Ethereum Developer Tools List

A guide to available tools, components, patterns, and platforms for developing applications on Ethereum.

Creation of this list was spurred by product managers at ConsenSys who saw a need for better sharing of tools, development patterns, and components amongst both new and experienced blockchain developers.

This resource is meant to be focused on developer tools, but the repo also includes:

• Ethereum Ecosystem Resources for useful DApps, educational resources, wallets, and services.

Contributions are welcome!

Feel free to submit a pull request, with anything from small fixes to tools you'd like to add (or remove!). If adding a new tool, please add a brief description that you think new developers would understand.

Many thanks to the 20+ contributors including @corbpage of Meridio for the idea, @pakaplace for expanding and curating, and @jpantunes for restructuring the list in a more logical way.

• Projects that do not have a working product will not be added.
• Projects that are deprecated or no longer maintained will be removed.
• Projects that are paid/restricted services without open source code or developer reviews will be further vetted.

^Is the above fair? Share your input here - Consensys#70

New developers start here

• Solidity - The most popular smart contract language.
• Truffle - Most popular smart contract development, testing, and deployment framework. Install the cli via npm and start here to write your first smart contracts.
• Metamask - Chrome extension wallet to interact with Dapps.
• Truffle boxes - Packaged components for the Ethereum ecosystem

Developer Tools

Developing Smart Contracts

Smart Contract Languages

• Solidity- Ethereum smart contracting language
• Bamboo - A morphing smart contract language
• Vyper - New experimental programming language
• LLL - Low-level Lisp-like Language

Frameworks

• Truffle - Most popular smart contract development, testing, and deployment framework. The Truffle suite includes Truffle, Ganache, and Drizzle. Deep dive on Truffle here
• Embark - Framework for DApp development
• Dapp - Framework for DApp development, successor to DApple
• Populus - The Ethereum development framework with the most cute animal pictures
• Etherlime - ethers.js based framework for Dapp deployment

IDEs

• Remix - Web IDE with built in static analysis, test blockchain VM.

• Atom - Atom editor with Atom Solidity Linter, Etheratom

• Pragma - Very simple web IDE for solidity, and auto-generated interfaces for smart contracts. autocomplete-solidity, and language-solidity packages

• Superblocks Studio - Superblocks Studio helps you code, build, and deploy your smart contracts.

• Vim solidity - Vim syntax file for solidity

• Visual Studio Code - Visual Studio Code extension that adds support for Solidity

• Intellij Solidity Plugin - Open-source plug-in for JetBrains IntelliJ Idea IDE (free/commercial) with syntax highlighting, formatting, code completion etc.

• YAKINDU Solidity Tools - Eclipse based IDE. Features context sensitive code completion and help, code navigation, syntax coloring, build in compiler, quick fixes and templates.

• Eth Fiddle - IDE developed by The Loom Network that allows you to write, compile and debug your smart contract. Easy to share and find code snippets.

Test blockchain networks

• Ganache - App for test Ethereum blockchain with visual UI and logs
• Kaleido - Use Kaleido for spinning up a consortium blockchain network. Great for PoCs and testing
• Cliquebait - Simplifies integration and accepting testing of smart contract applications with docker instances that closely resembles a real blockchain network
• Local Raiden - Run a local Raiden network in docker containers for demo and testing purposes
• Private networks deployment scripts - Out-of-the-box deployment scripts for private PoA networks
• Local Ethereum Network - Out-of-the-box deployment scripts for private PoW networks
• Ethereum on Azure - Deployment and governance of consortium Ethereum PoA networks

Test Ether faucets

• Rinkeby faucet
• Kovan faucet
• Ropsten faucet

Communicating with Ethereum

Frontend Ethereum APIs

• Web3.js - Javascript Web3

  • Eth.js - Javascript Web3 alternative
  • Ethers.js- Javascript Web3 alternative, useful utilities and wallet features
  • Web3Wrapper- Typescript Web3 alternative
  • Ethereumjs - A collection of utility functions for Ethereum like ethereumjs-util and ethereumjs-tx

• Drizzle - Redux library to connect a frontend to a blockchain

• Subproviders - Several useful subproviders to use in conjunction with Web3-provider-engine (including a LedgerSubprovider for adding Ledger hardware wallet support to your dApp)

• web3-webpacked - JS framework to manage web3 injection

• Vortex - A Dapp-ready Redux Store. Smart and Dynamic background data refresh thanks to WebSockets. Works with Truffle and Embark.

