Jerrycan

Humanity's last backend. Built for AI agents.

The AI-native Rust backend framework + generation platform. Agents design, generate, verify and package complete backends. You never write the code.

CI crates.io license rust

jerrycan.cc · AI-native docs · Why jerrycan exists · llms.txt

$ jerrycan new --design bookmarks.json       # describe it once
  ✓ scaffolded a crate-per-module workspace

$ jerrycan gen-tests --module bookmarks      # the test suite is generated for you
  ✓ 8 acceptance tests written

  …an agent fills in ~12 lines of obvious handler glue…

$ jerrycan --json check                      # build · clippy · audit · tests · lints
  {"ok":true,"diagnostics":[]}               # all green: safe + tested, no internals leaked

0.2.0, published on crates.io. Early but real. Expect rough edges as it grows.

Key features

• Agents build it, you don't. Describe the API once; jerrycan generates the workspace, a working data layer, and the tests. Handlers come out as a few lines of obvious glue.
• Secure by default. Secure response headers, body limits, strict input handling, no internals leaked in errors, #![forbid(unsafe_code)] everywhere, and stable JC#### codes that deep-link into the docs.
• Tested before it's "done". jerrycan generates the acceptance suite test-first; jerrycan check won't go green until it passes. What the generator can't derive from the contract becomes an explicit AGENT TODO in the test file, so the gaps are named instead of silent.
• Fail loud. Conflicting routes are build-time errors before serving; missing dependencies and cycles are coded errors, not mysteries.
• Multi-agent ready. Generated apps are crate-per-module workspaces with compiler-enforced boundaries, so parallel agents merge without conflicts.
• Deploy anywhere, deployed by the agent. jerrycan package produces a static binary, a hardened container image, k8s manifests, or a systemd unit, with an SBOM. jerrycan deploy render writes a deploy kit the agent executes with an API key: design file to live URL, no human in the loop.
• Docs that can't lie. Every example in the docs is a doctest executed in CI.

Quickstart

For your agent (the intended path)

cargo install jerrycan          # the CLI + MCP server

Wire the MCP server into your agent, then ask for a backend in one prompt:

# Claude Code
claude mcp add jerrycan -- jerrycan mcp

// Cursor / any stdio MCP client
{ "mcpServers": { "jerrycan": { "command": "jerrycan", "args": ["mcp"] } } }

The agent drives the whole loop: design → scaffold → gen-tests → implement → check → package → deploy. Claude Code users also get the bundled jerrycan-backend skill that guides the process end to end. Point any other agent at docs/ai or jerrycan.cc/llms.txt; the docs are written to be sufficient on their own.

For humans

# In your app: the framework, with the extensions you need
cargo add jerrycan --features db,auth,validate,observe

A route module is Flask's Blueprints, reborn with compiler-enforced boundaries. Everything a handler needs is visible in its signature, and guards are just dependencies:

use jerrycan::prelude::*;

pub fn module() -> Module {
    Module::new("todos")
        .route("/", get(list).post(create))
        .route("/{id}", get(show).delete(remove))
        .mount("/{id}/comments", comments::module()) // subroutes nest arbitrarily
        .provide(TodoRepo::new())                    // module-scoped dependency
}

async fn list(repo: Dep<TodoRepo>) -> Result<Json<Vec<Todo>>> {
    Ok(Json(repo.all().await?))
}

async fn remove(_: Dep<Admin>, repo: Dep<TodoRepo>, Path(id): Path<i64>) -> Result<NoContent> {
    repo.delete(id).await?;            // `Dep<Admin>` is the guard: a dependency that must resolve
    Ok(NoContent)
}

Testing runs real requests in memory, no sockets, and any dependency can be faked in one line:

let t = app().into_test().override_dep(Db::fake());
assert_eq!(t.get("/todos/").await.status(), jerrycan::http::StatusCode::OK);

How it works

The agent drives one fixed loop; jerrycan does the generation and the gating:

jerrycan_design    → requirements become a validated design.json (pointed questions, not guesses)
jerrycan_scaffold  → a crate-per-module workspace, one route crate per module
jerrycan_gen_tests → failing acceptance tests, generated from the design
   (the agent implements the handler bodies, guided by the docs tools)
jerrycan_check     → build + clippy + audit + tests + jerrycan lints, machine-readable diagnostics
jerrycan_package   → hardened artifacts + SBOM, only when everything is green
jerrycan_deploy    → a deploy kit for the target platform (Render first), run by the agent

crates/
├── jerrycan          # facade + the CLI/MCP binary, apps depend on this
├── jerrycan-core     # routing, extractors, DI, modules, middleware, errors, test client
├── jerrycan-macros   # #[jerrycan::main]
├── jerrycan-db       # data layer + migrations (SeaORM)
├── jerrycan-auth     # sessions, JWT, OAuth2, guards
├── jerrycan-validate  # validation + OpenAPI
├── jerrycan-observe   # logs, /healthz, /metrics
├── jerrycan-ratelimit # rate limiting (429 JC0429)
└── jerrycan-jobs      # background jobs, cron, retries (Postgres / Redis)
docs/
├── ai/               # the AI-native docs, every example is a CI-run doc-test
└── contracts/        # MCP tool schemas, design.json schema, CLI UX spec

Does it actually work?

Yes, and it's measured, not asserted. A docs-only agent (given only jerrycan docs, no framework source, no fixtures) builds real backends that pass jerrycan check and serve real HTTP:

• 5/5 of the reference CRUD apps: green on the first run, zero doc gaps.
• The full multi-tenant SaaS slice: green across 6 modules + 2 background jobs, driven live over HTTP. Auth, per-tenant isolation, signed webhooks, CSV import, scoped API keys, OAuth. A negative control (breaking tenant scoping) correctly turns the gate red, so the green isn't hollow.

It's wired as an un-skippable release gate (CI + a fail-fast pre-publish block), so it can't silently regress. Full write-up: conformance/eval/results.md.

What it's for, and what it's not

For: CRUD-shaped, multi-tenant REST APIs. The backbone of most SaaS.

Also shipping (contract v2): design-modeled object storage (storage.buckets) and realtime (Postgres Changes + Broadcast + Presence).

Not (yet): GraphQL / gRPC, edge / serverless. jerrycan runs as a normal long-lived service. We'd rather name the edges than oversell the middle.

Built with

jerrycan stands on the Rust ecosystem you already trust, and emits plain Rust you own:

Rust · Tokio · hyper · SeaORM · serde · clippy · cargo-audit

Roadmap

Development

./scripts/install-hooks.sh              # one-time: fmt + clippy run on every commit
cargo test --workspace --all-features   # CI runs this, every docs example is a doc-test
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --all --check
cargo bench                             # criterion benches (routing, extraction)
cargo +nightly fuzz run <target>        # fuzz targets live in fuzz/ (outside the workspace)

Sponsors

jerrycan is built by one developer and a fleet of agents. Sponsorship pays for the eval infrastructure, the deploy targets, and the time it takes to keep the gate honest.

License

Licensed under the MIT License.

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you shall be licensed under the MIT License, without any additional terms or conditions.