Installation

The create-ponder CLI is the best way to get started. If create-ponder runs without error, your system meets the requirements.

System requirements

• MacOS, Linux, or Windows
• Node.js >=18 (support for Bun is in progress)
• pnpm (recommended), yarn, or npm

Windows

As of 0.4.7, Ponder supports Windows via PowerShell, command prompt (cmd.exe), or Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). If you encounter a Windows-specific problem, please open an issue.

TypeScript

Ponder uses advanced TypeScript features to offer end-to-end type safety without code generation. We strongly recommend taking the time to set up a working TypeScript development environment – it will pay dividends in the long run.

Requirements

• TypeScript >=5.0.4 and viem >=1.16.0
• ABIs must be asserted as const following ABIType guidelines
• The ponder-env.d.ts file must be present and up to date

ponder-env.d.ts

This "magical" file is what makes Ponder's zero-codegen type system possible. The file contains a module declaration for "@/generated" that exports types derived from ponder.config.ts and ponder.schema.ts.

After upgrading to a new version of @ponder/core, the dev server might make changes to ponder-env.d.ts. When this happens, please accept and commit the changes.

VSCode

By default, VSCode's TypeScript language features use an internal version of TypeScript. Sometimes, this version does not meet Ponder's requirement of >=5.0.4.

To change VSCode's TypeScript version, run TypeScript: Select TypeScript version..." from the command palette and select Use Workspace Version or update VSCode's version.