Axivion: One Tool for Your Entire C/C++/Rust Codebase

In May of this year, Rust became an officially supported language in Axivion. It joins C, C++, C#, and CUDA C++ under the same static code analysis, architecture verification, and quality monitoring capabilities Axivion users already rely on.

This post is for teams that are introducing Rust into an existing C/C++ codebase and want to know what Axivion does for them in practice.

Mixed Codebases - The Situation Most Teams are in

Most teams adopting Rust are often managing a mixed codebase where Rust and C/C++ have to coexist for years.

The most common setup we’re seeing is new modules being written in Rust while large parts of the system stay in C and C++. And the two have to talk to each other across Foreign Function Interface (FFI) boundaries. This setup creates problems the Rust toolchain alone does not solve. They're the kind of defects that pile up in a hybrid codebase, and they're what Axivion is built to handle.

One Model for Every Language in Your Codebase

Axivion gives your engineering and quality teams one view of architecture, metrics, and code health across C, C++, C#, Rust, and CUDA C++ at the same time.

Architecture verification, static code analysis, and quality monitoring all work off the same model of your system, no matter which language a module happens to be in. It means no more:

• Stitching together separate tools

• Reconciling reports that don't agree

• Keeping different quality baselines for different parts of the same product

Read our earlier work on pitfalls in multi-language software projects and analyzing multi-language software projects with Axivion.

Where Rust Meets C++ is Where Things Break

FFI boundaries between Rust and C/C++ are where Rust's safety guarantees stop and human error takes over. They're also a blind spot for tools that only look at one language at a time, file by file or function by function.
Axivion's architecture verification lets teams set rules for how Rust and legacy components are allowed to interact so these high-risk boundaries are visible and under control before anything ships.

Clippy is Step One - Axivion is Step Two

Almost every Rust project already runs Clippy, and that's the right place to start. It enforces idiomatic code, catches common mistakes, and belongs in every CI pipeline.

But Clippy works at the file and function level. It doesn't know anything about your system's architecture, can't show you how code quality is trending over time across a large team, and wasn't built for the compliance and audit demands of safety-critical work.

Axivion picks up where Clippy leaves off while adding the architectural integrity and long-term quality governance that safety-critical and enterprise projects need.

So what does that mean?

Keep Clippy in your pipeline and add Axivion on top.

Keep New Rust Code from Going the Way of the Old C++

Technical debt is cheap to prevent and expensive to fix later.

Teams adopting Rust get a rare chance to start with a clean codebase instead of inheriting the same slow erosion that's already worn down the C/C++ system next to it.

Axivion's delta analysis lets you focus on newly introduced issues, so you can hold new Rust code to a high standard from the first commit without arguing about historical findings on every review.

Pure Rust projects are still rare today, and almost none of them are in production. Going fully Rust in regulated environments will mean redoing certification work. For the foreseeable future, most teams will be living in mixed C/C++/Rust territory, and that's the case Axivion is built for.

As more of the codebase moves to Rust, including the scenarios where AI helps translate it, that AI-generated code needs the same checks human-written code gets.

Whatever your language mix looks like today, and whatever it looks like a few years from now, one tool can cover it.

Learn more about the Axivion Suite and its static code analysis and architecture verification features.