Gearbox

A lightweight, opinionated Rust web framework with automatic dependency injection.

Features

• Dependency Injection - Declare dependencies with #[inject] and let Gearbox wire everything together
• Auto-Registration - Services (Cogs) are automatically discovered and registered at startup
• Dependency Resolution - Topological sorting ensures services are initialized in the correct order
• Configuration System - Load config from TOML files and environment variables with relaxed binding
• Route Macros - Define HTTP handlers with #[get], #[post], etc. and automatic parameter injection
• PostgreSQL Support - #[derive(PgEntity)] generates CRUD operations, pg_queries! for custom SQL
• Built on Axum - Leverages the battle-tested Axum web framework under the hood

Quick Start

Add Gearbox to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
gearbox-core = { path = "../core" }
gearbox-macros = { path = "../macros" }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt-multi-thread", "macros"] }

Hello World Example

use gearbox_core::{IntoResponse, Path};
use gearbox_macros::{cog, gearbox_app, get};
use std::sync::Arc;

// Helper function for default message
fn default_message() -> String {
    "Hello".to_string()
}

// Define a service (Cog)
#[cog]
pub struct Greeter {
    #[default(default_message)]
    message: String,
}

impl Greeter {
    pub fn greet(&self, name: &str) -> String {
        format!("{}, {}!", self.message, name)
    }
}

// Define a route that uses the service
#[get("/hello/:name")]
async fn hello(
    path: Path<String>,
    greeter: Arc<Greeter>,
) -> impl IntoResponse {
    greeter.greet(&path)
}

// Start the application
#[gearbox_app]
fn main() {}

Run with:

cargo run

Visit http://localhost:8080/hello/world to see: Hello, world!

Core Concepts

Cogs (Services)

A Cog is Gearbox's term for a service or component. Use the #[cog] macro to define one:

#[cog]
pub struct UserService {
    #[inject]
    db: Arc<Database>,       // Injected from registry
    #[config]
    settings: UserConfig,    // Loaded from configuration
    #[default(Vec::new)]
    cache: Vec<User>,        // Initialized via function
    counter: u64,            // Uses Default::default()
}

Field attributes:

• #[inject] - Inject an Arc<T> from the service registry
• #[config] - Load from configuration (requires CogConfig impl)
• #[default(fn)] - Initialize via a sync function
• #[default_async(fn)] - Initialize via an async function
• No attribute - Uses Default::default()

Configuration

Define configuration structs with #[cog_config]:

#[cog_config("database")]
#[derive(Default, Deserialize)]
pub struct DbConfig {
    pub url: String,
    pub max_connections: u32,
}

Create a config.toml:

[gearbox-app]
http-port = 8080
log-level = "info"

[database]
url = "postgres://localhost/mydb"
max-connections = 10

Override with environment variables:

GEARBOX_DATABASE_URL=postgres://prod/mydb
GEARBOX_DATABASE_MAXCONNECTIONS=50
GEARBOX_GEARBOXAPP_HTTPPORT=3000

Gearbox uses relaxed binding - all of these match max_connections:

• max-connections (TOML kebab-case)
• max_connections (TOML snake_case)
• MAXCONNECTIONS (env var)

Routes

Define HTTP handlers with route macros:

#[get("/users")]
async fn list_users(repo: Arc<UserRepo>) -> Json<Vec<User>> {
    Json(repo.find_all().await)
}

#[post("/users")]
async fn create_user(
    repo: Arc<UserRepo>,
    body: Json<CreateUser>,
) -> impl IntoResponse {
    let user = repo.create(body.0).await;
    (StatusCode::CREATED, Json(user))
}

#[get("/users/:id")]
async fn get_user(
    path: Path<String>,
    repo: Arc<UserRepo>,
) -> impl IntoResponse {
    match repo.find_by_id(&path).await {
        Some(user) => Json(user).into_response(),
        None => StatusCode::NOT_FOUND.into_response(),
    }
}

Available macros: #[get], #[post], #[put], #[delete], #[patch]

Arc<T> parameters are automatically transformed to use Gearbox's Inject<T> extractor. Other Axum extractors (Json, Path, Query, etc.) work as normal.

