[v2.0] Phase 4: Build & local development setup

[fsecada01]

Document and validate the local development workflow for contributors working on the Rust extension.

Wiki: Phase 4 detail
Branch: feature/rust-backend

Tasks

• 4.1 Validate maturin develop (debug) and maturin develop --release (optimized) both work end-to-end
• 4.2 Validate maturin build --release produces a valid wheel installable via pip install
• 4.3 Update CONTRIBUTING.md with Rust dev prerequisites (rustup, maturin) and the develop/test cycle
• 4.4 Add a note to CONTRIBUTING.md that maturin develop requires the venv to be active

Notes

Always run maturin develop inside the activated venv (source .venv/bin/activate or uv run), otherwise the extension installs into the wrong environment.