Someone Rebuilt Word in Rust. I Tested It
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Author: Prompt Engineer 48 · Watch on YouTube
Video authored by the channel shown, not by IANIA; all rights belong to the creator. Transcript and summary generated automatically; the original-language content is preserved.
Original language: English
Original video: Someone Rebuilt Word in Rust. I Tested It · Channel: Prompt Engineer 48 · 05:18 · Watch on YouTube
Topics: AI agents, Task and workflow automation, Software engineering with AI, AI developer tools, Open source and software ecosystems
Summary
Section titled “Summary”The video tests Wordcraft, an open-source word processor written in Rust, and examines its desktop app, command-line tools, and AI-agent support. On the presenter’s machine, basic editing, formatting, track changes, and dark mode worked as expected, while CLI tasks were fast. The project is still in alpha, and the presenter did not verify how faithfully it handles complex real-world documents; charts and SmartArt do not yet survive a round trip. The authors estimate Wordcraft is about 60% of the way to replacing Word, and the presenter considers it worth trying for everyday tasks but not for documents that must match Word exactly.
Key points
Section titled “Key points”- Wordcraft is described as a clean-room reimplementation of Microsoft Word in Rust, built from public specifications and observation rather than Microsoft’s code.
- The project supports macOS, Windows, Linux, and browsers, and uses EGUI for GPU rendering.
- The presenter tested the Windows x64 portable version, which was about 96 MB, and verified its SHA256 checksum.
- The tested app handled bold formatting, automatic bullets, drop caps, line numbers, text wrapping around a shape, track changes, and dark mode.
- The presenter did not test a large, complex document and could not confirm how closely its pagination matches Word.
- The project says charts and SmartArt do not yet survive a round trip, and describes Wordcraft as being in alpha.
- A CLI command edited and saved a DOCX file in 44 milliseconds; converting it to PDF took 2.7 seconds.
- The same commands are available to AI agents through an MCP integration, including tools to execute commands, type text, inspect documents, and save them.
- The presenter recommends it for free offline word processing and scripted document conversion, but advises waiting if complex contracts must look identical in Word.
Chapters
Section titled “Chapters”| Start | Chapter | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00 | Introducing Wordcraft | The presenter introduces Wordcraft and its fast command-line editing and PDF conversion, then outlines the project’s popularity and clean-room Rust implementation. |
| 01:06 | Project status and installation | The video covers Wordcraft’s platform support, alpha status, stated progress toward replacing Word, and the Windows portable download. |
| 02:10 | Testing the desktop app | The presenter opens a sample document and tests formatting, automatic bullets, layout features, track changes, and dark mode. |
| 03:46 | CLI, AI tools, and verdict | The presenter demonstrates CLI editing and conversion, describes agent access, and gives a qualified recommendation based on the app’s alpha limitations. |
| 05:18 | Closing | The presenter points viewers to the repository and downloads and asks whether they would switch to a free Word alternative. |
Quotes
Section titled “Quotes”an open source clean room re-implementation of Microsoft Word in pure Rust. — 00:32
Wordcraft is in alpha. — 01:38
It wrote the file in 44 milliseconds, 10 kilobytes. — 03:46
Anyone who wants a free offline word processor — 04:46
60%, that is how far the authors say they are from replacing Word. — 04:46
Concepts and entities
Section titled “Concepts and entities”Wordcraft, Microsoft Word, Rust, EGUI, Claude, MCP, RunPod
Full transcript (original language)
Section titled “Full transcript (original language)”00:00 This word processor is 10 days old and it already has 14,000 stars. Watch the terminal, one command bold a word inside a word document and saves it. That took 44 milliseconds. The next command turns it into a PDF in under 3 seconds and I’m doing all of this on an 8 GB laptop. So, what is this thing and does it actually open your real documents? Hold on to one number. It is at the very end. I’m prompt engineer and today I’m testing Wordcraft so you don’t have to. So, this is the Wordcraft repo from the Art Craft team. If you look here, the description
00:32 says an open source clean room re-implementation of Microsoft Word in pure Rust. Over on the right you can see about 14,000 stars, 3.7 thousand forks, and 132 contributors. Mind you, I read these off the page right before recording, so they will be higher by the time you watch. Down the middle there are 735 commits, 646 open issues, and 787 pull requests. The repo was created on October 7th and the latest release, version 0.7.0, is from October 14th. Before that, 0.6.1 on the 12th and 0.5.0 on the 11th. Three
