crgx

Run any crate binary instantly — no cargo install, no compile wait, no ceremony.

crgx <crate> [args...]

crgx is the npx equivalent for the Rust ecosystem. It fetches pre-built binaries, caches them locally, and executes them in a single command — no compilation required. Any crate that works with cargo-binstall works with crgx automatically.

Why crgx?

• No compilation — downloads pre-built binaries in seconds instead of compiling for minutes
• No global install — binaries live in crgx's own cache, not ~/.cargo/bin
• One command — crgx <crate> resolves, downloads, caches, and runs
• Works offline — falls back to cached binaries when the network is unavailable
• MCP-ready — drop crgx <server> into any MCP config with zero setup

How does crgx compare?

Tool	What it does	Compile?	Global install?	One command?
crgx	Fetch + cache + run pre-built binary	No	No (own cache)	Yes
cargo install	Compile from source, install to ~/.cargo/bin	Yes (slow)	Yes	Yes
cargo binstall	Install pre-built binary to ~/.cargo/bin	No	Yes	Yes
npx (Node.js)	Run npm package binary	N/A	No	Yes

Install

Platform	Command
macOS (Homebrew)	brew install yfedoseev/tap/crgx
Linux / macOS (shell)	curl -fsSL crgx.dev/install.sh | sh
Windows (PowerShell)	irm crgx.dev/install.ps1 | iex
Any (Cargo)	cargo install crgx

Or download pre-built binaries from GitHub Releases.

Usage

crgx [FLAGS] <crate>[@<version>] [tool-args...]

Everything after the crate specifier is passed directly to the tool:

crgx tokei .                    # count lines of code
crgx hyperfine "echo hello"    # benchmark a command
crgx dust .                    # disk usage overview
crgx cargo-audit               # security audit
crgx sd 'before' 'after' *.md  # find & replace
crgx ripgrep -i "TODO" src/    # search files

Version pinning

crgx tokei@14.0.0 .          # exact version (cached forever)
crgx tokei@latest .           # force latest from registry
crgx tokei .                  # latest, with 24h staleness check

MCP servers

{
  "command": "crgx",
  "args": ["fossil-mcp"]
}

Drop into any MCP config. No pre-install step. crgx downloads automatically without prompting, like uvx.

CI/CD

- run: crgx cargo-tarpaulin -- --out xml

No cargo install step burning CI minutes.

Flags

Flag	Description
-v, --verbose	Show detailed progress and resolution info
--allow-build	Allow compiling from source if no pre-built binary found
--bin <name>	Specify which binary to run (for multi-binary crates)
--offline	Only run if already cached; no network access

Cache management

crgx --cache-list             # show cached binaries
crgx --cache-clean            # remove all cached binaries
crgx --cache-dir              # print cache directory path

OS	Cache path
Linux	~/.cache/crgx/
macOS	~/Library/Caches/crgx/
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\crgx\cache

Exact versions (tool@1.2.3) are cached forever. Unversioned calls use a 24h staleness window.

Resolution chain

crgx tries each source in order to find a pre-built binary:

1. Local cache — instant if already downloaded
2. Binstall metadata — reads the crate author's download URL from Cargo.toml metadata
3. GitHub Releases — matches a release asset by your target triple
4. QuickInstall — falls back to cargo-quickinstall's pre-built binary registry
5. cargo build — opt-in with --allow-build, compiles from source as a last resort

Any crate that works with cargo binstall works with crgx automatically.

How it works

On first run, crgx resolves the crate from crates.io, downloads a pre-built binary, caches it, and exec()s it. The crgx process is replaced entirely — zero overhead, signals pass through, exit codes are preserved.

Subsequent runs hit the cache and execute immediately.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.