---
id: 2cf3058c-85f4-481a-bbe7-17ebb9b9e908
type: decision
title: "SBA Scout Python-to-Rust TUI migration: recommended stack and approach"
tags: [sba-scout, rust, migration, ratatui, research, decision, tui]
importance: 0.7
confidence: 0.8
created: "2026-02-23T18:05:05.367031+00:00"
updated: "2026-02-28T04:58:41.332752+00:00"
relations:
  - target: c9add129-283a-445a-8dff-4525ec7fa9b6
    type: BUILDS_ON
    direction: incoming
    strength: 0.9
    edge_id: 5cde624d-cbf0-456b-aa87-076e7e999dde
  - target: 4dc83eed-b0b1-4924-b82e-faf352426785
    type: FOLLOWS
    direction: incoming
    strength: 0.7
    edge_id: b8e47bac-8b05-4e2c-b0a0-bd7683ced31f
---

# SBA Scout Python-to-Rust TUI Migration Research

## Context

SBA Scout is a Python TUI app using Textual + SQLAlchemy + httpx + pydantic-settings. Research was conducted to evaluate converting it to Rust.

## Recommended Stack (Option A - Lean and Idiomatic)

- **UI:** ratatui 0.30 + crossterm
- **Async runtime:** tokio
- **Database:** sqlx 0.8.6 (sqlite, async)
- **HTTP client:** reqwest 0.12.28
- **Config:** figment 0.10.19
- **Serialization:** serde + toml
- **Math:** pure f64 (no external crate needed)
- **Rust edition:** 2024

## Alternative Stack (Option B - Higher Abstraction)

- **UI:** tui-realm 3.3 on top of ratatui
- **Config:** config-rs 0.15.19 with YAML

## Rejected Libraries

- **Diesel:** rejected — no async SQLite support
- **rusqlite:** rejected — sync only, not Send
- **serde_yaml:** deprecated — migrate config to TOML instead of YAML

## Migration Order

1. Data structs (models)
2. sqlx queries (database layer)
3. API client (reqwest)
4. Config (figment)
5. First screen: Roster (screens layer)
6. Iterate remaining screens

## Key Challenges

- Calc layer is the easiest port (pure math, f64)
- Screens are the hardest: ratatui is immediate-mode (draw loop), while Textual is retained-mode (component tree with reactive state)
- Async patterns differ significantly between Python and Rust

## Reference

Full research saved to NoteDiscovery at `projects/sba-scout/rust-tui-migration-research`.