Deterministic crates.io name finder with an interactive CLI.

Stream candidate crate names in order, filter with curated dictionaries, and stop when you have enough available hits.

Installation • Features • Usage • Dictionary • Workspace • Development • Flags • Behavior

Installation

[!NOTE] The workspace targets Rust 1.88+ (edition 2024). Install with the commands below when hacking locally.

cargo install name

# Install directly from the workspace while iterating.
cargo install --path bin/name

# Build a release binary when you need artifacts.
cargo build --release -p name

Usage

Run the CLI to scan for available crate names with streaming output.

By default, name uses 3-5 chars, stopping after 10 available.

name

To parallelize searches, you can pass the --parallel flag.

name --min-len 3 --max-len 6 --limit 25 --parallel

name shuffles candidate names by default to avoid repetitive searches.

For an alphabetical deterministic scan, use the --alphabetical flag.

name --alphabetical --limit 50

Features

• Interactive prompts for length bounds and available-cap defaults (3–5 characters, stop after 10 available) when flags are missing.
• Deterministic generator that walks length buckets, shuffles (optionally seeded), and can enforce prefix/suffix filters before hitting crates.io.
• Embedded dictionary blending ~20k words with curated short names; swap in names-only, words-only, or custom files.
• Configurable caps for total candidates scanned and available results returned; stops early once the available cap is hit.
• Bounded parallel crates.io checks with ordered streaming output, colored summaries, and a graceful Ctrl+C path.
• CRATES_IO_BASE_URL override keeps integration tests and local mocks off the real registry.

Dictionary

Use the embedded data or bring your own newline-delimited list:

# Names-only or words-only from the embedded sets.
name --names-only
name --words-only

# Custom dictionary file filtered to your length bounds.
name --dictionary ./my_words.txt --no-limit

[!TIP] The generator preserves ordered output even when --parallel is enabled. For reproducible scans, keep --alphabetical enabled or wire in a fixed shuffle seed via the library API.

Workspace

.
├── Cargo.toml          # Workspace, lint, and profile configuration
├── Justfile            # Developer commands (build, test, lint)
├── bin/
│   └── name/           # User-facing CLI crate
└── crates/             # Shared libraries for CLI parsing, dictionary data, generator, and crates.io client

• bin/name: Streams available names with colored output, ordered results, and verbose logging when enabled.
• crates/cli: Clap-based flag parsing plus interactive prompts that build a GeneratorConfig.
• crates/generator (name-forge): Core engine that filters, shuffles (optionally seeded), and checks candidates sequentially or in parallel.
• crates/dictionary: Embedded word/name data with iterators grouped by length for deterministic scans.
• crates/crates-io-client: Minimal reqwest client for existence checks and metadata fetches against crates.io or a mock registry.

Development

• just test runs the suite with nextest (installs if missing).
• just check-format / just check-clippy / just check-docs enforce formatting, lints, and docs.
• just check-udeps checks for unused dependencies (nightly + cargo-udeps).
• just build-all-targets or cargo build for local builds.

Flags

• --min-len <N> / --max-len <N>: inclusive length bounds (prompted if omitted).
• --limit <N>: stop after N available names (defaults to 10); --no-limit disables this cap.
• --parallel: enable bounded parallel crates.io checks while keeping ordered output.
• --alphabetical: disable shuffling for deterministic lexicographic scans (shuffle is default).
• --dictionary <path>: newline-delimited override for the embedded dictionary.
• --names-only / --words-only: restrict to embedded names or words; otherwise both are used.
• --verbose: enable tracing logs to stderr.

Behavior

• Streams available names immediately with colored output and crates.io links, then prints a summary of checked/available/taken/error counts.
• Honors CRATES_IO_BASE_URL (defaults to https://crates.io), useful for pointing at mocks in tests.
• Exits cleanly on Ctrl+C.

License

This codebase is MIT licensed; see LICENSE.