Install nestrs and configure Cargo features

Add nestrs to your Cargo.toml, set up the tokio async runtime, choose optional feature flags, and configure release profile settings for production builds.

nestrs is available on crates.io. Add it to your project by editing Cargo.toml directly, or use cargo add. This page covers the minimum required setup, the tokio runtime configuration, and the full table of optional feature flags.

Minimum supported Rust version

nestrs requires Rust 1.88 or later. Run rustup update stable to ensure your toolchain is current before adding the dependency.

Adding nestrs to your project

nestrs depends on tokio for its async runtime. You must enable the macros and rt-multi-thread features on tokio alongside nestrs:

Cargo.toml

[dependencies]
nestrs = "0.3.8"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

cargo add nestrs
cargo add tokio --features macros,rt-multi-thread

Your main function must be annotated with #[tokio::main]:

use nestrs::prelude::*;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    NestFactory::create::<AppModule>().listen_graceful(3000).await;
}

If you use DTO validation with #[dto] and its field-level macros, also add serde and validator:

serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
validator = { version = "0.20", features = ["derive"] }

Optional feature flags

nestrs has a default = [] feature set — nothing optional is enabled unless you ask for it. Enable features by adding them to the features list on the nestrs dependency:

nestrs = { version = "0.3.8", features = ["openapi", "cache-redis"] }

The table below lists every available feature flag and what it adds to your project.

Transport and protocol features

Feature	What it enables
ws	WebSocket gateway helpers via nestrs-ws
graphql	async-graphql router integration via nestrs-graphql
openapi	OpenAPI spec generation and Swagger UI via nestrs-openapi

Microservices features

Feature	What it enables
microservices	Base microservices support: transport traits, event bus (nestrs-microservices + nestrs-events)
microservices-nats	NATS transport (implies microservices, adds async-nats)
microservices-redis	Redis pub/sub transport (implies microservices, adds redis)
microservices-kafka	Kafka transport (implies microservices)
microservices-mqtt	MQTT transport (implies microservices)
microservices-rabbitmq	RabbitMQ transport (implies microservices)
microservices-grpc	gRPC-style transport (implies microservices)

All microservices-* features automatically enable the base microservices feature. You do not need to list both.

Data and storage features

Feature	What it enables
cache-redis	Redis-backed caching via the redis crate
database-sqlx	SQLx integration for Postgres, SQLite, and other databases
mongo	MongoDB integration via the mongodb crate

HTTP and request handling features

Feature	What it enables
cookies	Cookie extraction and setting via tower-cookies
session	Session middleware via tower-sessions (implies cookies)
csrf	CSRF protection (implies cookies, adds subtle)
http-client	HTTP client via reqwest (JSON support, rustls TLS)
files	Static file serving via tokio-util
mvc	Server-side template rendering via minijinja

Infrastructure features

Feature	What it enables
schedule	Cron-style task scheduling via tokio-cron-scheduler and linkme
queues	In-process job queues via linkme
otel	OpenTelemetry tracing export (OTLP/gRPC) via opentelemetry, opentelemetry_sdk, opentelemetry-otlp, and tracing-opentelemetry

Common configuration examples

Minimal API

[dependencies]
nestrs = "0.3.8"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

[dependencies]
nestrs = { version = "0.3.8", features = ["openapi"] }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
validator = { version = "0.20", features = ["derive"] }

[dependencies]
nestrs = { version = "0.3.8", features = ["openapi", "session", "csrf", "database-sqlx"] }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
validator = { version = "0.20", features = ["derive"] }

[dependencies]
nestrs = { version = "0.3.8", features = ["microservices-nats"] }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

[dependencies]
nestrs = { version = "0.3.8", features = ["graphql", "ws"] }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

[dependencies]
nestrs = { version = "0.3.8", features = ["otel"] }
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

Release profile recommendations

The CLI-generated Cargo.toml includes a tuned release profile. Add this to your own Cargo.toml for optimised production builds:

[profile.release]
opt-level = 3
lto = "thin"
codegen-units = 1
strip = "symbols"
panic = "abort"

panic = "abort" skips stack unwinding on panic. This reduces binary size and can improve performance, but means destructors do not run on panic. Evaluate this setting against your application’s requirements before enabling it.

Environment variables

nestrs reads a .env file at startup via dotenvy. Create a .env file in your project root to configure the runtime:

PORT=3000
NESTRS_ENV=development
RUST_LOG=info
DATABASE_URL=file:./dev.db

Set NESTRS_ENV=production to activate production error sanitisation when you call .enable_production_errors_from_env() in main.

Next steps

Quickstart

Build and run your first nestrs project from scratch using the CLI.

Core concepts

Learn how modules, controllers, and providers compose into a structured application.