{"slug": "cargo-nextest", "name": "cargo-nextest", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "A next-generation test runner for Rust projects, an alternative to cargo test.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 4.899, "rising": -1.64, "first": "2026-01-02", "latest": "2026-07-09", "why": "Loved for running very large Rust test suites quickly and keeping CI times down.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Well engineered", "Speed at scale"], "caveat": "Endpoint security hangs", "short_quote": "Those run thousands and thousands of tests thx to nextest and what feels like instantly", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/nextest-rs/nextest", "official_url": "https://nexte.st", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["cargo-nextest"], "verdict": [{"text": "Loved for running very large Rust test suites quickly", "cites": [{"id": 781482880, "item_id": 48842680, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842680", "by": "gdcbe", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Those run thousands and thousands of tests thx to nextest and what feels like instantly", "excerpt": "Yes we use it for rama [1]. You can check its justfile and CI workflow file how we use it. Those run thousands and thousands of tests thx to nextest and what feels like instantly (once compiled). Large projects build with rama use it as well. But those are proprietary from partners so sadly cannot share those. [1]: https://github.com/plabayo/rama", "context": "maintains rama", "use_case": "running Rust tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781482144, "item_id": 48842634, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842634", "by": "mohsen1", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours", "excerpt": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours https://github.com/tsz-org/tsz/actions/runs/29002057457/job/86064715984 watch it running 32.5k unit tests without breaking a sweat!", "context": "", "use_case": "running Rust tests in CI", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}]}, {"text": " and keeping CI times down.", "cites": [{"id": 781482144, "item_id": 48842634, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842634", "by": "mohsen1", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours", "excerpt": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours https://github.com/tsz-org/tsz/actions/runs/29002057457/job/86064715984 watch it running 32.5k unit tests without breaking a sweat!", "context": "", "use_case": "running Rust tests in CI", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}]}, {"text": " The one reported caveat is that its process-per-test approach may make machines running endpoint security tools like CrowdStrike Falcon hang during test runs.", "cites": [{"id": 781517200, "item_id": 48844825, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48844825", "by": "coding-wizard", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hey, I love nextest.", "excerpt": "Hey, I love nextest. But, perhaps because of the one-process per test approach, endpoint security solutions like CrowdStrike Falcon or Palo Alto Cortex tend to make computers hang whenever tests kick-in. I would love if you were able to introduce a workaround, because none of those companies will fix their stuff. I am guessing a possible mitigation would be to have stagger the first invocation of any large test binar", "context": "", "use_case": "Rust testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Well engineered", "summary": "Users say they love it and call it an excellent piece of engineering.", "quotes": [{"id": 781497216, "item_id": 48843576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48843576", "by": "jtwaleson", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Super happy user here! It's an excellent piece of engineering.", "excerpt": "Super happy user here! It's an excellent piece of engineering. We're running a fork that supports a \"sidecar\" server for running multiple integration tests against. So if any tests that need the server are included, it spawns the server, runs the integration tests, and then shuts it down. By re-using the same server we speed up our runs tremendously. Discussion thread on gh: https://github.com/nextest-rs/nextest/disc", "context": "", "use_case": "running integration tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781517200, "item_id": 48844825, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48844825", "by": "coding-wizard", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hey, I love nextest.", "excerpt": "Hey, I love nextest. But, perhaps because of the one-process per test approach, endpoint security solutions like CrowdStrike Falcon or Palo Alto Cortex tend to make computers hang whenever tests kick-in. I would love if you were able to introduce a workaround, because none of those companies will fix their stuff. I am guessing a possible mitigation would be to have stagger the first invocation of any large test binar", "context": "", "use_case": "Rust testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781464848, "item_id": 48841553, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841553", "by": "satvikpendem", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love nextest, it's been great.", "excerpt": "I love nextest, it's been great. This along with bacon catches a lot of issues.", "context": "", "use_case": "Rust testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}]}, {"label": "Speed at scale", "summary": "Runs thousands of tests, including 32.5k unit tests in CI, so fast it feels instant once compiled.", "quotes": [{"id": 781482880, "item_id": 48842680, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842680", "by": "gdcbe", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Those run thousands and thousands of tests thx to nextest and what feels like instantly", "excerpt": "Yes we use it for rama [1]. You can check its justfile and CI workflow file how we use it. Those run thousands and thousands of tests thx to nextest and what feels like instantly (once compiled). Large projects build with rama use it as well. But those are proprietary from partners so sadly cannot share those. [1]: https://github.com/plabayo/rama", "context": "maintains rama", "use_case": "running Rust tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781482144, "item_id": 48842634, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842634", "by": "mohsen1", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours", "excerpt": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours