A list of community-built developer tools on Cardano

Cardano’s community of developers is one of the strongest in blockchain. Many developers build and provide access to the tools and applications needed to improve Cardano.

Here is a list of available tools and resources according to categories:

NFT creation tools

• Anvil: a developer agency that provides advanced solutions for Web3 projects through various services.

• ArgusNFT: uses machine learning to analyze and distinguish original NFTs from similar NFTs and counterfeits across multiple blockchains – sharing insights with NFT marketplaces.

• Cardano Crocs Club:  a Cardano-based NFT gaming ecosystem built around community and strong values.

• Cardano Sounds: a platform aiming to create a new economy inside NFTs where individual creators can use each other's work in a trustless manner. This could enable artists to focus only on their specialization and personal expression by earning royalties from their published pieces when other creators use them.

• Cardano Studio: create and mint NFTs on Cardano, no coding or trust in a third-party required.

• Cardano-Tools: a platform to mint, register, and explore Cardano NFTs on.

• CNFT Tools: an NFT platform that provides minting, listing, stake pool setup, advertising, and community-building services.

• Creatious: an incentivized tipping platform that enables community members to tip their favorite creators.

• Crossmint: an enterprise-grade Web3 development platform to build NFT applications on without requiring any blockchain experience.

• DVOLD: an asset tokenization platform for companies to authenticate their products and provide unbreakable security for their clients' purchases.

• Kreate Platform: a creator-first platform, making Web3 accessible to indie artists from all over! Focused on creating, this platform aims to get your art out there to new fans.

• MintMatrix: an asset tokenization platform leveraging simplified smart contracts.

• Mutant Labs: a platform with a variety of utilities for NFT projects. We offer raffles, staking and whitelist management services for Cardano NFT projects. Our main goal is to bring fun to the NFT environment.

• NFT-GATR: a codeless Web3 utility tool, currently in beta.

• NFT-MACHINE: an NFT minting platform.

• NEWM-artist-portal: the artist portal for users to upload their music and fractionalized ownership with NFTs.

• NMKR: create, manage, and sell NFTs with NMKR.io. NMKR offers backend tools and services for brands, companies, and creators to help them build white-label NFT solutions.

• Peppermint: a minting service for NFT projects based on the Cardano blockchain.

• Pix: a CLI for managing NFT projects.

• Saturn: an NFT creation platform that leverages Multisig minting, in-app 10k file upload, customizable advanced whitelisting, and a 4k automated image generator to create NFT projects.

• Secret Goat Society: an investment club and minting service for Cardano NFTs.

• Shrooms: provides knowledge and experience to guide projects through NFT creation with services such as vending machines, token faucets, staking, airdrops, and more.

• Stampd.io: a set of tools for blockchain timestamping and NFT creation.

• Starch Industries: using a mixture of on-chain and off-chain code Starch Industries provides mining software to users through Miner Token NFTs.

• Tekmirio: a non-custodial NFT staking platform that tracks assets and develops reward programs.

• TheADA: a decentralized and scalable NFT staking protocol, governed by the community.

• Uniscroll: a platform that provides NFT creators with advisory, NFT development, reward program, and staking services.

• WenftDrops: a community-driven NFT calendar with pioneering utilities and insights.

• XForge: an NFT minting platform.

Smart contract platforms

• Clear Contracts: smart contract templates with non-dev UI.

• CTL (cardano-transaction-lib): a Purescript library for building smart contract transactions on Cardano. CTL aims to port the functionality and interface of Plutus off-chain code to the browser environment and NodeJS.

• Marlowe CLI: a command-line tool that provides access to Marlowe capabilities.

• Marlowe Runner: a simple web app that allows you to deploy and progress through Marlowe contracts on Cardano easily from the browser.

• Marlowe Runtime: the application backend for managing Marlowe contracts on the Cardano blockchain

• Marlowe Scan: a tool for visualizing Marlowe contracts on the Cardano blockchain.

• Marlowe TypeScript SDK: a suite of TypeScript/JavaScript libraries for developing Web-Dapp in the Cardano Blockchain using Marlowe Technologies.

• pyscc (Python Smart Contracts for Cardano): a prototypical implementation of smart contracts for Cardano which are written in a subset of valid Python.

• Scalus: Scala 3 implementation of Cardano Plutus Platform. Scala to Plutus compiler and a library to construct and evaluate Untyped Plutus Core programs. Works on JVM and JavaScript platforms.

