cargo-remove

Remove a dependency from the current project

$ cargo remove [dependency]

$ cargo remove --[dev|build] [dependency]

$ cargo remove --target [target] [dependency]

cargo remove [OPTIONS] [<DEP> ...]

-p, --package <SPEC>…
    Target package(s) to remove dependencies from (repeatable)

-w, --workspace
    Remove from all workspace members

--dry-run
    Print changes without modifying files

--manifest-path <PATH>
    Path to Cargo.toml

-h, --help
    Print help information

--version
    Print version information

The cargo remove command removes specified dependencies from a project's Cargo.toml manifest file. It simplifies dependency management by automatically detecting and deleting entries from relevant sections such as [dependencies], [dev-dependencies], and [build-dependencies].

Dependencies can be specified by name (e.g., tokio) or with version constraints (e.g., tokio@1.0) to target specific requirements. For path, git, or other non-registry dependencies, use their identifiers directly.

In workspaces, use --workspace to remove from all member packages or --package to target specific ones. The --dry-run option previews changes without modifying files.

This command does not uninstall packages from the system or affect the lockfile directly; run cargo build afterward if needed to update. It's a counterpart to cargo add, streamlining workflows without manual Cargo.toml editing.

Only removes direct dependencies listed in Cargo.toml; transitive deps unaffected. Requires Cargo 1.70+. Does not update Cargo.lock automatically.

cargo remove tokio
cargo remove --dry-run serde tokio@1.25
cargo remove -p my-crate log

Introduced in Cargo 1.70.0 (July 2023) as a native alternative to manual Cargo.toml edits or third-party tools like cargo-edit.

cargo-add(1), cargo-tree(1), cargo-metadata(1)