PostgreSQL Entities

Generate repository operations with #[derive(PgEntity)]:

#[derive(PgEntity)]
#[table("users")]
pub struct User {
    #[primary_key]
    pub id: String,
    pub name: String,
    pub email: String,
    #[skip]
    pub computed: String,  // Excluded from DB operations
}

// Generated methods on PgClient:
// - create(entity) -> INSERT
// - update(entity) -> UPDATE
// - upsert(entity) -> INSERT ... ON CONFLICT
// - find_by_id(id) -> SELECT
// - find_by_ids(ids) -> SELECT ... IN
// - find_page(limit, offset) -> SELECT with pagination
// - exists(id) -> SELECT EXISTS
// - count() -> SELECT COUNT
// - delete(id) -> DELETE
// - create_batch(entities) -> batch INSERT
// - upsert_batch(entities) -> batch UPSERT

Custom Queries

Define custom SQL queries with pg_queries!:

use gearbox_macros::pg_queries;

#[derive(sqlx::FromRow)]
pub struct UserSummary {
    pub id: String,
    pub name: String,
}

pg_queries! {
    fn find_user_by_email(email: &str) -> Option<User> {
        "SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = $1"
    }

    fn find_active_users() -> Vec<User> {
        "SELECT * FROM users WHERE active = true"
    }

    fn get_user_summary(id: &str) -> Option<UserSummary> {
        "SELECT id, name FROM users WHERE id = $1"
    }

    fn count_users_by_role(role: &str) -> i64 {
        "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM users WHERE role = $1"
    }

    fn deactivate_user(id: &str) -> bool {
        "UPDATE users SET active = false WHERE id = $1"
    }

    fn delete_inactive() -> u64 {
        "DELETE FROM users WHERE active = false"
    }

    fn log_action(user_id: &str, action: &str) {
        "INSERT INTO audit_log (user_id, action) VALUES ($1, $2)"
    }
}

Usage - import the PgQueries trait:

use crate::PgQueries;

let user = client.find_user_by_email("test@example.com").await?;
let count = client.count_users_by_role("admin").await?;
let deleted = client.deactivate_user("123").await?; // returns bool

Return type mapping:

Complex Joins

Use custom structs to represent JOIN results:

// Define a struct for the join result
#[derive(sqlx::FromRow)]
pub struct OrderWithCustomer {
    // Order fields
    pub order_id: i64,
    pub order_date: chrono::NaiveDate,
    pub total: f64,
    // Customer fields from JOIN
    pub customer_name: String,
    pub customer_email: String,
}

#[derive(sqlx::FromRow)]
pub struct ProductSalesReport {
    pub product_name: String,
    pub category: String,
    pub total_sold: i64,
    pub revenue: f64,
}

pg_queries! {
    fn find_orders_with_customers(status: &str) -> Vec<OrderWithCustomer> {
        "SELECT
            o.id as order_id,
            o.order_date,
            o.total,
            c.name as customer_name,
            c.email as customer_email
         FROM orders o
         JOIN customers c ON o.customer_id = c.id
         WHERE o.status = $1
         ORDER BY o.order_date DESC"
    }

    fn get_sales_report(start_date: chrono::NaiveDate, end_date: chrono::NaiveDate) -> Vec<ProductSalesReport> {
        "SELECT
            p.name as product_name,
            cat.name as category,
            SUM(oi.quantity) as total_sold,
            SUM(oi.quantity * oi.unit_price) as revenue
         FROM order_items oi
         JOIN products p ON oi.product_id = p.id
         JOIN categories cat ON p.category_id = cat.id
         JOIN orders o ON oi.order_id = o.id
         WHERE o.order_date BETWEEN $1 AND $2
         GROUP BY p.id, p.name, cat.name
         ORDER BY revenue DESC"
    }

    fn find_user_with_latest_order(user_id: &str) -> Option<UserWithOrder> {
        "SELECT
            u.id, u.name, u.email,
            o.id as last_order_id,
            o.total as last_order_total,
            o.order_date as last_order_date
         FROM users u
         LEFT JOIN LATERAL (
            SELECT id, total, order_date
            FROM orders
            WHERE user_id = u.id
            ORDER BY order_date DESC
            LIMIT 1
         ) o ON true
         WHERE u.id = $1"
    }
}

The struct field names must match the column aliases in your SQL query. Use AS to rename columns from joins to avoid conflicts and match your struct fields.

Project Structure

gearbox-rs/
├── core/           # Core framework (Hub, Config, DI, routing)
├── macros/         # Procedural macros (#[cog], #[get], etc.)
├── pg/             # PostgreSQL integration
└── examples/       # Example applications

License

MIT