Rust: latest stable only — the floor removed, and the claims corrected #601
2026-11-03
Cargo: no minimum-supported-version floor, because the policy is latest stable
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The repository tracks the latest stable Rust, pinned at the root. A
`rust-version` key states a *floor* -- the oldest toolchain a crate supports --
which is a different promise, and one this repository does not make. It also
said 1.97 while the pin was 1.98.0 and nothing verified it, so it was a claim in
the wrong direction and unchecked in both.
So it goes, everywhere:
59 rust-version = "1.97" (workspace and package declarations)
417 rust-version.workspace = true (members inheriting them)
476 files, 476 deletions, 0 insertions
The 417 are why this is not the sixty-file change it looks like from a grep for
the value. A member inheriting a key that no longer exists does not fall back to
a default -- its manifest stops resolving. Removing the declarations without the
inherits would have broken every workspace that has members.
Deliberately untouched: `joule-code-rs/vendor/wtransport/Cargo.toml`. That is a
vendored third-party crate declaring a floor about itself, not about us, and our
pin is above it. Editing vendored source to satisfy our own policy would make
the copy diverge from upstream for no benefit.
Verified rather than assumed:
- all 493 `Cargo.toml` files in the tree parse (`tomllib`)
- `cargo metadata --no-deps --locked` resolves on `joule-code-rs`, `wai-rs`,
`openpay`, `mesh-rs`, `sandbox-rs` and `jcp-rs` -- the check that actually
exercises workspace inheritance, which a TOML parse does not
- no `Cargo.lock` changed; `rust-version` is not lockfile state
`wai/wai-verify/Cargo.toml` already carried a comment saying it omits
`rust-version` on purpose, so this makes the rest of the tree agree with the one
crate that had already decided.
What this gives up, stated plainly: cargo can no longer greet an older
toolchain with "requires rustc 1.97" and will instead fail wherever the code
first needs something newer. That is the cost of not maintaining a floor, and
it is the right cost when the floor was fiction.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>
Rust: the repository tracks the latest stable, and says so accurately
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This repository had four different answers to "what Rust does this need":
rust-toolchain.toml 1.98.0 (the pin CI actually installs)
59 Cargo.toml files 1.97 (rust-version)
1 Cargo.toml file 1.88 (rust-version)
INGEST.md 1.95.0 ("CI enforces both")
The floor was enforced in exactly one place -- `wai-quantum-webgpu.yml` ran
`cargo +1.97.0 check` against one crate's one feature. So 59 manifests declared
a minimum nothing verified, and the top-level document told readers a version
that had not been the pin for some time, crediting CI with checking it.
The policy is to track the latest stable. That makes a floor below the pin
something this repository does not promise, so the unenforced check goes, and
the documents stop claiming a version and an enforcement that were not there:
- `wai-quantum-webgpu.yml`: the `MSRV 1.97.0` step, the second toolchain its
install step existed to fetch, and `MSRV` in the job's name.
- `INGEST.md`: states the pin at the root, that CI installs exactly it, and
that there is no floor beneath it.
- `openpay/README.md` and `openpay/docs/00-foundation.md`: both named 1.95
as the toolchain, and the README credited CI with enforcing an MSRV.
A version written in a document is a claim like any other. Stating 1.95 while
the pin is 1.98.0, and "CI enforces both" while one crate was checked, is worse
than stating nothing -- it reads as verified.
**Not done here, deliberately.** The 59 `rust-version = "1.97"` keys and the one
`1.88` stay for now. Removing them is not the small change it looks like: most
member crates inherit via `rust-version.workspace = true`, which fails to parse
the moment the workspace key is gone, so it is a coordinated edit across
hundreds of manifests rather than sixty. The key also has value independent of
any promise, since it turns an old toolchain into a clear message instead of a
compile error. What it must not do is state a floor nobody checks, so the
options are to delete it everywhere or to move it with the pin -- a decision
with consumer-facing consequences, which is its own change.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <[email protected]>