A local Solana development environment that serves as an alternative to solana-test-validator, featuring hot reload capability that automatically redeploys programs when source code changes. Surfpool provides faster iteration cycles by eliminating manual rebuild-redeploy steps and offers a streamlined developer experience for building and testing Solana programs locally.
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A local Solana development environment that serves as an alternative to solana-test-validator, featuring hot reload capability that automatically redeploys programs when source code changes. Surfpool provides faster iteration cycles by eliminating manual rebuild-redeploy steps and offers a streamlined developer experience for building and testing Solana programs locally.
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Anchor, local validators, explorers, SDKs, and testing workflows.
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Surfpool (surfpool) Category: Developer Tools Definition: A local Solana development environment that serves as an alternative to solana-test-validator, featuring hot reload capability that automatically redeploys programs when source code changes. Surfpool provides faster iteration cycles by eliminating manual rebuild-redeploy steps and offers a streamlined developer experience for building and testing Solana programs locally. Related: Local Development (Localnet), solana-test-validator, Testing (Solana Programs)
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The practice of developing and testing Solana programs against a local validator (solana-test-validator) or in-process test harness (Bankrun, LiteSVM). Local development allows instant transaction confirmation, free airdrops, account cloning from mainnet, and rapid debugging. Programs are deployed locally before moving to devnet for integration testing.
A lightweight local Solana validator for development. Runs a single-node cluster on localhost:8899 (RPC) and localhost:8900 (WebSocket). Supports `--clone` to copy mainnet accounts, `--bpf-program` to load programs, and `--reset` to clear state. Processes transactions instantly without PoH delays. Useful for rapid iteration but doesn't simulate network conditions.
The process of validating Solana programs through unit tests, integration tests, and fuzz testing. Common approaches: Rust tests with solana-program-test or LiteSVM (fast, in-process), TypeScript tests with Bankrun or solana-test-validator (end-to-end), and fuzz testing with Trident. Best practice is testing both happy paths and attack vectors (missing signers, wrong owners).
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A Rust macro-based tool for generating IDL files from native Solana programs that do not use Anchor. Shank provides attribute macros like #[derive(ShankAccount)] and #[derive(ShankInstruction)] that annotate program code to produce IDL output compatible with Codama/Kinobi for client generation. A key component of the Pinocchio + Shank + Codama workflow.
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.
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The practice of developing and testing Solana programs against a local validator (solana-test-validator) or in-process test harness (Bankrun, LiteSVM). Local development allows instant transaction confirmation, free airdrops, account cloning from mainnet, and rapid debugging. Programs are deployed locally before moving to devnet for integration testing.
A lightweight local Solana validator for development. Runs a single-node cluster on localhost:8899 (RPC) and localhost:8900 (WebSocket). Supports `--clone` to copy mainnet accounts, `--bpf-program` to load programs, and `--reset` to clear state. Processes transactions instantly without PoH delays. Useful for rapid iteration but doesn't simulate network conditions.
The process of validating Solana programs through unit tests, integration tests, and fuzz testing. Common approaches: Rust tests with solana-program-test or LiteSVM (fast, in-process), TypeScript tests with Bankrun or solana-test-validator (end-to-end), and fuzz testing with Trident. Best practice is testing both happy paths and attack vectors (missing signers, wrong owners).
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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.
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.
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).
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).