Deploying Your First Solana Program

In this section, we'll build, deploy, and test a simple Solana program using the Anchor framework. By the end, you'll have deployed your first program to the Solana blockchain!

The purpose of this section is to familiarize you with the Solana Playground. We'll walk through a more detailed example in the PDA and CPI sections. For more details, refer to the Programs on Solana page.

Create Anchor Project #

First, open https://beta.solpg.io in a new browser tab.

  • Click the "Create a new project" button on the left-side panel.

  • Enter a project name, select Anchor as the framework, then click the "Create" button.

New ProjectNew Project

You'll see a new project created with the program code in the src/lib.rs file.

lib.rs
use anchor_lang::prelude::*;
 
// This is your program's public key and it will update
// automatically when you build the project.
declare_id!("11111111111111111111111111111111");
 
#[program]
mod hello_anchor {
    use super::*;
    pub fn initialize(ctx: Context<Initialize>, data: u64) -> Result<()> {
        ctx.accounts.new_account.data = data;
        msg!("Changed data to: {}!", data); // Message will show up in the tx logs
        Ok(())
    }
}
 
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct Initialize<'info> {
    // We must specify the space in order to initialize an account.
    // First 8 bytes are default account discriminator,
    // next 8 bytes come from NewAccount.data being type u64.
    // (u64 = 64 bits unsigned integer = 8 bytes)
    #[account(init, payer = signer, space = 8 + 8)]
    pub new_account: Account<'info, NewAccount>,
    #[account(mut)]
    pub signer: Signer<'info>,
    pub system_program: Program<'info, System>,
}
 
#[account]
pub struct NewAccount {
    data: u64
}

Build and Deploy Program #

To build the program, simply run build in the terminal.

Terminal
build

Notice that the address in declare_id!() has been updated. This is your program's on-chain address.

Once the program is built, run deploy in the terminal to deploy the program to the network (devnet by default). To deploy a program, SOL must be allocated to the on-chain account that stores the program.

Before deployment, ensure you have enough SOL. You can get devnet SOL by either running solana airdrop 5 in the Playground terminal or using the Web Faucet.

Terminal
deploy

Alternatively, you can also use the Build and Deploy buttons on the left-side panel.

Build and DeployBuild and Deploy

Once the program is deployed, you can now invoke its instructions.

Test Program #

Included with the starter code is a test file found in tests/anchor.test.ts. This file demonstrates how to invoke the initialize instruction on the starter program from the client.

anchor.test.ts
// No imports needed: web3, anchor, pg and more are globally available
 
describe("Test", () => {
  it("initialize", async () => {
    // Generate keypair for the new account
    const newAccountKp = new web3.Keypair();
 
    // Send transaction
    const data = new BN(42);
    const txHash = await pg.program.methods
      .initialize(data)
      .accounts({
        newAccount: newAccountKp.publicKey,
        signer: pg.wallet.publicKey,
        systemProgram: web3.SystemProgram.programId,
      })
      .signers([newAccountKp])
      .rpc();
    console.log(`Use 'solana confirm -v ${txHash}' to see the logs`);
 
    // Confirm transaction
    await pg.connection.confirmTransaction(txHash);
 
    // Fetch the created account
    const newAccount = await pg.program.account.newAccount.fetch(
      newAccountKp.publicKey,
    );
 
    console.log("On-chain data is:", newAccount.data.toString());
 
    // Check whether the data on-chain is equal to local 'data'
    assert(data.eq(newAccount.data));
  });
});

To run the test file once the program is deployed, run test in the terminal.

Terminal
test

You should see an output indicating that the test passed successfully.

You can also use the Test button on the left-side panel.

Run TestRun Test

You can then view the transaction logs by running the solana confirm -v command and specifying the transaction hash (signature) from the test output:

Terminal
solana confirm -v [TxHash]

For example:

Terminal
solana confirm -v 3TewJtiUz1EgtT88pLJHvKFzqrzDNuHVi8CfD2mWmHEBAaMfC5NAaHdmr19qQYfTiBace6XUmADvR4Qrhe8gH5uc

Alternatively, you can view the transaction details on SolanaFM or Solana Explorer by searching for the transaction signature (hash).

Info

Reminder to update the cluster (network) connection on the Explorer you are using to match Solana Playground. Solana Playground's default cluster is devnet.

Close Program #

Lastly, the SOL allocated to the on-chain program can be fully recovered by closing the program.

You can close a program by running the following command and specifying the program address found in declare_id!():

Terminal
solana program close [ProgramID]

For example:

Terminal
solana program close 2VvQ11q8xrn5tkPNyeraRsPaATdiPx8weLAD8aD4dn2r

Congratulations! You've just built and deployed your first Solana program using the Anchor framework!