Hackathon Guide

One-page hackathon guide for building chains and contracts with Pop CLI.

Introduction

Pop CLI is an all-in-one tool for Polkadot development. It streamlines both chain and smart contract workflows so you can go from idea → demo during a hackathon.

Pop CLI simplifies development with:

• Quick initialization of development environment.

• Project scaffolding from predefined templates.

• Easy launch and management of local development networks.

See also: Quickstart Chain Development with Pop CLI (official Polkadot docs)

For Polkadot SDK–based chains, ensure your local toolchain is ready: Install Polkadot SDK Dependencies.

Contract Development (ink!)

Pop CLI introduces experimental support for ink! v6 smart contracts running on PolkaVM (RISC-V) via pallet-revive.

TL;DR Flow

# 1) Scaffold (choose provider/template interactively)
pop new contract

# 2) Build your contract
cd my-contract && pop build --release

# 3) Deploy (Pop CLI will run a local network by default; add `--url` to target a remote RPC)
pop up # `pop up --url wss://passet-hub-paseo.dotters.network`

# 4) Interact with your contract (You can secure signing via browser wallet).
pop call contract # `pop call contract  --use-wallet`

Handy Links

• ink! docs

• Launch a Chain to Paseo

• Your first ink! smart contract

• Deploy your contract

• Call your contract

• Securely Sign Transactions from CLI

Chain Development

Build and run a local chain quickly; deploy when ready.

TL;DR Flow

# 1) Scaffold (choose provider/template interactively)
pop new chain

# 2) Build your chain
cd my-chain && pop build --release

# 3) Run a local network (Zombienet config)
pop up network -f ./network.toml

Congrats! You’ve spun up a network with your chain running!

┌   Pop CLI : Deploy a chain
│
◇  🚀 Network launched successfully - ctrl-c to terminate
│  ⛓️ paseo-local
│       alice:
│         portal: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=ws://127.0.0.1:62551#/explorer
│         logs: tail -f /var/folders/vl/txnq6gdj22s9rn296z0md27w0000gn/T/zombie-c0eb16fc-5d11-4792-aced-493ef972d056/alice/alice.log
│       bob:
│         portal: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=ws://127.0.0.1:62555#/explorer
│         logs: tail -f /var/folders/vl/txnq6gdj22s9rn296z0md27w0000gn/T/zombie-c0eb16fc-5d11-4792-aced-493ef972d056/bob/bob.log
│  ⛓️ local_testnet: 2000
│       collator-01:
│         portal: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/?rpc=ws://127.0.0.1:62559#/explorer
│         logs: tail -f /var/folders/vl/txnq6gdj22s9rn296z0md27w0000gn/T/zombie-c0eb16fc-5d11-4792-aced-493ef972d056/collator-01/collator-01.log
│

Other useful commands

# 4) Interact with your chain (You can secure signing via browser wallet).
pop call chain # `pop call chain  --use-wallet`

# 5) Register the rollup on Paseo or deploy using Polkadot Deployment Portal
pop up
# And follow the interactive guide:
┌   Pop CLI : Deploy a rollup
│
◆  Select your deployment method:
│  ● Polkadot Deployment Portal (https://staging.deploypolkadot.xyz)
│  ○ Register

Handy Links

• Launch a Chain in Development

• Launch a Chain to Paseo

• Deploy a chain with Polkadot Deployment Portal

• Securely Sign Transactions from CLI

Support & Contribute

• Questions / help? Join our Telegram

• Follow updates on X

• Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue

• Want to contribute? Check out open issues tagged good first issue