Stacks Tooling
New to developing on Stacks or looking for a quick reference guide for all the important components and links? You're in the right place.
We'll go over all the building blocks you need to be aware of to build high-quality Stacks dapps. This page exists to serve as a reference to the Stacks developer's tool chest.
Building Blocks
Clarity
Clarity is the smart contract language on Stacks. If you want to build the next decentralized social network, DeFi protocol, or any other Stacks dapp, you'll need to know Clarity.
Post Conditions
Post conditions are a cool feature of the Stacks blockchain that allow you to verify the legitimacy of a transaction on the client side before it is executed. This adds an additional layer of defense against malicious smart contracts.
Proof of Transfer
PoX is the unique consensus mechanism of Stacks that facilitates new block production and also allows Stackers to earn real Bitcoin yield by participating in locking their STX tokens.
Stacking
Speaking of Stacking, it's the mechanism that helps to secure the Stacks chain and allows Stackers to earn real Bitcoin yield transferred by miners.
SIP-009 and SIP-010 Tokens
Fungible and non-fungible tokens in Clarity are defined by SIP-009 and SIP-010 standards. You can learn more about how to work with these tokens in the Clarity book.
Tools
Wallets
Wallets are a key tool in any web3 ecosystem, and Stacks is no different. There are several options available including:
Platform
The Hiro Platform is your all-in-one cloud development environment for Stacks development, and is integrated with most of the tools listed below.
It's by far the easiest way to get up and running quickly. Plus, they have SSH integration
Explorer
Every developer needs a block explorer to see take a look at information about blocks and transactions being submitted to the chain. You have two choices here: the Hiro Explorer and STXScan.
API
If you want to interact with or read data from the chain, there's a good chance the Hiro API has an endpoint for that.
Stacks.js
Stacks.js is the de-facto JavaScript library for the Stacks ecosystem. There are several packages here that will help you build robust frontends for your applications.
Clarinet
All good developer tooling needs a robust, easy-to-use development environment. Enter Clarinet. Clarinet provides everything you need to write, test, and deploy Clarity smart contracts, including a fully-featured local devnet blockchain.
Chainhook
One of the key use cases for Stacks is being able to directly interact with the Bitcoin chain. Hiro's Chainhook makes this easier by providing an IFTTT system for responding and reacting to events on both the Bitcoin and Stacks chains.
Stacking Tools
The DegenLabs team has created a suite of tools to make stacking significantly easier including a signer signature generator, a solo stacking dapp to stack without needing to run a signer, and a TypeScript library for mocking stacking functions.
Educational Resources
Docs
These docs you are currently looking at are a great place to get a comprehensive view of all things in the Stacks ecosystem, as well as providing some links out to additional resources you'll find helpful.
Hiro Docs
Hiro is a key player in the Stacks ecosystem, providing several developer tools to make your life easier. They also publish excellent guides and docs to make using these tools a breeze.
Clarity Book
The Clarity Book is the go-to resource for learning how to be a Clarity developer. In it you'll not only get the basics of Clarity but go through several practice projects and learn best practices.
LearnWeb3
LearnWeb3 is one of the best education providers in the game. They have recently begun publishing courses as part of their Stacks Developer Degree. LearnWeb3 courses will teach you everything you need to know about building Stacks Dapps.
EasyA
EasyA is a mobile app with a Stacks course built in. The EasyA app allows you to learn on the go and is a great way to learn the basics of Stacks and Clarity development all directly in their app.
Bitcoin Primer
If you're new to Bitcoin, interested in how it works, and how you can build Stacks dapps that interact with it, the Bitcoin Primer is a great place to start.
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