Setting Up Your Development Environment

Before you can start building on Solana, you need to set up your development environment.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or later)
• Rust (latest stable)
• Git

Install the Solana CLI

sh -c "$(curl -sSfL https://release.anza.xyz/stable/install)"

After installation, verify:

solana --version

Configure Solana CLI for Devnet

solana config set --url devnet

Create a Keypair

solana-keygen new --outfile ~/.config/solana/devnet.json

This creates a new keypair that you will use for development on devnet.

Get Devnet SOL

solana airdrop 2

You can request up to 2 SOL per airdrop on devnet.

Install Anchor Framework

Anchor is the most popular framework for Solana development:

cargo install --git https://github.com/coral-xyz/anchor avm --force
avm install latest
avm use latest

Verify the installation:

anchor --version

Recommended IDE Setup

• VS Code with the following extensions:
  • rust-analyzer
  • Solana (by Solana Labs)
  • Better TOML