# The Dev Tools I Actually Use as a Solo Rust + Tauri Developer in 2026

> Source: <https://dev.to/hiyoyok/the-dev-tools-i-actually-use-as-a-solo-rust-tauri-developer-in-2026-1j3j>
> Published: 2026-06-12 03:05:44+00:00

All tests run on an 8-year-old MacBook Air. All results from shipping 7 Mac apps as a solo developer. No sponsored opinion.

Not a listicle of everything possible. Just what I actually open every day.

**rust-analyzer**: non-negotiable. Inline type hints, error detection, jump to definition. Rust without rust-analyzer is painful.

**Continue**: local LLM autocomplete via Ollama. Handles boilerplate and repetitive patterns without API calls.

**Even Better TOML**: Cargo.toml syntax and validation. Small but useful.

**Tauri**: official Tauri extension with command palette integration.

**Ollama + qwen2.5-coder:1.5b**: autocomplete. Runs locally. Never leaves the machine.

**Gemini**: quick questions, syntax lookups, anything where speed matters more than depth. Free tier covers daily use.

**Claude**: hard Rust bugs, architecture decisions, anything where being wrong is expensive. Free tier for targeted use.

Default macOS Terminal works. iTerm2's split panes are useful when running `npm run tauri dev`

alongside a shell for ADB commands.

Commit before handing off to AI tools. This saved me twice when AI tools made silent regressions — I could diff against the last commit and see exactly what changed.

The rule: never let AI touch code that isn't committed.

Tauri apps have a WebView. `Cmd+Option+I`

opens DevTools in dev mode. Frontend bugs debugged exactly like a web app.

Backend: `RUST_LOG=debug npm run tauri dev`

shows Rust log output in the terminal.

I'm not a designer. For UI, I use Tailwind CSS utility classes and reference existing Mac app conventions. I don't use Figma.

For app icons — my weakest point — I iterate on simple concepts and accept "good enough." The icon isn't the product.

Solo dev means every tool has to justify its overhead. Most don't.

**TL;DR:** My daily stack as a solo Rust + Tauri dev: VS Code with rust-analyzer, three-tier AI (Ollama locally, Gemini for quick lookups, Claude for hard bugs), iTerm2, and Git with a strict "commit before AI" rule. No Figma, no CI/CD, no project management tool — if it can't justify its overhead, it's out.

If this was useful, a ❤️ helps more than you'd think — thanks!

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