RustView

A Streamlit/Gradio equivalent for pure Rust. Write a plain Rust function, and RustView turns it into a live browser UI -- no HTML, no JavaScript, no frontend build step.

The project is under active development. The core widget set and layout system are usable today, but the API is not yet stable. Expect breaking changes before a 1.0 release.

Why RustView?

If you've used Streamlit or Gradio in Python, you know how fast you can go from an idea to a working UI. RustView brings that same experience to Rust. No HTML, no CSS, no JavaScript, no npm, no build step. Just a function.

This makes it a good fit when you already have Rust code and want to put a UI on it without switching languages or maintaining a separate frontend. Internal tools, ML model demos, data explorers, system dashboards: anything where you want a real browser UI without the overhead of a full web stack.

Quick Start

Add the dependency to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
rustview = "0.1.5"

Or use cargo add:

cargo add rustview

Write your app:

use rustview::prelude::*;

fn app(ui: &mut Ui) {
    let name = ui.text_input("Your name", "World");
    let times = ui.int_slider("Repeat", 1..=10, 3);
    for _ in 0..times {
        ui.write(format!("Hello, {}!", name));
    }
}

fn main() {
    rustview::run(app);
}

Run it:

cargo run
# opens http://127.0.0.1:8501

Features

RustView ships 50+ widgets across these categories:

Category	Widgets
Input	text_input, int_slider, slider, checkbox, button, toggle, radio, select, selectbox, multi_select, text_area, number_input, int_input, color_picker, date_picker, file_upload, image_upload
Output	write, heading, subheading, caption, markdown, code, json, table, dataframe, metric, progress, spinner, divider, badge, link
Alerts	success, warning, info, error, toast
Media	image, audio, video, download_button
Layout	container, sidebar, columns, tabs, expander, row, modal, empty
Forms	form, form_submit_button
Charts	line_chart, bar_chart, scatter_chart, histogram
Theming	Theme struct with CSS custom properties

Full API docs: docs/widgets.md

Examples

Four runnable examples are included:

cargo run --example hello       # minimal text-in / text-out
cargo run --example counter     # stateful counter with buttons
cargo run --example dashboard   # multi-column layout with charts
cargo run --example showcase    # every widget on a single page

Built with RustView

Here are some projects powered by RustView:

• OldTurkicOCR - An Optical Character Recognition tool for Old Turkic (Orkhon) script.

Configuration

use rustview::server::RustViewConfig;

let config = RustViewConfig {
    bind: "0.0.0.0:8080".parse().unwrap(),
    title: "My Dashboard".into(),
    session_ttl_secs: 3600,
    max_upload_bytes: 10_000_000,
    ..Default::default()
};
rustview::run_with_config(app, config);

Themes are customizable through a Theme struct:

use rustview::server::{RustViewConfig, Theme};

let config = RustViewConfig {
    theme: Theme {
        background: "#ffffff".into(),
        foreground: "#1a1a1a".into(),
        primary: "#0066ff".into(),
        ..Theme::default()
    },
    ..Default::default()
};

State Management

Every widget remembers its value across re-renders automatically. For user-defined state, use get_state and set_state:

fn counter(ui: &mut Ui) {
    let count = ui.get_state::<i64>("n", 0);
    if ui.button("Increment") {
        ui.set_state("n", count + 1);
    }
    ui.write(format!("Count: {}", ui.get_state::<i64>("n", 0)));
}

Interface Mode

For simple input-to-output functions, the Gradio-style Interface API avoids writing any UI code:

use rustview::prelude::*;

fn greet(name: String) -> String {
    format!("Hello, {}!", name)
}

fn main() {
    Interface::from_fn(greet)
        .title("Greeter")
        .description("Type a name to greet")
        .launch();
}

Architecture

RustView uses a thin-client / server-rendered model:

• An Axum HTTP server runs the app function and maintains a virtual DOM per session.
• On each user interaction the server diffs the old and new trees and sends JSON patches over SSE or as a POST response.
• A lightweight (~12 KB) vanilla JS shim in the browser applies patches and forwards events back to the server.
• Session state is stored in-memory with a configurable TTL (default 24 hours).
• The #[cached] proc-macro can cache expensive computations across renders.

See docs/architecture.md for a detailed walkthrough.

Testing

The TestUi harness lets you unit-test apps without starting a server:

use rustview::testing::TestUi;

#[test]
fn test_counter() {
    let mut t = TestUi::new();
    t.run(|ui| {
        let n = ui.get_state::<i64>("n", 0);
        if ui.button("Inc") { ui.set_state("n", n + 1); }
        ui.write(format!("Count: {}", ui.get_state::<i64>("n", 0)));
    });
    assert!(t.contains_text("Count: 0"));
    t.click_button("Inc");
    t.run(|ui| {
        let n = ui.get_state::<i64>("n", 0);
        if ui.button("Inc") { ui.set_state("n", n + 1); }
        ui.write(format!("Count: {}", ui.get_state::<i64>("n", 0)));
    });
    assert!(t.contains_text("Count: 1"));
}

Roadmap

The list below reflects what exists today and what is planned. Items may shift depending on community feedback.

Done

• Publish to crates.io
• Core widget set (50+ widgets across input, output, layout, charts)
• Immediate-mode rendering with virtual DOM diffing
• Session state and user-defined state
• SSE-based live updates
• #[cached] proc-macro
• Custom theming
• Interface mode (Gradio-style single-function UIs)
• TestUi harness for unit testing

Near-term

• Add accessibility attributes (ARIA roles, keyboard navigation)
• WebSocket transport option alongside SSE
• File download improvements (streaming large files)
• Stabilize the public API

Medium-term

• Component system for reusable widget groups
• Persistent state backends (SQLite, Redis)
• Authentication and multi-user session isolation
• Client-side routing for multi-page apps
• More chart types (area, candlestick, heatmap)

Long-term

• Plugin API for third-party widgets
• Deployment helpers (Docker image, systemd unit)
• Optional WASM compilation for offline-capable apps

Requirements

• Rust 1.75 or newer
• Edition 2021

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for setup instructions, coding guidelines, and how to submit a pull request.