Preface

This grimoire is the one I wanted to find when I decided to learn Rust.

There is no shortage of Rust material, and most of it is good. But most of it teaches the language: concepts, syntax, rules. I wanted something different - something that built from the very first page. Where each chapter left behind not just understanding, but working code that did something concrete. Where by the end I had a finished piece in my hands, not a set of exercises.

How the grimoire is structured

A single artifact runs through every chapter - tq, a task manager. In the first chapter it does not exist at all. In the last, it is a CLI tool with a REST API, persistent storage, logging, and integration tests. Each chapter adds one capability. Rust concepts appear not as topics to study, but as answers to concrete problems.

All you need is a working Rust toolchain. No database to configure, no cloud account to create, no additional setup - cargo build is enough for any chapter.

All the code for every chapter lives in the open repository github.com/gitavk/tq. The folder named after a chapter is the complete, compilable state of tq at the end of that chapter.

How to read

Chapter by chapter is the most direct path. But if something is not clicking, or you want to skip ahead - do not be afraid to. Take the code for any chapter from the repository, run cargo build, confirm it works, and read on from there. There is no check - you decide.

Experience in another programming language will help - some things will feel familiar in shape, even if Rust does them differently. But it is not a requirement. If you are picking up Rust as your first language, you will get there - some chapters will just take a little more time.

Acknowledgements

To my family - for patience on those evenings and weekends when I was sitting with this instead of being present.

To Claude Code - for becoming a genuine co-author: holding context, catching inconsistencies, suggesting better. A significant part of this grimoire was written in conversation with it.

And to you - for your interest in this work.