Show HN: Drop-in cargo replacement for offloading Rust compilation to a remote

4 months ago 8

Turbocharge your Rust workflow.

crunch seamlessly executes cargo commands on powerful remote hardware. Cut compile times and iterate faster!

Just replace cargo with crunch.

c̶a̶r̶g̶o̶crunch check c̶a̶r̶g̶o̶crunch clippy --workspace c̶a̶r̶g̶o̶crunch t -p sys-internals

Install Rust on a Debian-based machine
Add a crunch host to your ~/.ssh/config

Host crunch HostName your-machine-ip User your-machine-user IdentityFile ~/.ssh/your-key.pem ControlMaster auto ControlPath ~/.ssh/control-%r@%h:%p ControlPersist 5m

Ready to use crunch 🔥

What Hardware Should I Use?

I recommend prioritising fewer high performing cores over many slower cores.

As of mid-2025, I'm personally using a Hetzner AX102, which has compile times approximately equivalent to an Apple M4 Pro chip. The AX42 and AX52 are also great options.

If there is demand, I will consider selling access to managed hardware directly in the cli. Interested? Come say hi in Discord!

rust-analyzer (experimental)

Use crunch with rust-analyzer by setting rust-analyzer.check.overrideCommand to your preferred crunch command, including the --message-format=json flag.

e.g. in VSCode, you might set

"rust-analyzer.check.overrideCommand": [ "crunch", "check", "--quiet", "--workspace", "--message-format=json", "--all-targets", "--all-features" ],

in your settings.json.

Usage: crunch [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>... Arguments: <COMMAND>... The cargo command to execute Example: `build --release` Options: -e, --build-env <BUILD_ENV> Set remote environment variables. RUST_BACKTRACE, CC, LIB, etc [default: RUST_BACKTRACE=1] --exclude <EXCLUDE> Path or directory to exclude from the remote server transfer. Specify multiple entries using delimiter ','. By default the `target` and `.git` directories are excluded. Example: `--exclude "target,.git,cat.png,*.lock,mocks/**/*.db"` [default: target,.git] --post-cargo <POST_CARGO> A command to execute on the machine after the cargo command has finished executing. Example: `--post-cargo "cd target/release && profile my-binary"` --copy-back <COPY_BACK> Path or directory to sync back from the remote server after all other work has been done. Each entry should be in the format `source:destination`. Specify multiple entries using delimiter ','. Example: `--copy-back "./target/release/cuter-cat.png:.,*.bin:~/my-bins"` -h, --help Print help (see a summary with '-h') -V, --version Print version EXAMPLES: crunch -e RUST_LOG=debug check --all-features --all-targets crunch test -- --nocapture

crunch was inspired by cargo-remote, aiming to achieve the same goals but with a simpler developer experience.