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Transitioning to Your Own Idea

The Builder Guide is designed for developers who have already completed the initial environment setup. If you haven’t yet launched your first appchain, please start with the Step-by-Step Guide.

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Before You Continue

Quick check before you start building:
  • Tools ready: weave, initiad, and minitiad are installed and in your PATH (Step 5).
  • Infrastructure live: your rollup and OPinit/Relayer bots are running (Step 7).
  • Gas Station keys imported: your mnemonic is available in local keyrings (Step 8).

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Quick Reference: The Essentials

Use these common commands and AI prompts to manage your project during the hackathon.
TaskCommand / AI Prompt
Resume Appchainweave rollup start -d && weave opinit start executor -d (Restarts chain and executor. Ensure Docker Desktop is open. If relayer is not running, run weave relayer start -d.)
Health CheckUsing the initia-appchain-dev skill, please verify that my appchain, executor bot, and relayer are running and that my Gas Station account has a balance.

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Part 1: Development Workflow

Master the Describe -> Build -> Test cycle. This is how you win the hackathon.

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Funding Your Personal Wallet

Before you can interact with your appchain via a browser wallet (like Keplr, Leap, or MetaMask), you need to fund your personal address from your Gas Station.
  1. Copy your wallet address (init1...).
  2. Ask your AI agent to fund your wallet:
Prompt: 
Using the `initia-appchain-dev` skill, please fund my personal wallet <YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS> with 1 INIT on L1 and 100 of my appchain's native tokens on L2.

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The Core Loop

  1. Describe the Goal: Tell the AI what you want to achieve and why.
  2. Build & Test (Unit): Let the AI write the code AND the unit tests. Prompt: 
    Using the `initia-appchain-dev` skill, please create a new <MOVE / EVM / WASM> contract project in a directory named <PROJECT_NAME>, implement the core logic for <APP_NAME>, and create/run unit tests that verify both success and failure paths.
  3. Deploy: Instruct the AI to deploy your contract/module to your appchain. Prompt: 
    Using the `initia-appchain-dev` skill, please build and deploy my contract/module from the <PROJECT_NAME> directory to my appchain using my Gas Station account. If this VM requires instantiate after deploy, run that too, then return the deployed address.
  4. On-Chain Verification: Ask the AI to verify your live deployment with interactions and state queries. Prompt: 
    Using the `initia-appchain-dev` skill, I want to smoke test my live <CONTRACT_NAME> on my appchain. Please execute 2-3 realistic user actions, then query state after each step and confirm the observed results match expected behavior.
Submission Receipt: To qualify for the hackathon prizes, you must provide the Contract Address of your primary logic and a Transaction Hash of a user interacting with it. Save these as soon as you have a working version!

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Part 2: Choose Your Blueprint

To qualify for the hackathon prizes, your project must implement at least one Initia Native Feature (defined as Pillar 3 in the submission requirements). These Blueprints provide the foundation for meeting that requirement.
The Custom Implementation: To win, don’t just deploy these examples as-is. Judges look for your Custom Implementation: the unique code and functionality you added on top of these base patterns to solve a specific problem.

Blueprint 1: BlockForge Game (Auto-signing)

Pillar 3: Invisible UX. A high-frequency application where the blockchain handles logic silently in the background. Users never see a wallet popup after the initial session start.

Blueprint 2: MiniBank (Interwoven Bridge)

Pillar 3: Liquidity & Connectivity. An application that allows users to move assets between the broader Initia L1 and your appchain without leaving your interface.

Blueprint 3: MemoBoard (Initia Usernames)

Pillar 3: Human Identity. An application that prioritizes human-readable identities, replacing complex hex addresses with personal usernames.

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Part 3: Making It Demo-Ready

Use this checklist to mirror the official Submission & Eligibility Criteria.
  • Rollup Chain ID: Include your appchain Chain ID.
  • Submission JSON: Create .initia/submission.json and complete all required fields exactly as defined in Submission & Eligibility Criteria.
  • Supporting Evidence: Ensure your JSON includes valid paths to your core logic file and power-up frontend file, plus a real L2 interaction transaction.
  • Demo Video URL: Include a 1-3 minute walkthrough video (Loom/YouTube, publicly accessible via URL).
  • README Summary: Add a short project overview and implementation details section for judges.

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Part 4: Debugging & Troubleshooting

Speed is everything in a hackathon, and debugging is where most time is lost. Use these professional workflows to unblock yourself, even when following the standard examples.

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Debugging Workflow

Whether you are building from scratch or running a blueprint example, errors are inevitable.
  1. Open the Browser Console: Press F12 or Cmd+Option+J to see the exact error logs.
  2. Context is King: Ensure your AI agent (Cursor, Gemini) is open in your project root. This allows it to reference your package.json, your interwovenkit initialization, and your specific chain configuration.
  3. Ask your AI agent to fix the issue directly, then paste the exact console error below the question. Prompt: 
    Please find and fix this error directly in my codebase, then tell me what changed.
[PASTE_CONSOLE_ERROR]

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Deep Dives & Official References

If your AI agent is stuck or you need to see the source of truth:
  • Official Docs: Visit docs.initia.xyz for architectural details and API references.
  • Initia Examples: Reference the initia-labs/examples repository for working code across all VMs (EVM, Move, Wasm).
  • Core Repositories: Explore initia-labs on GitHub to see the underlying implementation of the SDKs and CLI tools.
Mandatory: Review the Submission & Eligibility Criteria to ensure you are eligible for prizes.