

components

The components option specifies which components to install. Multiple components can be given as an array or as a comma-separated string. The set of available components varies between releases and toolchains; consult the Rust documentation for the current list.

[tools]
"rust" = { version = "1.83.0", components = ["rust-src", "llvm-tools"] }

If the Rust toolchain is already installed, mise install will still add any missing configured components.

profile

The profile option specifies the rustup profile to install. The following values are supported:

• minimal: Includes as few components as possible to get a working compiler (rustc, rust-std, and cargo)
• default: Includes all of the components in the minimal profile, and adds rust-docs, rustfmt, and clippy
• complete: Includes all the components available through rustup. Avoid this profile: it includes every component ever included in the metadata and will almost always fail.

If not set, it defaults to the profile configured in rustup. You can check your current default by running rustup show profile.

[tools]
"rust" = { version = "1.83.0", profile = "minimal" }

targets

The targets option specifies platforms to install for cross-compilation. Multiple targets can be given as an array or as a comma-separated string.

[tools]
rust = {
  version = "1.83.0",
  targets = ["wasm32-unknown-unknown", "thumbv7em-none-eabi"],
}

If the Rust toolchain is already installed, mise install will still add any missing configured targets.

Settings