• Strictly Typed - Javascript alternatives

  • elm-ethereum
  • purescript-web3

Backend Ethereum APIs

• Web3.py- Python Web3
• Web3.php - PHP Web3
• Ethereum-php - PHP Web3
• Web3j - Java Web3
• Nethereum - .Net Web3
• Ethereum.rb - Ruby Web3
• Web3.hs - Haskell Web3
• KEthereum - Kotlin Web3
• Pyethereum - The Python core library of the Ethereum project
• Eventeum - A bridge between Ethereum smart contract events and backend microservices, written in Java by Kauri
• Ethereumex - Elixir JSON-RPC client for the Ethereum blockchain
• EthContract - A set of helper methods to help query ETH smart contracts in Elixir

Bootstrap/out of box tools

• Truffle boxes - Packaged components for the Ethereum ecosystem
• Local Raiden - Run a local Raiden network in docker containers for demo and testing purposes
• Private networks deployment scripts - Out-of-the-box deployment scripts for private PoA networks
• Parity Demo-PoA Tutorial - Step-by-Step tutorial for building a PoA test chain with 2 nodes with Parity authority round consensus
• Local Ethereum Network - Out-of-the-box deployment scripts for private PoW networks
• Kaleido - Use Kaleido for spinning up a consortium blockchain network. Great for PoCs and testing
• Cheshire - A local sandbox implementation of the CryptoKitties API and smart contracts, available as a Truffle Box
• Aragon CLI - The Aragon CLI is used to create and develop Aragon apps

Ethereum ABI (Application Binary Interface) tools

• ABI decoder - library for decoding data params and events from Ethereum transactions
• ABI-gen - Generate Typescript contract wrappers from contract ABI's.
• Ethereum ABI UI - Auto-generate UI form field definitions and associated validators from an Ethereum contract ABI
• headlong - type-safe Contract ABI and Recursive Length Prefix library in Java

Patterns & Best Practices

Patterns for Smart Contract Development

• Dappsys: Safe, simple, and flexible Ethereum contract building blocks
  • has solutions for common problems in Ethereum/Solidity, eg.
    • Whitelisting
    • Upgradable ERC20-Token
    • ERC20-Token-Vault
    • Authentication (RBAC)
    • ...several more...
  • provides building blocks for the MakerDAO or The TAO
  • should be consulted before creating own, untested, solutions
  • usage is described in Dapp-a-day 1-10 and Dapp-a-day 11-25
• OpenZeppelin: An open framework of reusable and secure smart contracts in the Solidity language.
  • Likely the most widely-used libraries and smart contracts
  • Similar to Dappsys, more integrated into Truffle framework
  • Blog about Best Practices with Security Audits
• Advanced Workshop with Assembly
• Simpler Ethereum Multisig - especially section Benefits
• CryptoFin Solidity Auditing Checklist - A checklist of common findings, and issues to watch out for when auditing a contract for a mainnet launch.
• aragonOS: A smart contract framework for building DAOs, Dapps and protocols
  • Upgreadability: Smart contracts can be upgraded to a newer version
  • Permission control: By using the auth and authP modifiers, you can protect functionality so only other apps or entities can access it
  • Forwarders: aragonOS apps can send their intent to perform an action to other apps, so that intent is forwarded if a set of requirements are met

Upgradebility

• Blog von Elena Dimitrova, Dev at colony.io
  • https://blog.colony.io/writing-more-robust-smart-contracts-99ad0a11e948
  • https://blog.colony.io/writing-upgradeable-contracts-in-solidity-6743f0eecc88
• Techblog von Aragon
  • Library driven development
  • Advanced Solidity code deployment techniques
• OpenZeppelin on Proxy Libraries

Infrastructure

Ethereum Clients

• Geth - Go client
• Parity - Rust client
• Cpp-ethereum - C++ client
• Pyethapp - Python client using pyethereum
• Trinity - Python client using py-evm
• Ethereumjs - JS client using ethereumjs-vm
• Ethereumj - Java client by the Ethereum Foundation
• Harmony - Java client by EtherCamp
• Seth - Seth is an Ethereum client tool—like a "MetaMask for the command line"
• Mustekala - Ethereum Light Client project of Metamask.
• Exthereum - Elixir client
• EWF Parity - Energy Web Foundation client for the Tobalaba test network
• Quorum - A permissioned implementation of Ethereum supporting data privacy by JP Morgan

Storage

• IPFS - Decentralised storage and file referencing
  • IPFS-Store - IPFS Storage service with added search capability
  • OrbitDB - Decentralised database on top of IPFS
  • JS IPFS API - A client library for the IPFS HTTP API, implemented in JavaScript.
  • TEMPORAL - Easy to use API into IPFS and other distributed/decentralised storage protocols
• Swarm - Distributed storage platform and content distribution service, a native base layer service of the Ethereum web3 stack

Messaging

• Whisper - Communication protocol for DApps to communicate with each other, a native base layer service of the Ethereum web3 stack
• DEVp2p Wire Protocol - Peer-to-peer communications between nodes running Ethereum/Whisper
• Pydevp2p - Python implementation of the RLPx network layer

