This is a beginner-friendly tutorial series that teaches Solana smart contract development from the very basics.
We’ll start from the basics to learn Solana smart contract development. You only need general programming knowledge, like understanding object-oriented concepts—no prior experience with other networks’ smart contracts or the Rust language is required.
Visit Solana’s official installation guide: https://solana.com/docs/intro/installation
The documentation provides a one-line install command for all dependencies, as well as a step-by-step guide. Pay attention: Solana CLI requires editing your environment variables. Once installed, the solana command should be available:
solana --help
Use the anchor command to initialize a smart contract project. This CLI tool was installed in the previous step. Don’t worry about the generated directory structure for now:
anchor init hello_sol
cd hello_sol
In the programs/hello_sol/src directory, there is a lib.rs file. Files ending in .rs are Rust source code. Copy the following code into that file. Note: the declare_id value is generated automatically when initializing your project—you don’t need to copy the one shown here exactly:
use anchor_lang::prelude::*;
declare_id!("3Zbdw1oWu1CiMiQr3moQeT4XzMgeqmCvjH5R5wroDWQH");
#[program]
pub mod hello_sol {
use super::*;
pub fn say_hello(ctx: Context<Hello>) -> Result<()> {
msg!("Hello, world!");
Ok(())
}
}
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct Hello {}
Use the anchor command to compile the smart contract code you just added. Make sure it compiles successfully without syntax errors. Rust is a very strict language and may throw lots of warnings—don’t worry about them unless there are errors:
anchor build
Run this command to set Solana CLI’s default network to devnet. Devnet is for developers and allows testing without using real SOL tokens:
solana config set --url https://api.devnet.solana.com
This command creates a Solana account file at the default local path. Deploying smart contracts requires fees, which this account will cover:
solana-keygen new -o ~/.config/solana/id.json
After running this command, look for the output line starting with pubkey:—this is your local account address. Since we already set the default network to devnet, you can check your balance with:
solana balance
Or visit the devnet Explorer and search for your address. The resulting URL will look like: https://explorer.solana.com/address/75sFifxBt7zw1YrDfCdPjDCGDyKEqLWrBarPCLg6PHwb?cluster=devnet
Of course, your account balance will initially show 0 SOL.
Run this command to receive 2 SOL in your devnet account. The number 2 specifies how much to request. The maximum per airdrop is 2 SOL, which is sufficient for our use:
solana airdrop 2
Now that you have the contract code, a local account, and a funded wallet, you can deploy the contract to devnet:
anchor deploy --provider.cluster devnet
If deployment succeeds, you’ll see Deploy success. Pay attention to the output line starting with Program Id:—that is your contract’s address. You can search it in the devnet Explorer, for example:
https://explorer.solana.com/address/3Zbdw1oWu1CiMiQr3moQeT4XzMgeqmCvjH5R5wroDWQH?cluster=devnet
Go to the hello_sol/app directory and create a new file named app.js. Paste the following code. It reads your local account file and uses it to send a transaction that calls the deployed smart contract. Every time you run this script, it will create a transaction on-chain:
const anchor = require('@coral-xyz/anchor');
const fs = require('fs');
const os = require('os');
const path = require('path');
const { Keypair, Connection } = anchor.web3;
const RPC_URL = process.env.RPC_URL;
const connection = new Connection(RPC_URL, { commitment: 'confirmed' });
const secretKey = Uint8Array.from(
JSON.parse(
fs.readFileSync(
path.join(os.homedir(), '.config/solana/id.json'),
'utf8',
),
),
);
const wallet = new anchor.Wallet(Keypair.fromSecretKey(secretKey));
const provider = new anchor.AnchorProvider(connection, wallet, {
preflightCommitment: 'confirmed',
});
anchor.setProvider(provider);
const idlPath = path.resolve(__dirname, '../target/idl/hello_sol.json');
const idl = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(idlPath, 'utf8'));
const program = new anchor.Program(idl, provider);
(async () => {
try {
const sig = await program.methods.sayHello().rpc();
console.log('✅ tx', sig);
console.log(`🌐 https://explorer.solana.com/tx/${sig}?cluster=devnet`);
} catch (err) {
console.error('❌', err);
}
})();
Back in the root hello_sol directory, install the Node.js dependencies:
npm init -y
npm install @coral-xyz/anchor
Then, still in the root directory, run this command to execute the script and invoke your deployed contract:
export RPC_URL=https://api.devnet.solana.com
node app/app.js
The RPC_URL environment variable is the API endpoint. Since Node.js scripts don’t use the system proxy by default, if you encounter connectivity issues, consider using a better RPC provider like Helius. If the script throws this error, it’s likely a network issue—try a different RPC endpoint:
❌ Error: failed to get recent blockhash: TypeError: fetch failed
at Connection.getLatestBlockhash (/Users/smallyu/work/github/hello_sol/node_modules/@solana/web3.js/lib/index.cjs.js:7236:13)
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)
at async AnchorProvider.sendAndConfirm (/Users/smallyu/work/github/hello_sol/node_modules/@coral-xyz/anchor/dist/cjs/provider.js:89:35)
at async MethodsBuilder.rpc [as _rpcFn] (/Users/smallyu/work/github/hello_sol/node_modules/@coral-xyz/anchor/dist/cjs/program/namespace/rpc.js:15:24)
at async /Users/smallyu/work/github/hello_sol/app/app.js:40:17
You might wonder how the script knows which contract to call without specifying the contract address. Take a look at the idlPath variable—it points to the target/idl/hello_sol.json file, which contains compiled metadata about the contract, including its address. That’s right, the contract address is generated offline and doesn’t require uploading to the chain—it’s deterministically derived.
If everything runs smoothly, the script will output the transaction hash and a browser URL. For example: https://explorer.solana.com/tx/2fnPgKkv3tGKKq72hhRxmW6WFSXuofMzXfY2UYoFZXTdJi37btdESy9NzS2gjpWzXX4CL5F7QfxugpctBVaMcBFY?cluster=devnet
At the bottom of this transaction page, you should see Program logged: "Hello, world!"—this is the msg! line from your smart contract.
If you run into issues during any of the above steps, version mismatches may be the cause. The blockchain space evolves quickly, so tools often break with updates. Here are the versions from my local environment:
rustup: rustup 1.28.2 (e4f3ad6f8 2025-04-28)
rustc: rustc 1.90.0-nightly (706f244db 2025-06-23)
solana: solana-cli 2.2.18 (src:8392f753; feat:3073396398, client:Agave)
anchor: anchor-cli 0.31.1
node: v24.2.0
@coral-xyz/anchor (nodejs): ^0.31.1