RustUse/use-ui

use-ui is a RustUse facade workspace for portable, framework-neutral user interface primitives. It models stable UI vocabulary such as design tokens, themes, layout, spacing, breakpoints, viewports, component metadata, interaction states, focus metadata, affordances, motion semantics, and layer ordering.

RustUse is a collection of composable sets of primitive Rust utility crates. This workspace follows that shape: focused crates stay small and dependency-light, and the top-level use-ui crate primarily re-exports the focused crates behind feature flags.

What it is not

use-ui is not:

• a rendering framework
• a component framework
• a CSS framework
• a web-only crate
• a wrapper around React, Vue, Yew, Leptos, Dioxus, egui, Iced, Tauri, or another UI runtime
• a design-token parser
• an accessibility audit engine
• an animation runtime

Why framework-neutral primitives help

Framework-neutral UI primitives are useful when the same UI vocabulary needs to move across boundaries. A design-system tool, docs generator, schema format, Rust web framework, desktop tool, TUI, code generator, test utility, or AI-generated UI planner can share names and metadata without taking a dependency on a renderer.

The crates in this workspace describe UI intent and structure. They do not render pixels, generate CSS, bind to a DOM, or implement keyboard behavior.

Workspace crates

Crate	Purpose	Status
use-ui	Feature-gated facade over focused UI primitive crates	initial
use-design-token	Design-token names, paths, categories, values, references	initial
use-theme	Theme modes, names, variants, and semantic roles	initial
use-layout	Layout direction, axis, alignment, justification, and flow	initial
use-spacing	Spacing scale, named spacing, insets, gaps, margins	initial
use-breakpoint	Breakpoint names, ranges, and breakpoint sets	initial
use-viewport	Viewport size, orientation, density, class, and scale	initial
use-ui-component	Component identity, parts, slots, variants, sizes, roles	initial
use-interaction	Interaction state, kind, intent, and helper methods	initial
use-focus	Focus state, target, order, visibility, index, scope	initial
use-affordance	Affordance vocabulary and affordance-set membership	initial
use-ui-motion	Motion duration, curve, preference, transition semantics	initial
use-layer	UI layer roles, z-index values, stacks, and ordering	initial

Basic usage

# #[cfg(feature = "full")]
# {
use use_ui::{
    affordance::Affordance,
    interaction::InteractionState,
    layer::LayerRole,
    layout::{Alignment, Direction},
    theme::ThemeMode,
};

let state = InteractionState::Focused;
let direction = Direction::Vertical;
let alignment = Alignment::Center;
let layer = LayerRole::Modal;
let theme = ThemeMode::Dark;
let affordance = Affordance::Clickable;

assert!(state.is_focus_visible_candidate());
assert_eq!(direction, Direction::Vertical);
assert_eq!(alignment, Alignment::Center);
assert!(layer.sits_above(LayerRole::Popover));
assert_eq!(theme, ThemeMode::Dark);
assert_eq!(affordance, Affordance::Clickable);
# }

Feature model

The facade crate enables all focused crates by default through full. Disable default features when you want a narrow facade surface.

[dependencies]
use-ui = { version = "0.1.0", default-features = false, features = ["theme", "layout", "interaction"] }

Experimental status

This is an experimental v0.1.0 workspace. APIs are intentionally small, explicit, and primitive while the RustUse UI vocabulary settles. The release line should stay below 0.3.0 until production readiness is intentional.

Development

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo check --workspace --all-features
cargo check --workspace --all-features --examples
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace --all-features
cargo test --workspace --no-default-features
cargo doc --workspace --all-features --no-deps

License

Licensed under either of the following, at your option:

• Apache License, Version 2.0
• MIT license