use-facet-crates

Development

Guidelines for using facet crates (facet-json, facet-toml, figue) instead of serde-based alternatives for consistent dogfooding

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Use Facet Crates Instead of Serde Ecosystem

When writing code in this workspace, prefer facet-based crates over serde-based ones. This project is building facet as a replacement for serde, so we should dogfood our own libraries.

Crate Replacements

Instead of	Use	Notes
`serde`	`facet`	Core derive and traits
`serde_json`	`facet-json`	JSON serialization/deserialization
`toml`	`facet-toml`	TOML parsing
`serde_yaml`	`facet-yaml`	YAML support
`clap`	`figue`	CLI argument parsing (separate repo)
`serde_derive`	`facet` (derive)	`#[derive(Facet)]` replaces Serialize/Deserialize

When to Use Which

Use facet-json for:

New code in this workspace
Internal tools (like benchmark-analyzer)
Anything that doesn't need serde compatibility

serde_json is acceptable for:

Interop with external crates that require serde
Benchmarks comparing facet vs serde performance
Code that specifically tests serde compatibility

Quick Example

// OLD (serde)
use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
use serde_json;

#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize)]
struct Config {
    name: String,
}

let config: Config = serde_json::from_str(json)?;

// NEW (facet)
use facet::Facet;
use facet_json as json;

#[derive(Facet)]
struct Config {
    name: String,
}

let config: Config = json::from_str(json)?;

Checking Dependencies

When adding new dependencies or reviewing code, check Cargo.toml for serde ecosystem crates and consider if facet alternatives exist.

TODO for This Workspace

The benchmark-analyzer currently uses serde_json for JSON serialization in chart data. This should be migrated to facet-json for consistency (eating our own dogfood).

Location: tools/benchmark-analyzer/src/report.rs - uses serde_json::to_string() for chart labels/data.