Devnet is an environment for developers to build and test applications prior to their deployment on Solana’s production environment, Mainnet. Devnet is an important tool for Solana devs because it enables them to test their applications in a controlled environment in order to identify and fix potential issues and vulnerabilities before they go live on the main network. Moreover, Devnet provides a sandbox environment for developers to learn and experiment with the Solana ecosystem.
Why does it matter?
While the purpose of Devnet is to replicate Mainnet as much as possible, there are a few key differences:
- Devnet does not require “real” SOL. That is to say, you don’t need to spend any of your hard-earned SOL to test on-chain programs, create tokens or build dApps when sending transactions on Devnet. Instead, you can receive free Devnet SOL from any reputable faucet, such as Quicknode’s or SolFaucet's
- Software Releases Usually, Solana’s Mainnet and Devnet run the same software release branch version. However, updates are always rolled out to Devnet first. Therefore, there may be times when Devnet runs a newer release than Mainnet, and developers can test newer software releases on Devnet before their push to production.
It’s no wonder the most demanded feature from our beta users has been support for Devnet clusters natively within Ironforge.
Well, your demands have been answered!
We are excited to announce that starting today, Ironforge’s full suite of tools, features, and runtimes are available on Devnet!
Support availability
Devnet support is available for all features and Runtimes in the Ironforge dashboard; To get started, simply log into your Ironforge dashboard and add a new program just as you would for a program deployed on Mainnet. Enter the Program Address into the search bar and select “Devnet” from the dropdown below it. Search for the program and finish the configuration. You’re now ready to start building on Devnet!
The Ironforge Playground will continue to only support Mainnet cluster access; users who wish to access Devnet will need to log into their Ironforge account and configure their program(s) following the abovementioned process.
If you wish to update your Devnet RPC configurations within Ironforge, you can do so by heading over to the RPC Provider section in the Settings tab. Select Devnet and edit or add a Devnet RPC URL to customize your set-up.
User Experience
All of the same features, runtimes, and fantastic user experience that Ironforge provides for Mainnet clusters are supported for Devnet as well. Just another example of how Ironforge is streamlining and simplifying the development journey on Solana.
Whether you’re building your first proof-of-concept or performing QA on a new version of your application, Ironforge+Devnet Support is your pathway to an unrivaled developer experience on Solana.
If you have any concerns, queries or suggestions, please join our Discord. We would love to have you there.