How Rekindle Works

Rekindle makes Mix the entry point for a Rust UI project without replacing Cargo. Elixir owns installation, target selection, development supervision, and artifact publication. Cargo owns Rust dependencies, compilation, profiles, target directories, and incremental caches.

Application-owned client

Installation creates a Cargo project inside the Elixir application:

client/
├── Cargo.toml
├── rust-toolchain.toml
├── build.rs             # Slint build script, when selected
├── public/
├── ui/                  # Slint UI sources, when selected
└── src/
    ├── app.rs           # eframe application, when selected
    ├── lib.rs
    └── bin/
        ├── web.rs
        └── desktop.rs

The application owns and edits this project. Rekindle does not hide it behind a global cache or a generated dependency.

Shared UI and application logic remains outside the target binaries. GPUI keeps it in client/src/lib.rs, eframe uses client/src/app.rs, and Slint uses client/ui/app-window.slint with bindings in client/src/lib.rs. The binaries under client/src/bin select the browser or native platform and call that shared code. Cargo features let one crate include only the platform dependencies required for each target.

Development and release

In development, Rekindle watches client/, schedules Cargo builds, and replaces only successful Web generations or desktop processes. Phoenix and the Rust UI therefore share one supervised development command.

For production, Rekindle runs the configured Cargo release profile and publishes an immutable Web generation or a content-addressed desktop executable. The resulting artifacts belong to the host application's ordinary deployment or packaging process.