Ponder

A framework for blockchain app backends

Documentation

For full documentation and guides, visit ponder.sh.

Features

Ponder is an open-source framework for building frontend-ready APIs that serve blockchain data. It can be used as an alternative to Graph Protocol subgraphs.

• Local development server with hot reloading
• Familiar Node.js runtime and NPM package ecosystem
• Works with any Ethereum-based blockchain, and natively supports cross-chain apps

Quickstart

The create-ponder command line interface is the easiest way to get started with Ponder.

1) Run the create-ponder CLI

This command creates a project folder called ponder in the current working directory. You can also bootstrap your project from a Graph Protocol subgraph (--from-subgraph) or an Etherscan contract link (--from-etherscan).

npm init ponder@latest
# or
pnpm create ponder
# or
yarn create ponder

2) Start the development server

The dev server is an important part of the Ponder development workflow. Just like Next.js, the dev server automatically reloads when you save changes in any project file. It also prints console.log statements and errors encountered while running your code.

cd ponder

npm run dev
# or
pnpm dev
# or
yarn dev

3) Add contracts & networks to ponder.config.js

Ponder uses ponder.config.js to determine what blockchain data it needs to fetch. This is where you provide contract addresses, paths to ABI files, RPC URLs, start blocks, and more.

4) Define your schema

Ponder uses schema.graphql to define the project's schema. Any types marked with the @entity directive will become available as entity models in your handler functions.

Using this schema, Ponder automatically generates a GraphQL API that serves entity data.

5) Write event handlers

The files in the handlers/ folder contain event handler functions. Ponder uses these functions to process blockchain events. These functions are where you should insert and update the entity data that will get served by the GraphQL API. Visit the docs to learn more about writing event handlers.

Contributing

If you're interested in contributing to Ponder, you can reach out via Twitter DM or open a GitHub discussion thread.

Packages

• @ponder/core
• @ponder/graphql
• create-ponder

About

Ponder is MIT-licensed open-source software.