Generating an SBOM for Rust (Cargo)

The step below writes a CycloneDX JSON file in your own pipeline. The CRA Desk scan reads that file and turns it into a readiness report - it never generates one for you.

Run in CI:

cargo install cargo-cyclonedx
cargo cyclonedx --format json

Produces:

bom.json

Format:

CycloneDX JSON

The whole CI job

- uses: actions/checkout@v4
- run: cargo install cargo-cyclonedx
- run: cargo cyclonedx --format json
- uses: mmalinowski/cradesk-action@v1
  with:
    sbom-path: bom.json

generate-sbom:
  script:
    - cargo install cargo-cyclonedx
    - cargo cyclonedx --format json

include:
  - component: gitlab.com/cradesk/scan/readiness@1
    inputs:
      sbom_path: bom.json

Only the first step changes with your stack - the CRA Desk step after it is identical everywhere.

What goes wrong here

A workspace writes one bom.json per member crate next to its Cargo.toml, so name the crate you ship rather than assuming a single file at the root.

What CRA Desk does with the result

Components from this build carry pkg:cargo package URLs, which the watch matches against OSV's crates.io advisories when the SBOM arrives and again as new advisories land. Matching runs on every plan; e-mail alerts and the full match list are what a paid plan adds.

A generator that runs is not the same as coverage. Components with no purl, no version, or from an ecosystem outside the nine we watch are counted as gaps in every report rather than reported as clean.