Axum (Native)

Run EdgeZero applications natively using Axum and Tokio for local development, testing, and container deployments.

Overview

The Axum adapter provides:

• Local development server - Fast iteration without Wasm compilation
• Native testing - Run tests with standard cargo test
• Container deployments - Deploy to any platform supporting native binaries

Project Setup

When scaffolding with edgezero new my-app, the Axum adapter includes:

crates/my-app-adapter-axum/
├── Cargo.toml
├── axum.toml
└── src/
    └── main.rs

Entrypoint

The Axum entrypoint wires the adapter:

use edgezero_adapter_axum::AxumDevServer;
use edgezero_core::app::Hooks;
use my_app_core::App;

fn main() {
    let app = App::build_app();
    let router = app.router().clone();
    if let Err(err) = AxumDevServer::new(router).run() {
        eprintln!("axum adapter failed: {err}");
        std::process::exit(1);
    }
}

Development Server

The edgezero dev command uses the Axum adapter:

edgezero dev

This starts a server at http://127.0.0.1:8787 with standard logging to stdout.

Manual Start

Run the Axum entrypoint directly:

# Using the CLI
edgezero serve --adapter axum

# Or directly with cargo
cargo run -p my-app-adapter-axum

Building

Build a native release binary:

# Using the CLI
edgezero build --adapter axum

# Or directly
cargo build -p my-app-adapter-axum --release

The binary is placed in target/release/my-app-adapter-axum.

Proxy Client

The Axum adapter provides a native HTTP client for proxying:

use edgezero_adapter_axum::AxumProxyClient;
use edgezero_core::proxy::ProxyService;

let client = AxumProxyClient::default();
let response = ProxyService::new(client).forward(request).await?;

This uses reqwest under the hood for outbound HTTP requests.

Logging

The Axum adapter's run_app helper installs simple_logger and reads logging configuration from edgezero.toml (level and echo_stdout). If you want a different logger, wire your own entrypoint using App::build_app() and AxumDevServer.

Logging status

run_app wires logging automatically; custom entrypoints should install a logger explicitly.

Testing

The Axum adapter enables standard Rust testing:

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    use super::*;
    use edgezero_core::app::Hooks;
    use edgezero_core::http::{Request, Method};

    #[tokio::test]
    async fn test_handler() {
        let app = App::build_app();
        let router = app.router();

        let request = Request::builder()
            .method(Method::GET)
            .uri("/hello")
            .body(Body::empty())
            .unwrap();

        let response = router.oneshot(request).await.unwrap();
        assert_eq!(response.status(), 200);
    }
}

Run tests:

cargo test -p my-app-core
cargo test -p my-app-adapter-axum

Container Deployment

Build and deploy as a standard container:

FROM rust:1.75 as builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY . .
RUN cargo build -p my-app-adapter-axum --release

FROM debian:bookworm-slim
COPY --from=builder /app/target/release/my-app-adapter-axum /usr/local/bin/
EXPOSE 8787
CMD ["my-app-adapter-axum"]

Configuration

Configure the Axum adapter in edgezero.toml. See Configuration for the full manifest reference.

The axum.toml file is used by the Axum CLI helper to locate the crate and display the port. The runtime currently binds to 127.0.0.1:8787 regardless of the axum.toml port value.

Development Workflow

A typical development workflow:

1. Start dev server: edgezero dev
2. Make changes to handlers in my-app-core
3. Test locally with curl or browser
4. Run tests: cargo test
5. Build for edge: edgezero build --adapter fastly
6. Deploy: edgezero deploy --adapter fastly

Differences from Edge Adapters

Aspect	Axum	Fastly/Cloudflare
Compilation	Native	Wasm
Cold start	~0ms	~0ms (Wasm)
Memory	Unlimited	128MB typical
Filesystem	Full access	Sandboxed
Network	Direct	Backend/fetch
Concurrency	Multi-threaded	Single-threaded

Development Parity

While Axum provides a convenient development environment, always test on actual edge platforms before deploying. Some edge-specific features (KV stores, geolocation) aren't available in the Axum adapter.

Next Steps

• Deploy to Fastly Compute for production
• Deploy to Cloudflare Workers as an alternative
• Explore Configuration for manifest options