crunch

crunch is a drop-in cargo replacement for offloading Rust compilation to a remote server.

Cut compile times and iterate faster!

Usage

Just replace cargo with crunch.

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

Installation

cargo install crunch-app

Setup

1. Install Rust on a Debian-based machine
2. 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

3. 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.

Advanced Usage

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

cargo-remote

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

• Just replace cargo with crunch
• Minimal configuration (just set a host in ~/.ssh/config)

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