The probe-rs tools overlap a fair bit in functionality, which makes it easy to pick the wrong one. Here is the short version.

Start with probe-rs run

For most projects, probe-rs run is what you want. It flashes your firmware, resets the target and streams RTT/defmt output and panics back to your console, so it works as a cargo target runner.

Point cargo at it once:

[target.<architecture-triple>]
runner = 'probe-rs run --chip <chip-name>'

and then a plain cargo run flashes and runs your firmware.

The other tools

• cargo-embed offers similar functionality with an interactive RTT terminal on top. It is expected to be phased out in the future, so prefer probe-rs run for new setups.
• cargo-flash just flashes a binary onto the target without any further faff, for when you only need to program the chip.