Runique — Django-inspired Rust Framework

Runique is a web framework built on Axum, focused on type-safe forms, security middleware, template rendering, ORM integration, and a code-generated admin workflow.

Current state: active development. The framework source of truth is the runique crate. demo-app is used as a validation/testing application for framework behavior.

🌍 Languages: English | Français

What this repository contains

runique/ → framework crate (main product)
demo-app/ → test/validation app for framework development
docs/ → EN/FR documentation

Workspace version (source of truth): 2.1.15.

Core capabilities

Type-safe form system (forms, extractors, validators, renderers)
Routing macros and URL helpers
Tera template integration and context helpers
Security middleware (CSRF, CSP, allowed hosts, sanitization, auth/session)
SeaORM integration + migration tooling
Flash message system
Admin beta (admin! macro + daemon-generated CRUD code)

Main public modules are exposed from runique/src/lib.rs.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/seb-alliot/runique
cd runique
cargo build --workspace
cargo test --workspace

Detailed guide: Installation

Quick usage

use runique::prelude::*;
use runique::app::builder::RuniqueAppBuilder;

mod url; // urlpatterns!{} — your routes

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    password_init(PasswordConfig::auto_with(Manual::Argon2));

    let config = RuniqueConfig::from_env();
    let db = DatabaseConfig::from_env()?.build().connect().await?;

    RuniqueAppBuilder::new(config)
        .routes(url::routes())
        .with_database(db)
        .statics()
        .middleware(|m| {
            m.with_allowed_hosts(|h| h.enabled(!is_debug()).host("localhost:3000"))
        })
        .build()
        .await?
        .run()
        .await?;

    Ok(())
}

CLI (actual commands)

runique provides:

runique new <name>
runique start [--main src/main.rs] [--admin src/admin.rs]
runique create-superuser
runique makemigrations --entities src/entities --migrations migration/src [--force false]
runique migration up|down|status --migrations migration/src

⚠️ Warning — rolling back migrations runique makemigrations generates migrations while preserving the chronological order of the migration system. When you need to roll a migration back, prefer the SeaORM CLI: it keeps the migration tracking table synchronized with the actual schema state. Mixing rollback tooling can desynchronize migration tracking.

Admin beta status

Admin daemon behavior in start:

checks whether .with_admin(...) exists in src/main.rs
starts the admin watcher when enabled
otherwise exits with an explicit hint

Admin resources are declared in src/admin.rs using admin!.

The workflow:

parse admin! declarations
generate admin code under src/admins/
refresh on changes with watcher mode

Current beta limits:

mostly resource-level permissions
generated folder overwrite (src/admins/)
iterative hardening still in progress

Admin docs: Admin

Features and database backends

Default features:

orm
all-databases

Selectable backends:

sqlite
postgres
mysql
mariadb

Test and coverage snapshot

Reported tests: 2011+ passing
Coverage snapshot (2026-05-24, package runique):
- Functions: 78.32%
- Lines: 76.05%
- Regions: 73.93%

cargo llvm-cov --tests --package runique --ignore-filename-regex "admin" --summary-only

Full per-file breakdown: docs/couverture_test.md

Sessions

CleaningMemoryStore replaces the default MemoryStore with automatic expired-session cleanup, a two-tier watermark system (128 MB / 256 MB), and priority-based protection for authenticated sessions.

Low watermark: background purge of expired anonymous sessions
High watermark: synchronous emergency purge + 503 refusal if still exceeded
protect_session(&session, duration_secs) — marks an anonymous session as untouchable until a given timestamp
user_id key — automatically protects authenticated sessions

Full reference: Sessions

Environment variables

All behavior is configurable via .env. Key variables:

RUNIQUE_SESSION_CLEANUP_SECS=60
RUNIQUE_SESSION_LOW_WATERMARK=134217728
RUNIQUE_SESSION_HIGH_WATERMARK=268435456
SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key
DATABASE_URL=sqlite://db.sqlite3

Full reference: Environment variables

Documentation

Project status

For the detailed, continuously updated state report, see PROJECT_STATUS.md.

Resources

License

MIT — see LICENSE