diff --git a/BUILD b/BUILD
index 4c8e8f1e47..c344205802 100644
--- a/BUILD
+++ b/BUILD
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 load("@bazel_skylib//:bzl_library.bzl", "bzl_library")
+load("@io_bazel_rules_rust//rust:private/rustc.bzl", "error_format")
 
 bzl_library(
     name = "rules",
@@ -7,3 +8,10 @@ bzl_library(
     ],
     visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
 )
+
+# This setting may be changed from the command line to generate machine readable errors.
+error_format(
+    name = "error_format",
+    build_setting_default = "human",
+    visibility = ["//visibility:public"],
+)
diff --git a/rust/private/clippy.bzl b/rust/private/clippy.bzl
index f1bc6dcd3c..b61f74df15 100644
--- a/rust/private/clippy.bzl
+++ b/rust/private/clippy.bzl
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ rust_clippy_aspect = aspect(
             allow_single_file = True,
             cfg = "exec",
         ),
+        "_error_format": attr.label(default = "//:error_format"),
     },
     toolchains = [
         "@io_bazel_rules_rust//rust:toolchain",
diff --git a/rust/private/rust.bzl b/rust/private/rust.bzl
index a17ab9c4e4..8b354db8e9 100644
--- a/rust/private/rust.bzl
+++ b/rust/private/rust.bzl
@@ -472,6 +472,7 @@ _rust_common_attrs = {
         allow_single_file = True,
         cfg = "exec",
     ),
+    "_error_format": attr.label(default = "//:error_format"),
 }
 
 _rust_library_attrs = {
diff --git a/rust/private/rustc.bzl b/rust/private/rustc.bzl
index ff7ca979f2..8d0817fc21 100644
--- a/rust/private/rustc.bzl
+++ b/rust/private/rustc.bzl
@@ -76,6 +76,13 @@ DepInfo = provider(
     },
 )
 
+_error_format_values = ["human", "json", "short"]
+
+ErrorFormatInfo = provider(
+    doc = "Set the --error-format flag for all rustc invocations",
+    fields = {"error_format": "(string) [" + ", ".join(_error_format_values) + "]"},
+)
+
 def _get_rustc_env(ctx, toolchain):
     """Gathers rustc environment variables
 
@@ -471,6 +478,8 @@ def construct_arguments(
     args.add(crate_info.root)
     args.add("--crate-name=" + crate_info.name)
     args.add("--crate-type=" + crate_info.type)
+    if hasattr(ctx.attr, "_error_format"):
+        args.add("--error-format=" + ctx.attr._error_format[ErrorFormatInfo].error_format)
 
     # Mangle symbols to disambiguate crates with the same name
     extra_filename = "-" + output_hash if output_hash else ""
@@ -833,3 +842,15 @@ def _get_dirname(file):
         str: Directory name of `file`
     """
     return file.dirname
+
+def _error_format_impl(ctx):
+    raw = ctx.build_setting_value
+    if raw not in _error_format_values:
+        fail(str(ctx.label) + " expected a value in [" + ", ".join(_error_format_values) +
+             "] but got " + raw)
+    return ErrorFormatInfo(error_format = raw)
+
+error_format = rule(
+    implementation = _error_format_impl,
+    build_setting = config.string(flag = True),
+)