Developer Tools

Squads (Multisig)

A multisig protocol on Solana (Squads v3/v4) enabling M-of-N approval for transactions. Used to manage program upgrade authorities, treasury wallets, and DAO operations. Squads creates a multisig PDA that acts as the authority; members propose transactions that execute once the threshold is reached. Critical for production program security.

IDsquads

Plain meaning

Start with the shortest useful explanation before going deeper.

A multisig protocol on Solana (Squads v3/v4) enabling M-of-N approval for transactions. Used to manage program upgrade authorities, treasury wallets, and DAO operations. Squads creates a multisig PDA that acts as the authority; members propose transactions that execute once the threshold is reached. Critical for production program security.

Mental model

Use the quick analogy first so the term is easier to reason about when you meet it in code, docs, or prompts.

Think of it as a tool or abstraction that removes friction from shipping on Solana.

Technical context

Place the term inside its Solana layer so the definition is easier to reason about.

Anchor, local validators, explorers, SDKs, and testing workflows.

Why builders care

Turn the term from vocabulary into something operational for product and engineering work.

This term unlocks adjacent concepts quickly, so it works best when you treat it as a junction instead of an isolated definition.

AI handoff

AI handoff

Use this compact block when you want to give an agent or assistant grounded context without dumping the entire page.

Squads (Multisig) (squads)
Category: Developer Tools
Definition: A multisig protocol on Solana (Squads v3/v4) enabling M-of-N approval for transactions. Used to manage program upgrade authorities, treasury wallets, and DAO operations. Squads creates a multisig PDA that acts as the authority; members propose transactions that execute once the threshold is reached. Critical for production program security.
Related: Multisig, Authority, Upgrade Authority
Glossary Copilot

Ask grounded Solana questions without leaving the glossary.

Use glossary context, relationships, mental models, and builder paths to get structured answers instead of generic chat output.

Explain this code

Optional: paste Anchor, Solana, or Rust code so the Copilot can map primitives back to glossary terms.

Ask a glossary-grounded question

Ask a glossary-grounded question

The Copilot will answer using the current term, related concepts, mental models, and the surrounding glossary graph.

Concept graph

See the term as part of a network, not a dead-end definition.

These branches show which concepts this term touches directly and what sits one layer beyond them.

Branch

Multisig

An account controlled by multiple parties requiring M-of-N signatures to authorize actions. On Solana, multisig is implemented by programs like Squads rather than at the protocol level. Use cases: program upgrade authority (require 3-of-5 team members), treasury management, and DAO governance execution.

Branch

Authority

A pubkey with administrative privileges over a resource—such as the mint authority (can mint tokens), freeze authority (can freeze accounts), upgrade authority (can upgrade a program), or the signer authorized to perform operations on a PDA-controlled account. Authority is a convention, not a runtime concept.

Branch

Upgrade Authority

The pubkey authorized to upgrade a program's bytecode via the Upgradeable BPF Loader. Only the upgrade authority can deploy new bytecode to the program data account. Setting the upgrade authority to None makes the program immutable. Multisig (e.g., Squads) is commonly used to manage upgrade authority for production programs.

Next concepts to explore

Keep the learning chain moving instead of stopping at one definition.

These are the next concepts worth opening if you want this term to make more sense inside a real Solana workflow.

Developer Tools

Multisig

An account controlled by multiple parties requiring M-of-N signatures to authorize actions. On Solana, multisig is implemented by programs like Squads rather than at the protocol level. Use cases: program upgrade authority (require 3-of-5 team members), treasury management, and DAO governance execution.

Programming Model

Authority

A pubkey with administrative privileges over a resource—such as the mint authority (can mint tokens), freeze authority (can freeze accounts), upgrade authority (can upgrade a program), or the signer authorized to perform operations on a PDA-controlled account. Authority is a convention, not a runtime concept.

Programming Model

Upgrade Authority

The pubkey authorized to upgrade a program's bytecode via the Upgradeable BPF Loader. Only the upgrade authority can deploy new bytecode to the program data account. Setting the upgrade authority to None makes the program immutable. Multisig (e.g., Squads) is commonly used to manage upgrade authority for production programs.

Developer Tools

Steel

An opinionated Rust framework for writing Solana programs built on top of solana-program, exposing macros, functions, and patterns for safe and expressive on-chain code. Steel provides granular access to Solana program primitives while maintaining readability. Unlike Anchor's all-or-none approach, developers can selectively use only the Steel components they need.

Commonly confused with

Terms nearby in vocabulary, acronym, or conceptual neighborhood.

These entries are easy to mix up when you are reading quickly, prompting an LLM, or onboarding into a new layer of Solana.

Developer Toolsmultisig

Multisig

An account controlled by multiple parties requiring M-of-N signatures to authorize actions. On Solana, multisig is implemented by programs like Squads rather than at the protocol level. Use cases: program upgrade authority (require 3-of-5 team members), treasury management, and DAO governance execution.

Related terms

Follow the concepts that give this term its actual context.

Glossary entries become useful when they are connected. These links are the shortest path to adjacent ideas.

Developer Toolsmultisig

Multisig

An account controlled by multiple parties requiring M-of-N signatures to authorize actions. On Solana, multisig is implemented by programs like Squads rather than at the protocol level. Use cases: program upgrade authority (require 3-of-5 team members), treasury management, and DAO governance execution.

Programming Modelauthority

Authority

A pubkey with administrative privileges over a resource—such as the mint authority (can mint tokens), freeze authority (can freeze accounts), upgrade authority (can upgrade a program), or the signer authorized to perform operations on a PDA-controlled account. Authority is a convention, not a runtime concept.

Programming Modelupgrade-authority

Upgrade Authority

The pubkey authorized to upgrade a program's bytecode via the Upgradeable BPF Loader. Only the upgrade authority can deploy new bytecode to the program data account. Setting the upgrade authority to None makes the program immutable. Multisig (e.g., Squads) is commonly used to manage upgrade authority for production programs.

More in category

Stay in the same layer and keep building context.

These entries live beside the current term and help the page feel like part of a larger knowledge graph instead of a dead end.

Developer Tools

Anchor Framework

The most popular framework for building Solana programs in Rust. Anchor provides macros (#[program], #[account], #[derive(Accounts)]) that auto-generate boilerplate for account validation, serialization, discriminators, and error handling. It includes a CLI (anchor init/build/test/deploy), IDL generation, and TypeScript client generation. Reduces program code by ~80% compared to native development.

Developer Tools

#[account] Macro (Anchor)

The Anchor macro applied to structs to define on-chain account data layouts. `#[account]` auto-derives Borsh serialization, adds an 8-byte discriminator prefix (SHA-256 of 'account:<Name>'), and implements space calculation. Optional attributes: `#[account(zero_copy)]` for zero-copy deserialization of large accounts.

Developer Tools

#[derive(Accounts)] (Anchor)

The Anchor macro that defines the accounts struct for an instruction. Each field specifies an account with validation constraints. Account types include: `Account<'info, T>` (deserialized), `Signer<'info>` (must sign), `Program<'info, T>` (program reference), `SystemAccount<'info>`, and `UncheckedAccount<'info>` (no validation, use carefully).

Developer Tools

Anchor Constraints

Declarative validation rules on Anchor account fields. Key constraints: `#[account(mut)]` (writable), `#[account(init, payer=x, space=n)]` (create), `#[account(seeds=[...], bump)]` (PDA validation), `#[account(has_one=field)]` (field equality), `#[account(constraint = expr)]` (custom boolean), `#[account(close=target)]` (close and reclaim rent).