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)
Prerequisites
Follow the install guide to set up Pop CLI and your environment: Install Pop CLI.
To build 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
Chain Development
Build and run a local chain quickly; deploy when ready.
TL;DR Flow
Congrats! You’ve spun up a network with your chain running!
Other useful commands
Handy Links
Support & Contribute
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Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue
Want to contribute? Check out open issues tagged
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