M02 Resource

m02-resource guides developers through selecting appropriate smart pointers and resource management patterns in Rust by asking design questions rather than prescribing solutions. It's for Rust developers encountering ownership and memory management challenges who need to understand when to use Box, Rc, Arc, RefCell, or other smart pointers based on their specific ownership model, thread context, and mutability requirements. The skill solves the problem of cargo-cult smart pointer usage by connecting implementation choices back to underlying design decisions about single vs. shared ownership, single-threaded vs. multi-threaded access, and reference cycles.

skills.sh installs: 783
GitHub stars: 1.3K
last updated: Jul 14, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add zhanghandong/rust-skills --skill m02-resource --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Resource Management

Layer 1: Language Mechanics

Core Question

What ownership pattern does this resource need?

Before choosing a smart pointer, understand:

Is ownership single or shared?
Is access single-threaded or multi-threaded?
Are there potential cycles?

Error → Design Question

Error	Don't Just Say	Ask Instead
"Need heap allocation"	"Use Box"	Why can't this be on stack?
Rc memory leak	"Use Weak"	Is the cycle necessary in design?
RefCell panic	"Use try_borrow"	Is runtime check the right approach?
Arc overhead complaint	"Accept it"	Is multi-thread access actually needed?

Thinking Prompt

Before choosing a smart pointer:

What's the ownership model?
- Single owner → Box or owned value
- Shared ownership → Rc/Arc
- Weak reference → Weak
What's the thread context?
- Single-thread → Rc, Cell, RefCell
- Multi-thread → Arc, Mutex, RwLock
Are there cycles?
- Yes → One direction must be Weak
- No → Regular Rc/Arc is fine