Project Development

Clarinet streamlines the entire lifecycle of Clarity smart contract development. From project initialization to contract management and code formatting, you'll have the tools needed for professional workflows.

Creating a new project

The clarinet new command creates a complete project structure with all necessary configuration files:

$ clarinet new my-defi-app

Option	Description	Example
--disable-telemetry	Opt out of telemetry collection	clarinet new my-app --disable-telemetry

For a deeper look at what Clarinet generates, see the project structure guide.

Managing contracts

Creating new contracts

The clarinet contract new command generates both a contract file and a matching test file:

$ clarinet contract new token
Created file contracts/token.clar
Created file tests/token.test.ts
Updated Clarinet.toml

The generated contract includes a minimal template:

;; token
;; <add a description here>

;; constants
;;

;; data vars
;;

;; data maps
;;

;; public functions
;;

;; read only functions
;;

;; private functions
;;

Removing contracts

Clean up unused contracts with the rm command:

$ clarinet contract rm old-token
Removed file contracts/old-token.clar
Removed file tests/old-token.test.ts
Updated Clarinet.toml

Checking project contract syntax

Validate your entire project setup:

$ clarinet check
✔ 3 contracts checked

Check specific contracts:

$ clarinet check contracts/token.clar
✔ contracts/token.clar Syntax of contract successfully checked

Code formatting

Clarinet includes a formatter to maintain consistent style across your project.

Format all contracts in your project:

$ clarinet format --in-place
Formatted 5 contracts

Formatting options

Customize formatting to match your team's style guide:

Option	Description	Example
--dry-run	Preview changes without modifying files	clarinet format --dry-run
--in-place	Replace file contents (required for actual formatting)	clarinet format --in-place
--max-line-length	Set maximum line length	clarinet format --max-line-length 100
--indent	Set indentation size	clarinet format --indent 2
--tabs	Use tabs instead of spaces	clarinet format --tabs

Format single files

$ clarinet format contracts/messy-contract.clar --in-place

Format specific contracts with glob patterns:

$ clarinet format contracts/token*.clar --in-place

Project configuration

Working with requirements

Add mainnet contracts as dependencies:

$ clarinet requirements add SP2PABAF9FTAJYNFZH93XENAJ8FVY99RRM50D2JG9.nft-trait
Added requirement SP2PABAF9FTAJYNFZH93XENAJ8FVY99RRM50D2JG9.nft-trait
Updated Clarinet.toml

Clarinet adds the dependency to Clarinet.toml:

[project]
requirements = [
  { contract_id = "SP2PABAF9FTAJYNFZH93XENAJ8FVY99RRM50D2JG9.nft-trait" }
]

You can now implement traits from mainnet contracts:

(impl-trait 'SP2PABAF9FTAJYNFZH93XENAJ8FVY99RRM50D2JG9.nft-trait.nft-trait)

(define-non-fungible-token my-nft uint)
;; ... implement required functions