Testing Tools

• Solidity code coverage - Solidity code coverage tool
• Solidity coverage - Alternative code coverage for Solidity smart-contracts
• Solidity function profiler - Solidity contract function profiler
• Espresso - Speedy, parallelised, hot-reloading solidity test framework
• Eth tester - Tool suite for testing Ethereum applications
• Cliquebait - Simplifies integration and accepting testing of smart contract applications with docker instances that closely resembles a real blockchain network
• Hevm - The hevm project is an implementation of the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) made specifically for unit testing and debugging smart contracts
• Ethereum graph debugger - Solidity graphical debugger
• Solhint - Solidity linter that provides security, style guide and best practice rules for smart contract validation
• Solium - Linter to identify and fix style & security issues in Solidity
• Decode - npm package which parses tx's submitted to a local testrpc node to make them more readable and easier to understand

Security Tools

• Mythril - Static smart contract security analysis
• Oyente - Alternative static smart contract security analysis
• Securify - Security scanner for Ethereum smart contracts
• Porosity - Decompiler and Security Analysis tool for Blockchain-based Ethereum Smart-Contracts
• Ethersplay - EVM disassembler
• Evmdis - Alternative EVM disassembler
• Hydra - Framework for cryptoeconomic contract security, decentralised security bounties
• Solgraph - Visualise Solidity control flow for smart contract security analysis
• Manticore - Symbolic execution tool on Smart Contracts and Binaries
• Solidity security blog - Comprehensive list of known attack vectors and common anti-patterns
• Awesome Buggy ERC20 Tokens - A Collection of Vulnerabilities in ERC20 Smart Contracts With Tokens Affected

Monitoring

• Neufund - Smart Contract Watch - A tool to monitor a number of smart contracts and transactions
• Supermax - A live data feed of the activities and event logs of your smart contracts on Ethereum

Other Miscellaneous Tools

• Truffle boxes - Packaged components for building DApps fast.
  • Cheshire - A local sandbox implementation of the CryptoKitties API and smart contracts, available as a Truffle Box
• Solc - Solidity compiler
• Sol-compiler - Project-level Solidity compiler
• Solidity cli - Compile solidity-code faster, easier and more reliable
• Solidity flattener - Combine solidity project to flat file utility. Useful for visualizing imported contracts or for verifying your contract on Etherscan
• RLP - Recursive Length Prefix Encoding in JavaScript
• eth-cli - A collection of CLI tools to help with ethereum learning and development
• Ethereal - Ethereal is a command line tool for managing common tasks in Ethereum
• Eth crypto - Cryptographic javascript-functions for Ethereum and tutorials to use them with web3js and solidity
• Parity Signer - mobile app allows signing transactions
• py-eth - Collection of Python tools for the Ethereum ecosystem
• truffle-flattener - Concats solidity files developed under Truffle with all of their dependencies
• Decode - npm package which parses tx's submitted to a local testrpc node to make them more readable and easier to understand
• TypeChain - Typescript bindings for Ethereum smartcontracts
• EthSum - A Simple Ethereum Address Checksum Tool
• PHP based Blockchain indexer - allows indexing blocks or listening to Events in PHP

Smart Contract Standards & Libraries

ERCs - The Ethereum Request for Comment repository

• Tokens
  • ERC-20 - Original token contract for fungible assets
  • ERC-721 - Token standard for non-fungible assets
  • ERC-918 - Mineable Token Standard
• ERC-165 - Creates a standard method to publish and detect what interfaces a smart contract implements.
• ERC-725 - Proxy contract for key management and execution, to establish a Blockchain identity.
• ERC-173 - A standard interface for ownership of contracts

Popular Smart Contract Libraries

• Zeppelin - Contains tested reusable smart contracts like SafeMath and ZeppelinOS library for smart contract upgradeability
• cryptofin-solidity - A collection of Solidity libraries for building secure and gas-efficient smart contracts on Ethereum.
• Modular Libraries - A group of packages built for use on blockchains utilising the Ethereum Virtual Machine
• DateTime Library - A gas-efficient Solidity date and time library
• Aragon - DAO protocol. Contains aragonOS smart contract framework with focus on upgradeability and governance
• 0x - DEX protocol
• Token Libraries with Proofs - Contains correctness proofs of token contracts wrt. given specifications and high-level properties

Developer Guides for 2nd Layer Infrastructure

Scalability

Payment/State Channels

• Ethereum Payment Channel - Ethereum Payment Channel in 50 lines of code
• µRaiden Documentation - Guides and Samples for µRaiden Sender/Receiver Use Cases

Plasma

• Learn Plasma - Website as Node application that was started at the 2018 IC3-Ethereum Crypto Boot Camp at Cornell University, covering all Plasma variants (MVP/Cash/Debit)
• Plasma MVP - OmiseGO's research implementation of Minimal Viable Plasma
• Plasma MVP Golang - Golang implementation and extension of the Minimum Viable Plasma specification
• Plasma Cash - Simple Plasma Cash implementation

Side-Chains

• POA Network
  • POA Bridge
  • POA Bridge UI
  • POA Bridge Contracts
• Loom Network

Privacy

zkSNARKs

• ZoKrates - A toolbox for zkSNARKS on Ethereum