Crates / cargo-release
Rust crate · real downloads · data Oct 27, 2026
cargo-release downloads, and should you depend on it?
Cargo subcommand for you to smooth your release process. crates.io · docs.rs · repository
Few direct dependents and losing ground.
cargo-release: only 22 crates name it directly; downloads jump on release days (1.7x the baseline).
How this verdict is decided (4 rules)
- Usage: crates.io reverse dependencies (crates that list it as a dependency): 10,000+ = foundational, 1,000+ = widely used, 100+ = established, under 100 = few direct dependents.
- Direction: the median quiet day in the last 30 days of the window against the first 30, read against the median tracked crate (the whole field moved +39% from late summer to October, so a raw trend says nothing). 10%+ ahead of the field = gaining; 10%+ behind = losing ground; otherwise steady. Steady with no release in 2+ years = quiet for years.
- Release spikes: the median release-window day against the quiet-day baseline: under 1.15x = no spike, 1.15x to 1.3x = small bumps, 1.3x or more = jumps on release days.
- Release recency: days since the newest version that was not yanked, from crates.io publish times.
release window (release day + next day)quiet dayquiet-day median · download the 89 days as CSV
The numbers in one paragraphcargo-release got 17,268 crates.io downloads from Jul 30, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026. 15% of them landed within 2 days of one of its 4 releases. On the other 81 quiet days it got a median of 168 a day, about 1,176 a week. Capping release days at that baseline leaves 16,048 release-adjusted downloads for the window.
What this means if you're choosing a dependency
- You rarely add this one yourself. Only 22 crates name it directly.
- Actively released. 1.1.7 shipped 6 days ago (Oct 21, 2026).
- Fit check: license MIT OR Apache-2.0, edition 2024, needs Rust 1.97 or newer (from the latest version's manifest).
- Compare it by the baseline, not the raw count. 15% of its 17,268 downloads in the window landed within 2 days of a release; the steady number is 168 a day.
Alternatives that do a similar job
Crates that share its crates.io category or keywords, most similar first. Each line is the crate's own description, then how it compares on the same data.
What the chart says
- Weekend quiet days ran at 82% of weekday quiet days (150 vs 184). A moderate dip: a mix of work-week builds and always-on automation.
- Biggest day: 592 on Oct 22, 2026, inside a release window.
Every number
| All-time downloads | 549,247 (outside the crates.io top 1,000 by all-time downloads) |
| Downloads in the window | 17,268 (Jul 30, 2026 to Oct 26, 2026, 89 days) |
| Within 2 days of a release | 2,564 (14.8%) |
| Quiet-day median (baseline) | 168 a day; weekdays 184, weekends 150 |
| Release-adjusted downloads | 16,048 (release-window days capped at the baseline) |
| Baseline rank | #1305 of the 1329 crates we track |
| Quiet-day trend | +7% raw, -23% against the median tracked crate (+39%) |
| Releases in the window | 4 |
| Versions published, ever | 151 |
| Latest version | 1.1.7, published Oct 21, 2026 (license MIT OR Apache-2.0, edition 2024, MSRV 1.97) |
| First published | Mar 9, 2016 |
| Reverse dependencies | 22 |
Releases in the window
Each one opens a 2-day release window on the chart.
| Version | Published | Downloads that version got (lifetime) |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1.7 | Oct 21, 2026 | 687 |
| 1.1.6 | Sep 16, 2026 | 2,845 |
| 1.1.5 | Aug 11, 2026 | 3,706 |
| 1.1.4 | Aug 6, 2026 | 784 |
How we compute this
crates.io counts every download, including CI runners, mirrors and bots that fetch each new version, so raw counts run high (why, in The Manual). We split the last 89 days into release windows (the day a version of cargo-release was published, plus the next day) and quiet days, and use the median quiet day as the baseline: an upper bound on steady use, never a head count. The method and data come from our study of 90 days of crates.io data from 69 crates, featured in This Week in Rust #674; check any crate live with the real-downloads checker.
Badge for your README
Maintainers can show the baseline in a README. It is optional, updates when we refresh the data, and links back here. Preview, then copy:
README, light
README, dark
Publishing a crate of your own? How to publish a Rust crate to crates.io, step by step.
Categories
Sources
- Daily downloads: crates.io API, /crates/cargo-release/downloads (last 90 days, all versions), fetched Oct 27, 2026.
- Versions and publish times: crates.io API, /crates/cargo-release/versions, same fetch.
- Reverse dependencies: crates.io reverse dependencies, same fetch. Dependency edges between tracked crates: each crate's default version, crates.io API.
- Fetched politely (one request every 2 seconds, identified User-Agent) per the crates.io data access policy. Data is crates.io's; the release-window split, baseline and verdict rules are ours, CC BY 4.0.
Up next
Next in cargo plugins: Back to the top in Cargo plugins by real downloads: 44,219 a day, 10 dependents. Few direct dependents and steady.cargo-auditRust crate. Audit Cargo.lock for crates with security vulnerabilities. Real use: 44.2K downloads a day on quiet days; 10 crates depend on it.Read it next →Also worth your time
Art: Nicholas Roerich, Nag Lake (1925). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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