AlgoKit Quick Start Tutorial
AlgoKit is the primary tool used by the Algorand community to develop smart contracts on the Algorand blockchain. It provides the capabilities to develop, test and deploy Algorand smart contracts within minutes! This guide is intended to help you setup AlgoKit and to start developing your application.
Quick start videos¶
If you prefer videos, take a look at this 10 minute guide to getting started.
Detailed video guides for both Windows and Mac are also available.
Prerequisites¶
This guide presents installing AlgoKit using an OS agnostic procedure. For OS specific instructions take a look at the quick start videos above.
Using this procedure requires the the following components be installed already
- Python 3.10 or higher
- PipX
- Git
- Docker
- VSCode (recommended)
Install AlgoKit¶
To install AlgoKit, run the following command from a terminal.
pipx install algokit
After the installation completes, restart the terminal.
For more detailed installation documentation, see the quick start videos.
Verify the Installation¶
To verify AlgoKit Installed correctly run the following.
algokit --version
Output similar to the following should be displayed:
algokit, version 0.5.0
Start a LocalNet¶
AlgoKit supports using a local version of the Algorand blockchain. To start an instance of this LocalNet run the following command from the terminal:
algokit localnet start
This should start an instance of the LocalNet within docker. If you open the Docker Desktop application you should see something similar to the following:
Create an AlgoKit project¶
Now that AlgoKit is installed, you can rapidly create a new project to get started quickly. This can be done by running:
algokit init
This will launch a guided menu system to create a specific project tailored to your needs. The templates are basic starter applications for various Algorand development scenarios. To read more about templates checkout AlgoKit detailed documentation.
For now we'll use the playground template, which is a lightweight starting point for learning and experimentation. You can initialise a project using this template by running:
algokit init -t playground --no-workspace
Next, you will be prompted for the name of your project. Finally, select the default value for the rest of the prompts (enter).
Once finished, (if you have it installed) VS Code should automatically be opened with the initialised project and you will be prompted to install appropriate VS Code extensions. This starter app will contain one smart contract (built using the Beaker smart contract development framework) named helloworld.py, in the hello_world folder, with one method (hello) that takes a String and returns a String.
Run the Demo Application¶
Once the playground project is created, you will notice in the hello_world folder a file named demo.py which is a simple example of using AlgoKit to deploy and make a call to the helloworld.py smart contract on the LocalNet instance started earlier.
Right clicking on this file and selecting Run Python File in Terminal will deploy the HelloWorldApp smart contract and then call it passing the parameter name with a value of Beaker. Alternatively, you can hit F5 (or whatever keyboard shortcut is set in VS Code for running the debugger) while you are viewing the helloworld.py file and it will:
- Start LocalNet
- Build the smart contract
- Deploy and call the smart contract (
demo.py)
This should produce something similiar to the following in the VSCode terminal.
(playground-py3.11) User@Algo-User-MBP myalgokit project % "/Users/user/code/algokit/myalgokit pro
ject/.venv/bin/python" "/Users/user/code/algokit/myalgokit project/playground/hello_world/demo.py"
Deployed app in txid SBNIJYZUOXVPXDFJHAVDDCO5TQ4WZ7P37QOOQM6CSVSMIURETHNQ
App ID: 11
Address: 377KDIVHB7K2LFFJIPUPQFWJGVD36MAP4EI6Y2HAGRAW6JPK4MDUBC3YVY
Hello, Beaker
The App ID of of the deployed contract and its Algorand address is displayed, followed by the message returned from the smart contract call (Hello, Beaker).
At this point you have deployed a simple contract to an Algorand network and called it successfully!
Additionally, you can find the native TEAL smart contract code and the appropriate smart contract manifest JSON files have been output to the artifacts folder.
Running the build.py python file will also generate these artifacts without deploying. These files can be used by tools like Dappflow, goal, etc. to deploy your smart contract to the various Algorand networks.
Using Dappflow¶
Dappflow is a web-based user interface that let's you visualise accounts, transactions, assets and applications on an Algorand network and also provides ability to deploy and call smart contracts. This works for TestNet, MainNet and also LocalNet. Furthermore, you can also create and fund accounts on LocalNet. While AlgoKit surfaces both a programming interface and a command line interface for interacting with Algorand, it also allows you to quickly open Dappflow so you can see what's happening visually.
Dappflow can be launched from AlgoKit by running the following command from the VS Code terminal.
algokit explore
By default it will open Dappflow to point to LocalNet (It will be displayed as sandnet-v1 in the upper left hand corner.), but you can pass in parameters to point it to TestNet and MainNet too.
This command will launch your default web browser and load the Dappflow web application.
Note: If you are using Safari, then it won't work against LocalNet and you will need to open it in a different browser.
Create test account¶
To issue commands against the LocalNet network you need an account with ALGOs in it. Dappflow lets you easily create one.
Select Dev Wallets from the left menu and click on the Create wallet button. This will create an account on the LocalNet and fund it with 100 Algos that can be used to test with.
In the bottom left hand corner of the menu, select Connect wallet and you will be prompted with several wallet choices. Choose the Dev Wallet option. This will connect the account you just created to Dappflow so you can use that account for signing transactions from the Dappflow user interface.
Deploy the Hello World application¶
To deploy the built Beaker smart contract application, select the Beaker studio menu and click on the import beaker app. Select File and Upload file, browse to the artifacts created in the previous section of this guide. Select the application.json manifest file. This will load the specific manifest file for the Hello World sample application.
To deploy this application again, select the Create app button followed by the Create button from the popup. You should get a Transaction successful message with the option to view the specific transaction in the explorer. Close out of the popup and then scroll down to the ABI section of the page. The hello method should be displayed with an execute button beside it.
Click on the Execute button and a popup will be displayed allowing you to enter the parameter that we defined in the HelloWorldApp smart contract.
Enter a string in the parameter and click on Execute. You should get get a confirmation that the method executed properly and what the smart contract returned.
You have now successfully deployed and executed a smart contract method call using Dappflow!
Next steps¶
- To learn more about AlgoKit and what you can do with it, checkout the AlgoKit documentation.
- To learn more about Beaker, take a look at the Beaker documentation.
- More information on Algorand smart contracts is also available in the smart contract documentation.