RustNet 0.1.1

RustNet

Write C# for microcontrollers. Run it on a Rust runtime.

RustNet compiles a .NET application into a compact RNX module, signs it, flashes it over its own protocol, and executes it with an IL interpreter written in Rust. This package is the managed API those applications are written against.

C# app ──dotnet build──▶ DLL ──MetadataProcessor──▶ .rnx ──sign(RSA)──▶ RNSB
                                                                        │
      RNDP protocol (TCP / USB-CDC / UART)                              ▼
Tools (CLI ▪ Workbench ▪ VSCode) ◀──────────────▶ Firmware (Rust) ─▶ IL interpreter

Install

dotnet add package RustNet

One package, sixteen assemblies — they version together and an application that touches one usually touches several.

Hello, blinking world

using RustNet.Hal;
using RustNet.Threading;

Gpio.SetMode(2, PinMode.Output);
while (true)
{
    Gpio.Toggle(2);
    Sleep.Ms(500);
}

Then, against a board or the virtual device:

rustnet flash MyApp.dll --name blinky --key keys/rustnet-signing.key --start
rustnet logs --follow

What is in the box

Nearly every member is an [InternalCall] façade: calling one off-device throws RuntimeOnlyException, because the behaviour lives in the interpreter on the other side. The XML documentation shipped in this package is where that behaviour is described.

Language support

The interpreter runs the language core, not a subset you have to think about constantly: try/catch/finally with when filters, inheritance, interfaces and virtual dispatch, generics, async/await, delegates and lambdas, the BCL collections, a LINQ subset, StringBuilder, Regex and string interpolation. Reflection is partial and deliberately so.

The full matrix, and the current limits, are in docs/dotnet-support.md.

The tools that put it there

The package is the API; these build, flash and debug what you write against it. All of them work against a host virtual device — a real firmware binary speaking the real protocol — so none of this needs hardware to try.

The Workbench and the Designer both run on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Boards verified on real silicon

ESP32 (WROOM-32, M5Stack Tough, M5Stack Core2) · ESP32-C3 (Seeed XIAO) · K210 RISC-V (Sipeed Maix Go) · STM32F4 (Nucleo-F401RE) · STM32F7 (Wilderness Labs Meadow F7 Micro) · RP2040 (Raspberry Pi Pico) — plus a host "virtual device" every tool and test runs against, so none of this needs hardware to try.

Links

• Repository and docs
• Getting started
• Architecture

MIT licensed.