cargo-edit is a command-line utility that extends Cargo to manage Rust project dependencies by adding, removing, and upgrading entries in Cargo.toml files.
The tool solves the problem of manually editing dependency declarations by providing subcommands that modify Cargo.toml directly from the terminal. It offers cargo upgrade to update dependencies to their latest versions, distinguishing itself from cargo update which only modifies the lock file. The tool also provides cargo set-version to change version numbers in Cargo.toml. Some functionality has been integrated into Cargo itself over time: cargo add became part of Cargo in version 1.62, and cargo rm in version 1.66, though the tool still provides these commands for users on older Cargo versions with some behavioral differences.
Developers maintaining projects on older Rust versions should consider installing cargo-edit to access add and rm functionality unavailable in their Cargo installation. The upgrade and set-version commands remain useful regardless of Cargo version. The README notes related tools like cargo-feature and cargo-override for complementary dependency management tasks but does not make direct comparisons to alternatives.
The project maintains a moderately comprehensive test suite and requires contributors to add tests for every change. Code contributions are expected to follow rustfmt formatting standards and pass clippy linting checks. The maintainers request that large changes be discussed in issues before submission and that pull requests and commits be kept short with clear intent in commit messages.
