Getting started

In most cases the easiest way to get started is to use the TypeScript templates (opens in a new tab) provided by Lattice (opens in a new tab).

Prerequisites

To install the TypeScript templates you need:

  • Node.js v18 (opens in a new tab). Note that version 18 is required. We do not support older or newer versions at the moment.

    Installation instructions
    curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash nvm install 18

  • git (opens in a new tab)

    Installation instructions
    sh copy sudo dnf install git-all

  • Foundry (opens in a new tab)

    Installation instructions
    curl -L https://foundry.paradigm.xyz | bash export PATH=$PATH:~/.foundry/bin

  • pnpm, at least version 8 (opens in a new tab)

    Installation instructions
    sudo npm install -g pnpm

Installation

To run any of the TypeScript templates:

  1. Create the template with pnpm. If you need, replace tutorial with your application name.

    pnpm create mud@latest tutorial
    Possible errors in this stage

    • ERROR  No package.json (or package.yaml, or package.json5) was found in "/home/qbzzt1"

      pnpm version too old. Run sudo npm install -g pnpm to update to the latest.

    • ENOENT  ENOENT: no such file or directory, mkdir

      Out of disk space.

    • foundryup: need 'git' (command not found)

      Install git (opens in a new tab).

    • SyntaxError: Unexpected token '?'

      pnpm version too old. Run sudo npm install -g pnpm to update to the latest.

    • tutorial is not empty directory.

      The tutorial needs to be installed in an empty directory. Either delete the directory and its content (rm -rf tutorial) or use a different directory.

  2. Select the template:

  3. Start the development server, which updates automatically when you modify files.

    cd tutorial
pnpm dev

    You can use the arrow keys to move between the logs for the contracts package and the logs for the client package.

    You can press Q to quit pnpm dev. If that doesn't work, press Ctrl-A and then Q.

    Possible errors in this stage

    • error binding to 127.0.0.1:8545: error creating server listener: Address already in use

      Foundry's anvil (opens in a new tab) is already running, possibly inside a different pnpm dev.

      On Linux you can use sudo netstat -anpe | grep 8545 | grep LISTEN to get the anvil process ID. You can stop the anvil process listening on port 8545 using this command.

      kill `sudo netstat -anpe | grep 8545 | grep LISTEN | awk '{print $9}' | sed 's/\/anvil//'`

      Alternatively, a different Ethereum client such as Geth (opens in a new tab) or Reth (opens in a new tab) might be running. As those can be production clients, it is best not to develop on a machine that runs them.

    • [vite] Internal server error: Failed to resolve import "contracts/out/IWorld.sol/IWorld.abi.json" from "src/mud/setupNetwork.ts"

      Ignore it. It simply means the contracts package hasn't created the IWorld.abi.json file, which the client package needs, yet. As soon as it is created, the client package will use it.

    • Waiting for localhost:8545......

      This error happens when anvil isn't up yet. If it persists, check the contracts package.

    ⓘ

    If nothing else works, the problem may be with mprocs (opens in a new tab). We can bypass mprocs by running two separate command line windows.

    1. In the first command line window run these commands to start the client:

      cd packages/client
pnpm dev

    2. In the second command line window run these commands to compile the contracts and start anvil:

      cd packages/contracts
forge || export PATH=$PATH:~/.foundry/bin;
pnpm dev

  4. Browse to http://127.0.0.1:3000 (opens in a new tab). If port 3000 is occupied then the front-end package, Vite (opens in a new tab), will try to listen to port 3001, then 3002, etc.

Using the templates

Code organization

Other than a few utility files, most of the code is in two packages:

  • packages/contracts contains the onchain part of the application.
  • packages/client contains the offchain part of the application, the user interface. The app runs in the user's browser, in development it is served from a vite (opens in a new tab) server. The content of this package varies based on the template used.

Vanilla and react-ecs

The applications in these two templates is the same. You have an onchain counter and you can press Increment to increment it.

Three.js

In this application the position of an object, the big green cube, is stored onchain. In the user interface you can move that cube using the arrow keys, space, and ctrl.

What is MUD?Introduction