Rust

mise installs Rust toolchains through rustup, installing rustup first if needed, and sets RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN so cargo and rustc use the toolchain your config selects.

Quick start

Install the newest stable Rust for the current project and check it:

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

In a Cargo project, run mise exec -- cargo build or a mise task. These commands select the toolchain through mise and do not need shell activation. Add -g to mise use for a personal default.

Choosing a version

Request	Selects
rust or rust@latest	The newest stable release, such as 1.99.0
rust@1.99	The newest 1.99.x release
rust@stable	rustup's stable channel, updated in place by mise upgrade
rust@beta	rustup's beta channel, updated in place by mise upgrade
rust@nightly	The current nightly, installed and locked as a dated toolchain
rust@nightly-2026-08-13	That nightly

A nightly request stays nightly in your config, but mise installs the current dated toolchain, such as nightly-2026-10-07, and records that in mise.lock, so locked installs are reproducible. mise upgrade rust or mise lock --bump moves a locked nightly forward. A dated nightly is an exact pin; --bump, as in mise upgrade --bump rust, replaces it with the current nightly.

mise also keeps rustup's own nightly toolchain in step with the dated one, so cargo +nightly works. It never replaces a nightly to which you added components or targets with rustup, and after that rustup update nightly moves it without touching the dated toolchain mise installed.

Version files

If the project has a rust-toolchain.toml, let mise read it instead of repeating the version in mise.toml:

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

This changes your global config. Add --local to enable it in the project's mise.toml instead, so teammates get the same behavior. mise reads the channel, profile, components and targets keys of the file's [toolchain] table. See idiomatic version files.

Because mise sets RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN, which rustup ranks above rust-toolchain.toml, the toolchain mise selects wins inside the mise environment. A rust entry in your global config therefore overrides a project's rust-toolchain.toml unless mise reads that file. Check what Cargo uses with mise exec -- rustup show active-toolchain.

Cargo, rustup and installed binaries

rustup and Cargo keep their state in RUSTUP_HOME and CARGO_HOME, by default ~/.rustup and ~/.cargo. mise uses those variables from your environment when they are set. To keep mise's toolchains apart from another rustup installation, set rust.rustup_home and rust.cargo_home, which take precedence over them:

mise.toml

[settings.rust]
rustup_home = "~/.local/share/rustup"
cargo_home = "~/.local/share/cargo"

The settings can also come from the MISE_RUSTUP_HOME and MISE_CARGO_HOME environment variables. A RUSTUP_HOME or CARGO_HOME set in [env] takes precedence over all of these.

When ~/.rustup and ~/.cargo have not been set up and no home is configured, mise reuses a rustup installed by a package manager such as Homebrew, APT or pacman. Your PATH must contain a directory with the rustup, cargo and rustc proxies. With an explicit Rust or Cargo home, mise runs its own rustup setup instead.

cargo install puts binaries in $CARGO_HOME/bin, which is on PATH and shared by every toolchain. To pin a Rust CLI per project, install it with the cargo: backend, such as mise use cargo:ripgrep.

Environment variables

Variable	Value
RUSTUP_TOOLCHAIN	The selected toolchain, such as 1.99.0
RUSTUP_HOME	The rustup home described above
CARGO_HOME	The Cargo home described above

mise also puts $CARGO_HOME/bin, or the package manager's proxy directory, on PATH.

Cache Cargo builds with Mr Boxington

Mr Boxington (mbx) caches Rust compilations across projects, worktrees and CI, and schedules parallel Cargo commands within a shared CPU and memory budget. See its benchmarks. Turn on the mr_boxington tool option and add mbx as a separate tool:

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

This writes:

mise.toml

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

Cargo then runs through mbx under mise exec, in tasks, in activated shells and through mise's shims, with no mbx setup or postinstall step. Calls that bypass mise, such as rustup's Cargo proxy or a toolchain's cargo binary, do not use it, so point editors and coding agents at mise's Cargo shim or mise exec. Having mbx on PATH is not enough; mr-boxington must be in the active [tools].

The option applies to the first Rust version the configuration selects for this platform. mbx keeps its own version and lockfile entry, independent of Rust. In safe mode, project config cannot turn the option on. To turn off an opt-in inherited from another config, set mr_boxington = false in the project's Rust entry.

An explicit [wrappers.cargo] takes precedence over the option. When Rust is managed outside mise, configure that wrapper directly.

How mise installs Rust

mise downloads rustup-init from sh.rustup.rs (win.rustup.rs on Windows) when rustup is not set up, then runs rustup toolchain install with the configured profile, components and targets. The toolchains live in RUSTUP_HOME, not in mise's installs directory; mise keeps a link there to track the version. When the toolchain is already installed, mise install still adds missing configured components and targets. rust.default_host sets the host triple passed to rustup-init.

An installed plugin named rust takes precedence over the built-in installer. If mise behaves differently from this page, check mise plugins ls and see selecting another implementation.

Tool options

components

Components to install, as an array or a comma-separated string. Run mise exec -- rustup component list to see what a toolchain offers.

mise.toml

[tools]
rust = { version = "1.99", components = ["rust-src", "llvm-tools"] }

profile

The rustup profile to install:

• minimal: rustc, rust-std and cargo
• default: the minimal profile plus rust-docs, rustfmt and clippy
• complete: every component available through rustup; this profile includes every component ever published in the metadata and almost always fails

Without it, mise uses rustup's configured profile; check it with rustup show profile.

mise.toml

[tools]
rust = { version = "1.99", profile = "minimal" }

targets

Platforms to install for cross-compilation, as an array or a comma-separated string:

mise.toml

[tools]
rust = {
  version = "1.99",
  targets = ["wasm32-unknown-unknown", "thumbv7em-none-eabi"],
}

mr_boxington

Runs Cargo through Mr Boxington. See Cache Cargo builds with Mr Boxington.

install_env

Sets environment variables for rustup-init and rustup toolchain install. rustup downloads the toolchain itself, so variables it reads, such as a mirror in RUSTUP_DIST_SERVER, apply:

mise.toml

[tools]
rust = { version = "latest", install_env = { RUSTUP_DIST_SERVER = "https://rust-mirror.example.com" } }

Other generic options are described in tool options.

Settings

Set these under [settings] in a config file, with mise settings set, or with a setting's environment variable where it has one. See which value wins when a setting is set in more than one place.

rust.cargo_home

Directory used as CARGO_HOME for the Rust toolchains that mise manages.

• Type: path
• Default: $CARGO_HOME, otherwise ~/.cargo
• Environment variable: MISE_CARGO_HOME

Set it with rust.rustup_home to keep mise's toolchains apart from another rustup installation. It takes precedence over a CARGO_HOME in your environment, but a CARGO_HOME set in [env] takes precedence over it. See Cargo, rustup and installed binaries.

rust.default_host

Host triple that mise passes to rustup init as --default-host.

• Type: string
• Default: unset
• Environment variable: MISE_RUST_DEFAULT_HOST

rust.rustup_home

Directory used as RUSTUP_HOME for the Rust toolchains that mise manages.

• Type: path
• Default: $RUSTUP_HOME, otherwise ~/.rustup
• Environment variable: MISE_RUSTUP_HOME

Set it with rust.cargo_home to keep mise's toolchains apart from another rustup installation. It takes precedence over a RUSTUP_HOME in your environment, but a RUSTUP_HOME set in [env] takes precedence over it. See Cargo, rustup and installed binaries.