Installation

This page covers everything needed to go from zero to a running NestForge application.

Note

NestForge targets the stable Rust toolchain. Nightly is not required.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

Requirement	Notes
Stable Rust + Cargo	Install from rustup.rs
Git	Any recent version
protoc	Only required if you use the gRPC feature

Check your Rust version with:

rustc --version
# rustc 1.75.0 (or later)

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Step 1: Install the CLI

Install the NestForge CLI from crates.io:

cargo install nestforge-cli

Verify the install worked:

nestforge --version

Tip

If you are working from a local checkout of the NestForge repository instead of crates.io, use:

cargo install --path crates/nestforge-cli

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Step 2: Create a new project

Scaffold a new HTTP application:

nestforge new my-api
cd my-api

The generator creates the application bootstrap files at the root of src/:

my-api/
  Cargo.toml
  .env
  .env.example
  src/
    main.rs
    app_config.rs
    app_controller.rs
    app_service.rs
    app_module.rs
    health_controller.rs

Feature folders such as src/users/ are generated later when you add modules or resources.

Run it right away:

cargo run

The server starts on http://127.0.0.1:3000 by default.

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Step 3: Understand your Cargo.toml

The generated Cargo.toml starts with only the core dependency:

[dependencies]
nestforge = { version = "1", features = [] }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["full"] }
anyhow = "1"
axum = "0.7"
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
serde_json = "1"

NestForge is feature-gated. You only compile and link what you need.

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Step 4: Choose your features

Enable features by adding them to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
nestforge = { version = "1", features = ["openapi"] }

Here is the full feature reference:

Feature	What it adds
openapi	#[summary], #[tag], #[response] macros + docs mounting helpers
config	ConfigModule, EnvSchema, load_config() for typed env config
db	Db, connect_db() for SQL via sqlx
orm	Repo, SqlRepo, EntityMeta on top of db
graphql	graphql_router, GraphQlConfig, async_graphql re-export
grpc	NestForgeGrpcFactory, GrpcContext, prost/tonic re-export
websockets	websocket_router, WebSocketGateway, Message types
microservices	MicroserviceRegistry, InProcessMicroserviceClient
schedule	ScheduleRegistry, ScheduledJob, start_schedules(), shutdown_schedules()
cache	CacheInterceptor, CachePolicy, cached_response_interceptor
mongo	InMemoryMongoRepo, MongoConfig
redis	InMemoryRedisStore, RedisConfig
testing	TestFactory, TestingModule for integration tests
data	Base data-layer trait; pulled in by cache, mongo, and redis

Common feature combinations

# REST API with OpenAPI docs
nestforge = { version = "1", features = ["openapi", "config"] }

# REST API with a SQL database
nestforge = { version = "1", features = ["db", "orm", "openapi", "config"] }

# GraphQL API
nestforge = { version = "1", features = ["graphql", "config"] }

# Full-stack transport app
nestforge = { version = "1", features = ["openapi", "graphql", "websockets", "schedule", "config"] }

Caution

Do not enable grpc unless you also have protoc installed. The gRPC crate wraps tonic which requires the Protocol Buffers compiler for code generation steps.

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Step 5: Verify the project builds

cargo check

You should see no errors. If you see E0433 for unresolved items from nestforge, you likely need to add the corresponding feature flag.

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What to read next

• Quick Start — build and run your first app
• CLI Workflow — current generator and export commands
• Feature Modules — how to add features to your app