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Quickstart

Prerequisites

Install the app

Open a terminal window and run the following command to install the launchpad:

npm install -g @polygonlabs/dapp-launchpad

Initialize a new project

dapp-launchpad init <PROJECT-NAME>

This creates a new directory in your current directory, initializes a minimal dApp project, and installs the required packages.

Project templates

By default, the scaffolded project uses JavaScript. For TypeScript, use the --template flag.

dapp-launchpad init <PROJECT-NAME> --template typescript

To see the available templates, run the following:

dapp-launchpad list scaffold-templates

Set up environment variables

There are mandatory environment variables in both the frontend and smart-contracts directories.

  1. cd into your project directory.

  2. Navigate to the frontend folder and copy the example file.

    cd frontend
cp .env.example .env

  3. Open the .env file and add the NEXT_PUBLIC_WALLETCONNECT_PROJECT_ID to the file.

    How to get the WalletConnect project ID

    You can get the variable by creating an application on WalletConnect.

    1. Create an account and sign in.
    2. Select Create a new project.
    3. Give it a name and select Continue. You can leave the URL empty for now.
    4. Select AppKit and continue.
    5. Select Next.js and then select the Create button the bottom right of the pop-up window.
    6. This brings up the dashboard. Copy the project ID form the sidebar on the left and paste it into the frontend .env file.

  4. Navigate to the smart-contracts directory and copy the example file.

    cd proj/smart-contracts
cp .env.example .env

  5. Open the .env file and add the mandatory PRIVATE_KEY_DEPLOYER variable. This is a private key from any wallet account.

    Info

    The other variables in the smart-contracts .env file are optional.

Start developing

  1. Run the following command from the project root:

    dapp-launchpad dev

    You will see the local test blockchain running with deployed contracts and some pre-funded wallets you can use.

    Local test environment running

  2. Open http://localhost:3000 in a browser.

    Web application running

You now have a fully integrated dev environment including a local dev blockchain and a local frontend dev server. Any changes to the code automatically updates both the frontend and the smart contracts. No manual reload is necessary.

Start developing on an existing chain fork

You can start developing by forking an existing chain. To see the available options run the following:

dapp-launchpad dev -h

The chain name options are in this section of the help output:

-n, --fork-network-name [NAME]        Name of the network to fork; optional. 
                                        By default, it starts a new
                                        chain from genesis block. (choices: "ethereum", "goerli",
                                        "polygonPos", "polygonAmoy", "polygonZkevm", "polygonZkevmTestnet")

To fork Polygon zkEVM, for example, run the following command:

dapp-launchpad dev -n polygonZkevm

To fork at a particular block number run the command including the optional flag -b:

dapp-launchpad dev -n polygonZkevm -b [BLOCK_NUMBER_TO_FORK_AT]

Deploy your app to production

To deploy your project to production, run:

dapp-launchpad deploy -n <CHAIN-NAME>

This does two things:

  1. Deploys all your smart contracts to the selected chain, and logs the deployment results.
  2. Deploys your frontend to Vercel, and logs the deployment URL.

To deploy only the smart contracts, run:

dapp-launchpad deploy -n CHAIN_NAME --only-smart-contracts

To deploy only the frontend, run:

dapp-launchpad deploy -n CHAIN_NAME --only-frontend

Important

The frontend deployment requires that smart contracts to have already been deployed, so if you are only deploying the frontend, make sure that you:

  1. Have already run the smart contracts deploy command successfully.

  2. If not, run the following wizard command:

    `generate smart-contracts-config -e production -n CHAIN_NAME`