https://github.com/tsz-org/tsz/actions/runs/29002057457/job/86064715984 watch it running 32.5k unit tests without breaking a sweat!", "context": "", "use_case": "running Rust tests in CI", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}]}, {"label": "Extensible", "summary": "One team runs a fork that adds a shared sidecar server for integration tests, speeding up runs.", "quotes": [{"id": 781497216, "item_id": 48843576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48843576", "by": "jtwaleson", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Super happy user here! It's an excellent piece of engineering.", "excerpt": "Super happy user here! It's an excellent piece of engineering. We're running a fork that supports a \"sidecar\" server for running multiple integration tests against. So if any tests that need the server are included, it spawns the server, runs the integration tests, and then shuts it down. By re-using the same server we speed up our runs tremendously. Discussion thread on gh: https://github.com/nextest-rs/nextest/disc", "context": "", "use_case": "running integration tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Endpoint security hangs", "summary": "Tools like CrowdStrike Falcon or Palo Alto Cortex can make computers hang when tests start, possibly due to one process per test.", "quotes": [{"id": 781517200, "item_id": 48844825, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48844825", "by": "coding-wizard", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hey, I love nextest.", "excerpt": "Hey, I love nextest. But, perhaps because of the one-process per test approach, endpoint security solutions like CrowdStrike Falcon or Palo Alto Cortex tend to make computers hang whenever tests kick-in. I would love if you were able to introduce a workaround, because none of those companies will fix their stuff. I am guessing a possible mitigation would be to have stagger the first invocation of any large test binar", "context": "", "use_case": "Rust testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}]}], "who": [{"by": "gdcbe", "context": "maintains rama", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842680", "date": "2026-07-09"}], "tags": ["for large test suites", "for CI pipelines", "for Miri testing"], "use_cases": ["rust testing", "running rust tests", "running integration tests", "running rust tests in ci"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48800596", "title": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46414152", "title": "Miri: Practical Undefined Behavior Detection for Rust [pdf]", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 5}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 781517200, "item_id": 48844825, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48844825", "by": "coding-wizard", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Hey, I love nextest.", "excerpt": "Hey, I love nextest. But, perhaps because of the one-process per test approach, endpoint security solutions like CrowdStrike Falcon or Palo Alto Cortex tend to make computers hang whenever tests kick-in. I would love if you were able to introduce a workaround, because none of those companies will fix their stuff. I am guessing a possible mitigation would be to have stagger the first invocation of any large test binar", "context": "", "use_case": "Rust testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781497216, "item_id": 48843576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48843576", "by": "jtwaleson", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Super happy user here! It's an excellent piece of engineering.", "excerpt": "Super happy user here! It's an excellent piece of engineering. We're running a fork that supports a \"sidecar\" server for running multiple integration tests against. So if any tests that need the server are included, it spawns the server, runs the integration tests, and then shuts it down. By re-using the same server we speed up our runs tremendously. Discussion thread on gh: https://github.com/nextest-rs/nextest/disc", "context": "", "use_case": "running integration tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781482880, "item_id": 48842680, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842680", "by": "gdcbe", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Those run thousands and thousands of tests thx to nextest and what feels like instantly", "excerpt": "Yes we use it for rama [1]. You can check its justfile and CI workflow file how we use it. Those run thousands and thousands of tests thx to nextest and what feels like instantly (once compiled). Large projects build with rama use it as well. But those are proprietary from partners so sadly cannot share those. [1]: https://github.com/plabayo/rama", "context": "maintains rama", "use_case": "running Rust tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781482144, "item_id": 48842634, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48842634", "by": "mohsen1", "date": "2026-07-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours", "excerpt": "I love nextest. without it my CI could take hours https://github.com/tsz-org/tsz/actions/runs/29002057457/job/86064715984 watch it running 32.5k unit tests without breaking a sweat!", "context": "", "use_case": "running Rust tests in CI", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 781464848, "item_id": 48841553, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841553", "by": "satvikpendem", "date": "2026-07-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love nextest, it's been great.", "excerpt": "I love nextest, it's been great. This along with bacon catches a lot of issues.", "context": "", "use_case": "Rust testing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cargo-nextest: 3x faster than cargo test, per-test isolation, first-class CI"}, {"id": 743493313, "item_id": 46468332, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46468332", "by": "landr0id", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "running your tests through Miri (cargo miri nextest)", "excerpt": "If you have a codebase that uses unsafe, I highly recommend running your tests through Miri (cargo miri nextest) and seeing what spills out. I ran tests for a codebase at work through Miri a while ago and found a couple of distinct classes of UB: https://github.com/rust-lang/miri/issues/1807#issuecomment-845425076 These can be summarized as: 1. Converting a reference to the first field of a struct to a pointer of its", "context": "", "use_case": "running Rust tests", "switched_from": "", "story": "Miri: Practical Undefined Behavior Detection for Rust [pdf]"}]}