01:06 releases in 4 days. The license says Apache 2.0 and MIT. So, it is free to use. Clean room means they built it from public specifications and observation, not from Microsoft’s code. On the website it says in development and it runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, and in the browser. No electron here. It draws on the GPU with EGUI. Before I install anything, let me read you what the project says about itself. It says Wordcraft is in alpha. It covers 88% of Word’s ribbon features with commands today, but counting depth, file
01:38 fidelity, and stability, they estimate it is about 60% of the way to replacing Word for real work. About 55% for a typical professional’s week and 63% for everyday essentials. For beta, they list testing against real docs files, keeping charts and smart art through a round trip, pagination closer to Word, and native printing. So, this is not finished and I will tell you where it holds up on my machine. Installing is easy. The release page has 25 files. Windows has an installer and a portable zip for X64, ARM64, and X86. I took the
02:10 X64 portable zip, about 96 MB, and checked its SHA256 against the checksums file. It matches. Inside, there are two programs, wordcraft.exe and wordcraft-cli.exe. Let’s go ahead and run the app with the sample document. You can see the window opens in a few seconds. In the log, it found three DirectX 12 adapters, my AMD integrated one, the Nvidia 4060, and the software one. The sample is called the Open Studio Handbook with the navigation pane, the ribbon, and the live styles
02:41 gallery. If you have used Word, you already know where everything is. Let’s start with the basics. I select the word membership and bold it. You can see it goes bold right away. Then, at the end of the paragraph, I press enter and type a star and a space and it turns into a bullet by itself. That is the list auto format from the Readme. Now, the layout tab. They claim drop caps, text wrapping around shapes and line numbers. I turn on a three-line drop cap and the first paragraph gets a big E. Next, continuous line numbers and you can see every line numbered in the left margin. I turn them off again. Then, I insert a blue circle
03:16 and set the wrapping to square and the paragraph flows around it. Now, review. I switch track changes on, select the word 30 and type 40, then accept all and the change goes through. After that, I switch to dark mode and the whole app flips in one go, ribbon included, then back to light. Here’s what I did not test. I did not stress a big real contract with tables and track changes in it. So, I can’t tell you how close the pagination is to Word. And the Readme says charts and smart art do not survive a round trip yet. They also say
03:46 typing in a 188-page document relays it out in about 1.4 milliseconds. I did not measure that. So, treat it as their number, not mine. Now, the number from the start, this is Warcraft-CLI. The command is run template sample select the text membership format.bold saveout.docx. It wrote the file in 44 milliseconds, 10 kilobytes. Then convert out.docx to out.pdf took 2.7 seconds, 76 kilobytes. And the text command printed the
04:16 document back as plain text, headings and bullets included. And the same 422 commands the ribbon users are also exposed to AI agents. One line Claude MCP at Warcraft and an agent gets tools like execute, type text, inspect document and save document. I started the app with a control port and every click you saw in this recording came through that port. So, it is not just a claim in the readme. So, my verdict, what worked on my machine? It installs in a minute, the ribbon behaves like Word, the drop cap, line numbers, shape
04:46 wrapping, track changes and dark mode all did what the readme says and the command line is fast. What I could not confirm how well it opens complicated real documents and the project itself says alpha. Who should try it? Anyone who wants a free offline word processor or who needs to convert and edit docs files from scripts. Who should wait? Anyone with a long contract that has to look identical in Word. And the number I promised, 60%, that is how far the authors say they are from replacing Word. After my test, I think that is fair for essentials and honest enough that I trust the rest of the page. If
05:18 you are looking for cheap and reliable GPUs, I use RunPod and the link is in the description. The repo and download links are below. Tell me in the comments, would you switch from Word to a free alternative? Yes or no. Next video, another new open source tool goes through the same test. See you in another one.