ilovehackathons / create-solana-starter

Created at the Solana Build Station Berlin in May 2023 for the Grizzlython hackathon. See https://solana.com/grizzlython

create-solana-starter

create-solana-starter is a command-line tool that initializes a new Solana project for you so you can skip tedious manual steps and go straight to coding.

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18.12.1
  • Run corepack enable afterwards to enable the Yarn package manager (required by anchor-cli).
• rustc 1.65.0 (897e37553 2022-11-02)
  • On macOS, you may need to go into System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Security to dismiss the security warning several times before Rust will install successfully.
• solana-cli 1.14.16 (src:ab6f3bda; feat:3488713414)
  • Do not use Homebrew, because it won't install solana-test-validator 1.14.16 (src:ab6f3bda; feat:3488713414).
• anchor-cli 0.27.0
  • There seems to be an issue with avm; it's better if you install directly with cargo.
• git version 2.37.1

Usage

1. Run npx create-solana-starter@latest my-solana-app to initialize the project.
2. Start the Solana backend with cd my-solana-app && npm start.
3. Start the Next.js frontend with cd my-solana-app && npm run next.
4. Make changes to lib.rs and watch the console.
5. Press Ctrl+C to stop the tasks once you're done.

Features

Working

• Run via npx. No explicit installation required.
• Initializes an Anchor project with anchor init.
• Generates a shareable wallet for development purposes (do not use on mainnet!!!) with solana-keygen.
• Generates Anchor source code with a valid program ID.
• An npm script to (re)build and init/upgrade the on-chain program/IDL anytime.
  • An interface definition (IDL) is needed by frontends.
• A lib.rs file watcher that runs the above-mentioned script automatically on changes.
• A second npm script to do lots of heavy lifting (start the test validator & file watcher, give you some SOL so that you can actually deploy, etc.)
• Two more npm scripts for long-to-type Anchor commands.
• An Anchor script that verifies that there's actually a valid program at the program ID.
• Verbose output so that you can actually understand what's going on under the hood.
  • create-solana-starter output is bright green, while that of the commands it calls is (generally) white.
• There's a Next.js frontend in app that connects to our test validator.
• The code in lib.rs lets you store an arbitrary signed integer on-chain.
• Interact with the Solana program (storing and retrieving an arbitrary number) in the frontend.

Planned

• Add tests for the number storage and retrieval feature.
• Choose between different templates (e.g. Anchor or Seahorse).
• Real-time CLI output.
  • Right now, there's only output after the respective command (e.g. anchor build) has completed. That may take a minute or two.

Links

• npm package registry
• Twitter
• Slide deck
• Video