# cordx56/rustowl

Visualize Ownership and Lifetimes in Rust

Repository: https://github.com/cordx56/rustowl
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rustowl
Language: Rust
License: MPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: lifetime, ownership, rust, visualization
Last push: 2026-08-24T09:34:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 84/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 86, longevity 49
- inputs: {"age_days": 686, "days_push": 9, "days_rel": 97, "gap_med": 5, "n_releases_24m": 20}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 5198, forks 112 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:12.087612+00:00)

## What it is
RustOwl is a tool that visualizes ownership movement and variable lifetimes in Rust code using colored underlines, helping with debugging borrow-checker errors and optimization. It integrates with editors via a VS Code extension, Neovim plugin, and Emacs package, backed by a core analysis tool distributed on crates.io.

## Use cases
- understand why the borrow checker rejects my Rust code
- visualize variable lifetimes in Rust
- debug ownership move errors in Rust
- see where a value is borrowed mutably vs immutably
- learn Rust ownership and borrowing concepts
- find lifetime overlap errors in Rust code

## When to choose
- you're debugging borrow-checker or lifetime errors in Rust
- you're learning Rust's ownership model and want visual feedback
- you want to see move and borrow spans directly in your editor

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose Rust IDE - use rust-analyzer instead
- you work in a language other than Rust
- you need automated fixes rather than visualization

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: active
- function: editor, developer-tools, data-visualization
- domain: developer-tools, programming-languages, text-editors
- platform: rust, editor-plugin, cross-platform
- tags: rust-analyzer-companion, lsp, ownership-visualization, lifetime-debugging, vscode-extension, neovim-plugin, emacs-package

## Member repositories
- cordx56/rustowl (main) score 84

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:12.087612+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:01:42.403029+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cordx56/rustowl (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:12.087612+00:00, sha 3593740ca43b)
  - registry_crates: https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/rustowl (fetched 2026-08-29T08:55:23.501582+00:00, sha 0adb7c82bae3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.