rust-deps-visualizer_skill

Overview

This skill generates ASCII-art visualizations of a Rust project's dependency graph from local Cargo metadata. It runs cargo tree (and optionally inspects feature flags) to produce readable, navigable trees, category sections, and optional size bars. The output helps developers quickly understand dependency depth, features, and categories without leaving the terminal.

How this skill works

The skill checks for Cargo.toml in the current directory, runs cargo metadata and cargo tree to collect dependency information, and parses that output into an ASCII tree. Options allow limiting depth and showing feature flags; the formatter applies box-drawing characters and can group dependencies by purpose or annotate sizes when available.

When to use it

• Quickly inspect a project's dependency tree in the terminal
• Audit feature flags and transitive crates before a release
• Identify deep or unexpected transitive dependencies
• Visualize dev vs runtime vs build dependencies
• Estimate dependency footprint when size data is available

Best practices

• Run from the crate root where Cargo.toml is present
• Limit --depth to 2–4 for large dependency graphs to avoid noise
• Use --features when you need feature-aware dependency visibility
• Combine visual output with cargo tree filters (e.g., --all-features) for targeted inspection
• Use categories (runtime/dev/build) to focus reviews and PR discussions

Example use cases

• Run /rust-deps-visualizer --depth 3 to produce a concise project tree before a dependency audit
• Enable feature-aware view to confirm which optional features pull in heavy transitive crates
• Group dependencies into Runtime, Serialization, and Development to present in a code review
• Generate size-annotated output to find the largest crates affecting binary size