Crates.io website, Rust package registry, Cargo packages, crates, Cargo.toml, crate publishing, owners, yanking, Rust Foundation, and WHOIS domain data

Crates.io

Crates.io is the Rust package registry website where developers discover, publish, download, and manage reusable Rust packages called crates.

Core purpose

Crates.io is the public package registry used by Cargo for publishing and installing Rust packages called crates.

Official domain

crates.io is the main public website for crate search, package pages, account login, publishing workflows, and links into Cargo documentation.

Domain created

January 22, 2014

The Crates.io repository logo used as the brand image for the website page.View logo in the Crates.io GitHub repository

What Crates.io is

Crates.io official site is the Rust package registry website. Developers use it to find crates, inspect package pages, publish releases, manage ownership, and connect Rust projects to the Cargo package manager. A crate is a Rust package. In everyday Rust work, Cargo reads package metadata, resolves dependencies, downloads crate files, and uses the registry index so projects can build repeatably. Crates.io is the public home for that shared ecosystem.

Cargo and Cargo.toml

Cargo is the command-line tool that builds Rust projects, manages dependencies, and publishes crates. A Rust package describes itself in Cargo.toml, including its name, version, edition, dependencies, features, license, repository, homepage, keywords, and categories. Those fields help both Cargo and Crates.io understand how the package should be found and used.

Publishing crates

The Cargo Book describes publishing as uploading a specific crate version to be hosted on Crates.io. Before publishing, maintainers prepare metadata, run packaging checks, create an API token, and usually test with a dry run. Once a version is published, it is meant to be permanent: the version cannot be overwritten, and deletion is not the normal maintenance path.

Yanking and ownership

Crates.io handles mistakes through yanking rather than deleting package code. A yanked version is no longer chosen for new dependency resolutions, but existing lockfiles can still refer to it. Package owners can also add other users or GitHub teams, which matters because owners can publish new versions and manage parts of a crate's lifecycle.

Discovery and package pages

A Crates.io package page can show a crate name, description, version history, download counts, documentation links, repository links, license, keywords, categories, dependencies, and owners. Those signals help developers decide whether a crate is active, documented, compatible, and suitable for a project.

Who uses Crates.io

Crates.io is used by Rust application developers, library maintainers, embedded developers, WebAssembly projects, command-line tool authors, infrastructure teams, educators, CI systems, and organizations that build Rust software. Some users interact with it through the website, while many interact with it mostly through Cargo commands.

Why it matters

Crates.io matters because Rust's practical ecosystem depends on reusable packages. Async runtimes, serialization libraries, command-line tools, embedded abstractions, crypto libraries, testing helpers, and web frameworks all rely on shared crates. That makes the registry both a developer convenience and a meaningful part of Rust's software supply chain.

WHOIS domain data

Data pulled: May 24, 2026View current WHOIS record

Domain: crates.io
IP address: 151.101.66.137
Registrar: Gandi SAS
WHOIS server: whois.gandi.net
Referral URL: https://www.gandi.net
Created: January 22, 2014
Updated: December 18, 2025
Expires: January 22, 2027
Nameservers: ns-817.awsdns-38.net (205.251.195.49); ns-1064.awsdns-05.org (205.251.196.40); ns-217.awsdns-27.com (205.251.192.217); ns-1543.awsdns-00.co.uk (205.251.198.7)
Domain status: clientTransferProhibited
DNSSEC: unsigned
Contact privacy: Registrant name is redacted; registrant organization is listed as Rust Foundation, while admin and technical contact details are redacted.

Key concepts

CrateA Rust package that can contain a library, binary, procedural macro, or reusable code for other Rust projects.
Cargo.tomlThe manifest file that describes a Rust package's metadata, dependencies, features, and package settings.
Registry indexMetadata used by Cargo to resolve crate versions and dependency requirements.
YankingMarking a published version so new resolutions avoid it while existing lockfiles can continue to build.

Common workflows

Search Crates.io for a package and review its documentation links, versions, dependencies, and owners.
Add a dependency with Cargo, then record the resolved versions in a lockfile for repeatable builds.
Publish a crate with cargo publish after packaging checks and metadata review.
Yank a broken version, rotate leaked tokens, or adjust crate ownership when maintenance responsibilities change.

Common misconceptions

Crates.io is not Cargo itself; Crates.io is the registry website, while Cargo is the Rust package manager and build tool.
A crate being listed on Crates.io does not automatically mean it is official, secure, maintained, or appropriate for every project.
Yanking is not the same as deleting a crate version; it changes future dependency resolution while preserving existing builds.

Open questions

How should package registries balance permanent archives with the need to respond to secrets, malware, and abandoned packages?
How much crate trust should come from owners, signatures, audits, dependency policies, provenance, or ecosystem review?
Will Rust teams rely more on private registries, mirrors, and stricter review as Rust adoption grows in production systems?