[Feature]: Native (Rust) binary / Rust core for Auggie CLI (lower memory + faster startup + no Node 22+ dependency)

[rishitank]

What would you like to be added?

A native, prebuilt auggie distribution implemented in Rust (or a hybrid architecture where performance-critical components are in Rust), so Auggie can be installed and run without requiring a system-level Node.js 22+ runtime.

Concretely, I’d love one of these:

• Option A (ideal): A full Rust-native auggie CLI/TUI binary that preserves the current UX and flags.
• Option B (incremental): Keep the Node/TS UI layer, but move heavy local work into a Rust “core” (invoked via local RPC/stdio or a small native module), and ship a native binary for the core.

Why is this needed?

1. Installation friction / portability

   • Today, Auggie is installed via npm and requires Node.js 22+. This is a hurdle in minimal containers, CI agents, enterprise environments, and servers where upgrading Node is non-trivial.
   • A single native binary would make “runs anywhere” a reality (especially for automation workflows).

2. Performance + reliability (startup + memory)

   • Auggie is commonly used in non-interactive “automation” mode (e.g. --print) where cold-start time matters a lot.
   • There are also reports of high memory usage / Node heap OOM behavior in real server environments. A native implementation (or Rust core) could reduce baseline overhead and make resource usage more predictable.

3. Auggie’s workload benefits from systems-level efficiency

   • Auggie automatically indexes workspaces and traverses lots of files (respecting .gitignore / .augmentignore). That type of IO-heavy, streaming, concurrency-friendly workload is a strong fit for Rust and can be done with very low overhead.

Possible solution or alternatives

• Option A: Full Rust CLI/TUI

  • Provide prebuilt binaries for macOS/Linux/Windows (WSL ok) with the same commands/flags.
  • Publish a small benchmark note (startup time, RSS, indexing speed on a representative repo).

• Option B: Hybrid approach (recommended if rewrite scope is big)

  • Keep Node/TS for the interactive UX, but move these components to Rust:
    1. Workspace traversal + ignore matching + streaming reads (indexing pipeline)
    2. Diff/patch application + file ops planning
    3. Process management, cancellation, cleanup for reliability
  • Node CLI delegates to Rust core over stdio/local RPC.

• Alternative mitigations (if Rust isn’t on the roadmap)

  • Ship officially supported Docker images for CI.
  • Offer a “self-contained” binary distribution built from the existing code (even if larger), to remove the external Node requirement.
  • Provide documented memory controls (e.g., supported NODE_OPTIONS usage) and profiling guidance.

Additional context

No response