cargo-forge

Turn-key cross-platform release builds for Rust projects.

Build release binaries for Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, and macOS from a single machine. No VMs, no containers, no Docker. Uses zig as a universal cross-linker via cargo-zigbuild.

---

Install

cargo install cargo-forge

Quick start

cd my-rust-project
cargo forge init        # creates forge.toml
cargo forge fix         # installs zig, zip, rustup targets
cargo forge build       # builds all platform binaries

That's it. Release artifacts land in release-artifacts/ with a SHA256SUMS file ready to upload.

---

forge.toml

cargo forge init generates this for you. Edit to taste:

[forge]
binary       = "myapp"
version_from = "Cargo.toml"

# Minimum cargo-forge version required (optional)
# min_version = "1.0.0"

[[forge.target]]
platform = "freebsd-x86_64"

[[forge.target]]
platform = "linux-x86_64"

[[forge.target]]
platform = "windows-x86_64"
archive = "zip"

[forge.deps]
zig = true
zip = true

Supported platforms

Platform	Triple
freebsd-x86_64	x86_64-unknown-freebsd
linux-x86_64	x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
linux-aarch64	aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu
windows-x86_64	x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
macos-x86_64	x86_64-apple-darwin
macos-aarch64	aarch64-apple-darwin

---

Commands

cargo forge init              # create forge.toml in current project
cargo forge fix               # install missing dependencies
cargo forge check             # verify all dependencies are installed
cargo forge build             # build all configured platforms
cargo forge build --suffix rc1  # pre-release (e.g. 1.0.0-rc1)
cargo forge clean             # remove cross-compile artifacts

---

How it works

• Native target is built with plain cargo build --release
• Cross targets are built with cargo zigbuild --release --target <triple>
• Zig acts as a universal linker -- no system cross-toolchains needed
• Windows archives use PowerShell Compress-Archive (no zip required)
• SHA256SUMS is generated automatically

Host support matrix

Host	FreeBSD	Linux	Windows	macOS
FreeBSD	native	zigbuild	zigbuild	-
Linux	zigbuild	native	zigbuild	-
Windows	zigbuild	zigbuild	native	-
macOS	-	zigbuild	zigbuild	native

---

Using forge-core as a library (optional)

If you want version-pinned builds via Cargo.lock, add forge-core as a dependency in your project's xtask:

# xtask/Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
forge-core = "0.1"

// xtask/src/main.rs
fn main() {
    forge_core::run();
}

Add .cargo/config.toml to your project root:

[alias]
xtask = "run --package xtask --"

Then cargo xtask build and cargo forge build both work, reading the same forge.toml. The xtask version is pinned in Cargo.lock; the global cargo-forge binary uses whatever version you have installed.

---

License

Licensed under either of

• MIT License
• Apache License, Version 2.0

at your option.

Copyright 2026 Wavelet Solutions LLC / Artisan Technologies R&D division.