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Getting started with Plutus Tx

Plutus-Tx-Template repository​

The easiest way to create a Cardano smart contract is to start with the template provided in the Plutus-Tx-template repository. Follow the instructions in the README file to setup your environment and run the example project.

Overview of creating a validator script using the template repo​

  1. Clone the Plutus-Tx template repo.
  2. Install Nix. See the Nix setup guide for installing and configuring nix to work with projects at IOG. Add the IOG binary cache to your nix configuration to speed up builds.
  3. From the repo, run nix develop (select y for all question prompts).
  4. Run cabal update.
  5. Using cardano-cli, generate a pubKeyHash.
  6. Set posix time and pubKeyHash in Main.hs.
  7. Run cabal build plutus-tx-template.
  8. Run cabal exec plutus-tx-template.

Expected result​

The expected result is that the above process will have created the validator.uplc script.

Deploying and interacting with your script​

Use cardano-cli to deploy your script.

Use an off-chain framework, such as cardano-transaction-lib and mesh, to interact with your script.

All these are based on the Cardano API, a low-level API that provides the capability to do the off-chain work with a local running node.