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Prerequisites

Before installing the driver, ensure you have:
  • Rust 1.85.0 or later - Check with rustc --version
  • Cargo - Rust’s package manager (comes with Rust)
  • Tokio runtime - The driver requires an async runtime
The driver is published on crates.io as the scylla crate.

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Basic Installation

Add the ScyllaDB Rust Driver to your Cargo.toml:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
scylla = "1.5"
tokio = { version = "1.40", features = ["full"] }
futures = "0.3"
Then run: 
cargo build
The driver will be downloaded and compiled along with its dependencies.

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Feature Flags

The driver provides several optional feature flags to enable additional functionality. By default, no features are enabled to keep the dependency tree minimal.

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TLS Support

Choose between OpenSSL or Rustls for TLS connections: 
[dependencies]
scylla = { version = "1.5", features = ["openssl-010"] }
tokio-openssl = "0.6"
openssl = "0.10"
Use Rustls for pure-Rust TLS implementation, or OpenSSL if you need compatibility with system OpenSSL libraries.

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Date and Time Types

Enable support for external date/time libraries: 
[dependencies]
scylla = { version = "1.5", features = ["chrono-04"] }
chrono = "0.4"

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Numeric Types

Add support for arbitrary precision numbers: 
[dependencies]
scylla = { version = "1.5", features = ["num-bigint-04"] }
num-bigint = "0.4"

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Secret Management

Integrate with the secrecy crate for secure handling of sensitive data:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
scylla = { version = "1.5", features = ["secrecy-08"] }
secrecy = "0.8"

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Metrics Collection

Enable driver-side metrics for monitoring:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
scylla = { version = "1.5", features = ["metrics"] }
This enables access to latency histograms, error counters, and other performance metrics: 
let metrics = session.get_metrics();
println!("Queries requested: {}", metrics.get_queries_num());
println!("Average latency: {}ms", metrics.get_latency_avg_ms()?);
println!("99.9 percentile: {}ms", metrics.get_latency_percentile_ms(99.9)?);

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Full Serialization

Enable all serialization features at once:
Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
scylla = { version = "1.5", features = ["full-serialization"] }
This is equivalent to enabling:
  • chrono-04
  • time-03
  • secrecy-08
  • secrecy-10
  • num-bigint-03
  • num-bigint-04
  • bigdecimal-04
Using full-serialization will increase compile times and binary size. Only enable the features you actually need.

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Complete Example Configuration

Here’s a complete Cargo.toml with commonly used features:
Cargo.toml
[package]
name = "my-scylla-app"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2024"
rust-version = "1.85"

[dependencies]
# ScyllaDB Driver with TLS and metrics
scylla = { version = "1.5", features = [
    "rustls-023",
    "chrono-04",
    "metrics",
] }

# Async runtime
tokio = { version = "1.40", features = [
    "macros",
    "rt-multi-thread",
    "time",
] }

# Async utilities
futures = "0.3"

# Date/time
chrono = "0.4"

# Error handling
anyhow = "1.0"

# TLS
tokio-rustls = "0.26"
rustls = "0.23"

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Verifying Installation

Create a simple test file to verify the installation:
src/main.rs
use scylla::client::session_builder::SessionBuilder;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
    println!("ScyllaDB Rust Driver version: {}", env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION"));

    // This will fail if no ScyllaDB instance is running, but proves the driver compiles
    match SessionBuilder::new().known_node("127.0.0.1:9042").build().await {
        Ok(_) => println!("Successfully connected to ScyllaDB!"),
        Err(e) => println!("Connection failed (expected if no server running): {}", e),
    }
}
Run with: 
cargo run
1

Add dependency

Add scylla to your Cargo.toml with desired features
2

Build project

Run cargo build to download and compile dependencies
3

Verify installation

Create a simple test file and run cargo run
4

Start building

You’re ready to build your application!

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Unstable Features

The driver includes several unstable features that are subject to change. These should only be used if you understand the risks.
Unstable features include:
  • unstable-testing - Testing utilities
  • unstable-cpp-rs - CPP-RS Driver compatibility
  • unstable-nodejs-rs - Node.js-RS Driver compatibility
  • unstable-host-listener - Host event listener support
  • unstable-reconnect-policy - Reconnection policy configuration
These features are not covered by the stability guarantees and may have breaking changes in minor releases.

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Next Steps

Quickstart

Build your first application with the driver

API Reference

Explore the complete API documentation

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