Azure storage blob rust

Azure Blob Storage library for Rust

Client library for Azure Blob Storage — upload, download, and manage blobs and containers.

Use this skill when:

• An app needs to upload or download blobs from Azure Storage in Rust
• You need to create or manage blob containers
• You need to list blobs with pagination
• You need RBAC-based auth for blob operations

IMPORTANT: Only use the official azure_storage_blob crate published by the azure-sdk crates.io user. Do NOT use the unofficial azure_storage, azure_storage_blobs, or azure_sdk_for_rust community crates. Official crates use underscores in names and none have version 0.21.0.

Installation

cargo add azure_storage_blob azure_identity azure_core tokio futures

If your code uses azure_core types directly (for example, azure_core::http::Url or azure_core::http::RequestContent), add azure_core to Cargo.toml. If you only use azure_storage_blob re-exports, direct azure_core dependency is optional.

Environment Variables

AZURE_STORAGE_ENDPOINT=https://<account>.blob.core.windows.net/ # Required for all operations

Authentication

use azure_core::http::Url;
use azure_identity::DeveloperToolsCredential;
use azure_storage_blob::BlobServiceClient;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Local dev: DeveloperToolsCredential. Production: use ManagedIdentityCredential.
    let credential = DeveloperToolsCredential::new(None)?;
    let service_url = Url::parse("https://<storage_account_name>.blob.core.windows.net/")?;
    let service_client = BlobServiceClient::new(
        service_url,
        Some(credential),
        None,
    )?;

    // Derive container and blob clients by name.
    let container_client = service_client.blob_container_client("<container_name>");
    let blob_client = container_client.blob_client("<blob_name>");
    Ok(())
}

Client Types

Client	Purpose
BlobServiceClient	Account-level operations, list containers
BlobContainerClient	Container operations, list blobs
BlobClient	Individual blob operations

Core Workflow

Upload Blob

use azure_core::http::{RequestContent, Url};
use azure_identity::DeveloperToolsCredential;
use azure_storage_blob::BlobServiceClient;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Local dev: DeveloperToolsCredential. Production: use ManagedIdentityCredential.
    let credential = DeveloperToolsCredential::new(None)?;
    let service_url = Url::parse("https://<storage_account_name>.blob.core.windows.net/")?;
    let service_client = BlobServiceClient::new(service_url, Some(credential), None)?;
    let blob_client = service_client.blob_client("<container_name>", "<blob_name>");

    let data = b"hello world";
    blob_client.upload(RequestContent::from(data.to_vec()), None).await?;
    Ok(())
}

Download Blob / Get Properties

// Get blob properties
let props = blob_client.get_properties(None).await?;

// Download blob content
let response = blob_client.download(None).await?;
let content = String::from_utf8(response.body.collect().await?.into())?;

Delete Blob

blob_client.delete(None).await?;

Container Operations

use azure_core::http::Url;
use azure_identity::DeveloperToolsCredential;
use azure_storage_blob::BlobServiceClient;
use futures::TryStreamExt as _;

let credential = DeveloperToolsCredential::new(None)?;
let service_url = Url::parse("https://<storage_account_name>.blob.core.windows.net/")?;
let service_client = BlobServiceClient::new(service_url, Some(credential), None)?;
let container_client = service_client.blob_container_client("<container_name>");

// Create container
container_client.create(None).await?;

// List blobs (Pager<T> — iterate items directly)
let mut pager = container_client.list_blobs(None)?;
while let Some(blob) = pager.try_next().await? {
    println!("Blob: {:?}", blob.name);
}

Error Handling

Use StorageError for programmatic access to storage-specific error codes:

use azure_core::error::ErrorKind;
use azure_storage_blob::StorageError;
use azure_storage_blob::models::StorageErrorCode;

let result = blob_client.download(None).await;

match result {
    Ok(response) => {
        let content: Vec<u8> = response.body.collect().await?.into();
        println!("Downloaded {} bytes", content.len());
    }
    Err(error) => {
        if matches!(error.kind(), ErrorKind::HttpResponse { .. }) {
            // Convert to StorageError for programmatic access
            let storage_error: StorageError = error.try_into()?;
            println!("HTTP Status: {}", storage_error.status_code);

            if let Some(error_code) = &storage_error.error_code {
                match error_code {
                    StorageErrorCode::BlobNotFound => {
                        println!("The blob does not exist.");
                    }
                    StorageErrorCode::ContainerNotFound => {
                        println!("The container does not exist.");
                    }
                    StorageErrorCode::AuthorizationFailure => {
                        println!("Authorization failed. Check RBAC roles.");
                    }
                    _ => println!("Storage error: {error_code}"),
                }
            }

            if let Some(request_id) = &storage_error.request_id {
                println!("Request ID (for Azure support): {request_id}");
            }
        } else {
            println!("Non-HTTP error: {:?}", error);
        }
    }
}

Note: StorageError::try_into requires an owned error object — it will not compile if handed a reference to an error.

RBAC Roles

For Entra ID auth, assign one of these roles to the identity:

Role	Access
Storage Blob Data Reader	Read-only
Storage Blob Data Contributor	Read/write
Storage Blob Data Owner	Full access including RBAC

Best Practices

1. Use cargo add to manage dependencies, never edit Cargo.toml directly. Add and remove Rust SDK dependencies with cargo commands instead of manual manifest edits.
2. Add azure_core only when importing azure_core types directly. If your code imports azure_core::http::Url, azure_core::http::RequestContent, or azure_core::error::ErrorKind, include azure_core; otherwise a direct dependency is optional.
3. Use DeveloperToolsCredential for local dev, ManagedIdentityCredential for production — Rust does not provide a single DefaultAzureCredential type
4. Never hardcode credentials — use environment variables or managed identity
5. Use RequestContent::from() to wrap data for blob uploads — ensures proper content handling by the SDK
6. Assign RBAC roles — ensure "Storage Blob Data Contributor" for write access
7. Reuse clients — clients are thread-safe; create once, share across tasks
8. Prefer BlobServiceClient as the entry point and derive container/blob clients from it

Reference Links

Resource	Link
API Reference	https://docs.rs/crate/azure_storage_blob/latest
crates.io	https://crates.io/crates/azure_storage_blob
Source Code	https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-rust/tree/main/sdk/storage/azure_storage_blob