Glowstick – type level tensor shapes in stable rust
Hi HN, In the past few years I've become more interested in machine learning. Since I'm sure the same is true for many here, I wanted to share this project I've been working on: glowstick uses type-directed metaprogramming to keep track of tensor shapes in Rust's type system and determine which operations are permitted or not at compile time. I find Rust has a lot of strengths when it comes to ML applications, but waiting until runtime to find shape related issues feels a bit strange since normally I don't run the code all that often while developing. Given Rust has fancy types available, I…
Glowstick – type level tensor shapes in stable rust launched on June 9, 2025 with 53 votes, #538 of 7,999 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
Glowstick is a Rust library that uses type-level programming to track tensor shapes at compile time, enabling developers to catch shape-related errors before runtime. It integrates with machine learning frameworks like Candle and Burn, allowing developers to write ML code where tensor operations are validated during compilation rather than execution. This approach leverages Rust's type system to prevent dimension mismatch bugs early in development.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Type-level tensor shapes in Rust. Contribute to nicksenger/Glowstick development by creating an account on GitHub.
This crate makes working with tensors in Rust safe, easy , and fun by tracking their shapes in the type system! use candle :: { DType , Device } ; use glowstick :: { assert_shape_type_eq , num :: { U1 , U2 } , Shape2 } ; use glowstick_candle :: Tensor ; let a : Tensor < Shape2 < U2 , U1 > > = Tensor :: zeros ( DType :: F32 , & Device :: Cpu ) . expect ( "tensor A" ) ; let b : Tensor < Shape2 < U1 , U2 > > = Tensor :: zeros ( DType :: F32 , & Device :: Cpu ) . expect ( "tensor B" ) ; let c = a . matmul ( & b ) . expect ( "matmul" ) ; assert_shape_type_eq ! ( c , Shape2 < U2 , U2 > ) ; Several operations are available: use candle :: { DType , Device } ; use glowstick :: { assert_shape_type_eq…from github.com
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi HN, In the past few years I've become more interested in machine learning. Since I'm sure the same is true for many here, I wanted to share this project I've been working on: glowstick uses type-directed metaprogramming to keep track of tensor shapes in Rust's type system and determine which operations are…
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