rust/ — strawcore: Rust YouTube core for Straw
Phase U- of the Straw build. Goal: replace the Java NewPipeExtractor
dependency with a Rust core (rustypipe + tokio + reqwest), exposed to the
Kotlin/Compose UI via UniFFI.
Compose UI stays in Kotlin — only the YouTube/Innertube fetching layer
moves to Rust.
Phases
| Phase |
What |
| U-1 |
Toolchain + UniFFI smoke test (hello_from_rust) round-tripping through JNA. No real APIs yet. |
| U-2 |
rustypipe search. SearchViewModel calls the Rust core. |
| U-3 |
rustypipe streamInfo + streams. VideoDetailViewModel + PlayerViewModel use it. |
| U-4 |
rustypipe channel + tabs. ChannelViewModel + SubscriptionFeedViewModel. |
| U-5 |
Rip NewPipeExtractor Java dep. Measure APK + cold-fetch latency before/after. |
| U-6 (stretch) |
SponsorBlock + RYD HTTP through reqwest + tokio in the same lib. |
Build chain
Build container (Sulkta uses one; any toolchain matching this layout works)
├── rustup stable (target add: aarch64-linux-android, armv7-linux-androideabi,
│ x86_64-linux-android, i686-linux-android)
├── cargo-ndk (cross-compile helper)
├── android-sdk (ANDROID_HOME, sdkmanager, build-tools, platforms)
└── android-ndk (ANDROID_NDK_HOME, r27c LTS)
Gradle (strawApp/build.gradle.kts)
├── cargoBuild Exec task → cargo ndk -t <abi>... -o jniLibs/ build --release
├── uniffiBindgen Exec task → cargo run --bin uniffi-bindgen ... --library libstrawcore.so
└── source-set wiring generated Kotlin lands in strawApp/src/main/java/uniffi/strawcore/
Runtime (StrawApp.onCreate)
├── System.loadLibrary("strawcore")
└── uniffi.strawcore.initLogging()
Why UniFFI (and not raw JNI / JNA bindings)
- Hand-written JNI: tedious, error-prone, every type change is two files
(Kotlin + Rust) that must stay in sync.
- Raw JNA: better, but you still hand-write the Kotlin side and worry about
string ownership.
- UniFFI: write Rust, annotate with
#[uniffi::export], get a Kotlin shim
generated. Strings, structs, enums, Result types, async functions all
cross the boundary transparently. The runtime is JNA under the hood.
When in doubt
cargo check -p strawcore --target aarch64-linux-android — fast iteration.cargo run --bin uniffi-bindgen -- generate ... — regenerate Kotlin bindings.adb logcat -s strawcore — Rust log::info!() lands here.aapt dump badging strawApp/build/outputs/apk/debug/strawApp-debug.apk —
inspect what ABIs/native-libs the APK carries.
Cobb
791975ca4a