Rust crate map

The stack is a set of crates, each built on the ones in the layers below it. Depend on the highest one that covers your task: bacnet-client to read and write remote devices, bacnet-server to serve objects, bacnet-endpoint for both roles on one transport, and the portable cores for firmware without an operating system. Every item, with its feature gates and examples, is in each crate’s rustdoc on docs.rs; this page helps you find the crate.

Each link opens the crate’s documentation for v0.15.0. All crates but bacnet-time share that version; bacnet-time versions on its own, so its link opens the latest build, and docs.rs’s version menu picks another. A crate’s rustdoc lists the features its docs.rs build turns on.

On dev after the release

This page is generated from the dev branch and tracks the next release. A crate merged after v0.15.0 is marked unreleased and links to its source instead of docs.rs, and features or dependencies added since may not be in the released crates. The v0.15.0 release notes and the changes waiting for the next release say what changed.

Lifecycle, ownership and migration contracts that span crates are in the Rust API guide and the architecture notes. For a first program, start with Embed with Rust or Run on a microcontroller.

website/scripts/reference-rust.mjs writes the tables below from cargo metadata: names, descriptions, features and workspace dependencies. Edit the crates’ manifests, not this part of the page.

Portable cores

no_std crates that need no allocator: the clock, the network-layer vocabulary, the frame codecs and the sans-IO MS/TP, B/IP and router engines that firmware and the hosted transports share.

Crate	Purpose	Features	Depends on
bacnet-time	The no-std monotonic Instant and Duration, in nanoseconds, that the portable BACnet cores share.	std	—
bacnet-npdu	The no-std BACnet network-layer vocabulary (Clause 6): a borrowed NPDU view and encoder, network message types, reject reasons, network priority and NPDU limits.	—	—
bacnet-mstp-codec	Portable no-std BACnet MS/TP frame codec.	alloc, bytes, crc32k-table, heapless	—
bacnet-bip-codec	Portable no-std BACnet/IP and BACnet/IPv6 (Annexes J and U) BVLL codec.	alloc, bytes, heapless	—
bacnet-mstp-core	Portable allocation-bounded BACnet MS/TP master core.	alloc, inspect	bacnet-mstp-codec, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-time
bacnet-bip-core	Portable no-std BACnet/IP behaviour (Annex J): a sans-IO node engine, BBMD tables and broadcast forwarding.	—	bacnet-bip-codec, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-time
bacnet-router-core	Portable no-std BACnet router (Clause 6): a sans-IO routing engine over a borrowed NPDU view and writer, network-layer messages, a routing table and route discovery, with B/IP and MS/TP port glue.	bip, mstp	bacnet-bip-core, bacnet-mstp-core, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-time

Application layer

Types, the APDU codec and the service requests and responses. They build with std, or no_std with or without an allocator.

Crate	Purpose	Features	Depends on
bacnet-types	BACnet protocol types, enums, and primitives per ASHRAE 135-2020.	alloc, serde, std (default)	bacnet-npdu
bacnet-encoding	BACnet ASN.1/BER encoding, APDU and NPDU codecs per ASHRAE 135-2020.	alloc, heapless, std (default)	bacnet-npdu, bacnet-types
bacnet-services	BACnet service request/response encode/decode per ASHRAE 135-2020.	alloc, std (default)	bacnet-encoding, bacnet-types

Hosted network

The Tokio data links and the network layer with its router.

Crate	Purpose	Features	Depends on
bacnet-transport	BACnet transport layer: BIP, IPv6, BACnet/SC, MS/TP, BBMD, Ethernet.	ethernet, ipv6, sc-tls, serial, serial-gpio, test-support	bacnet-bip-codec, bacnet-bip-core, bacnet-encoding, bacnet-mstp-codec, bacnet-mstp-core, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-time, bacnet-types
bacnet-network	BACnet network layer: routing, router tables, priority channels.	—	bacnet-encoding, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-router-core, bacnet-time, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types

Objects and roles

The object database, the client and server roles, and the shared endpoint that runs both on one transport.

Crate	Purpose	Features	Depends on
bacnet-objects	BACnet object model: traits, database, and standard object types.	alloc, std (default)	bacnet-encoding, bacnet-types
bacnet-endpoint-core	Shared BACnet endpoint ownership and transaction coordination.	—	bacnet-encoding, bacnet-network, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types
bacnet-client	BACnet async client: TSM, segmentation, discovery, and service APIs.	ipv6, sc-tls	bacnet-encoding, bacnet-endpoint-core, bacnet-network, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-router-core, bacnet-services, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types
bacnet-server	BACnet server: APDU dispatch and service handlers.	sc-tls	bacnet-encoding, bacnet-endpoint-core, bacnet-network, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-objects, bacnet-services, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types
bacnet-endpoint	BACnet endpoint that owns one transport and runs client and server roles through it.	sc-tls	bacnet-client, bacnet-encoding, bacnet-endpoint-core, bacnet-network, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-objects, bacnet-server, bacnet-services, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types

Tools

The operations core, the MCP server for AI agent hosts, and the command-line tool.

Crate	Purpose	Features	Depends on
bacnet-ops	UI-free BACnet operations core shared by the bacnet CLI, its TUI and its MCP server.	sc-tls, test-support	bacnet-client, bacnet-encoding, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-services, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types
bacnet-mcp	A Model Context Protocol server for BACnet sites, over the bacnet-ops engine, read-only unless a profile offers guarded writes.	stdio (default)	bacnet-client, bacnet-ops, bacnet-services, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types
bacnet-cli	BACnet command-line tool for device discovery, reading, and writing. A program, not a library: its commands are in the CLI reference.	mcp, pcap, sc-tls, serial, tui (default)	bacnet-bip-core, bacnet-client, bacnet-encoding, bacnet-mcp, bacnet-network, bacnet-npdu, bacnet-ops, bacnet-services, bacnet-transport, bacnet-types