• Toolkit for Cardano: simplifying the development of smart contracts by allowing teams to progress with minimal wallet integration overhead.

Software libraries, APIs, interfaces, SDKs, digital product platforms

• .NET SDK for Blockfrost API: an open-source SDK for .NET developers.

• Automint: a Python library for programmatic access to cardano-cli functions to facilitate transactions.

• BlockFrost: an API for Cardano providing abstraction between user and blockchain data.

• blockrockZ: a project that provides a powerful GraphQL and REST API for seamless integration between the Cardano Blockchain and various applications.

• Cardano-CLI: the associated command-line interface for interacting with a Cardano node, managing addresses, or generating transactions.

• Cardano-tools Python library: a Python module for interfacing with the Cardano blockchain.

• CardanoBI: a fully open-source business intelligence API layer for Cardano.

• Cardano Client Library: a Java client library for Cardano that simplifies the interaction with the Cardano blockchain from a Java application.

• Cardano Crystal SDK: a Crystal SDK for the Blockfrost.io API.

• Cardano GraphQL: a cross-platform, typed, and queryable API for Cardano, containing multiple packages for composing GraphQL services to meet specific application demands.

• Cardano Multiplatform Lib: a collection of tools and codecs for encoding/decoding fundamental data structures, intended to replace 'cardano-serialization-lib'.

• Cardano Sharp: CardanoSharp.Wallet is a Cardano cryptographic and serialization library for .NET applications.

• Demeter.run: a cloud-based platform equipped with all the necessary resources for constructing decentralized applications (DApps).

• FreeLoaderz: a coalition of Cardano stake pools offering URL API access to their relay servers to help improve transaction speed by opening up ports to user wallets.

• Kuber: an open-source library and developer-friendly API that abstracts the complexity of creating balanced EUTXO transactions on Cardano.

• KuberIDE: a browser-based Plutus/Haskell smart contract development and testing platform based on Kuber that comes with an extensive set of sample contracts and documentation. Developers don't have to set up any infrastructure to start developing on Cardano.

• Go-Cardano-Serialization: Golang library for serialization & deserialization of Cardano data structures.

• gOuroboros: a Go implementation of the Cardano Ouroboros protocol.

• IntelliAda: an IntelliJ plugin for the Cardano blockchain that enables developers to interact with Cardano directly from their IDE.

• Kogmios: a Kotlin API library for interacting with Ogmios.

• libada-go: Golang library for the Cardano network, used and maintained by Bitrue.

• Liqwid-libs: a monorepo for Liqwid Labs Plutarch libraries.

• Lucid: a library that enables the creation of Cardano transactions and off-chain code for Plutus contracts in JavaScript, Deno, and Node.js.

• Maestro Dapp Platform: blockchain indexer, APIs, and event management system for the Cardano blockchain.

• Mesh SDK: an open-source library providing numerous tools to easily build powerful DApps on the Cardano blockchain.

• Modulo-P: a development crew that focuses on bringing Zero-Knowledge tech to Cardano.

• Ogmios: a lightweight bridge interface for cardano-node, which offers a WebSockets API enabling local clients to speak Ouroboros' mini-protocols via JSON/RPC.

• Pallas: an expanding collection of modules that re-implements common Ouroboros / Cardano logic in native Rust. This packaging doesn't provide any particular application, it is meant to be used as a base layer to facilitate the development of higher-level use cases, such as explorers, wallets, etc.

• PyCardano: a Cardano library written in Python. It allows users to create and sign transactions without depending on third-party Cardano serialization tools, such as cardano-cli and cardano-serialization-lib, making it a lightweight library, which is simple and fast to set up in all types of environments.

• StricaHQ Typhonjs Wallet: a pure JavaScript library for Cardano wallets.

• Tango Crypto: a suite of high-availability APIs and developer tools that provides fast and reliable access to the Cardano network so you can focus on building and growing your products.

• tx-submit-api: a simple HTTP API which accepts a CBOR encoded Cardano transaction as a payload body and submits it to a Cardano full node using the Ouroboros LocalTxSubmission Node-to-Client (NtC) protocol.

Data services, blockchain integration, automation

• API3: API3 is leading the movement from legacy third-party oracle networks to first-party oracle solutions that deliver more security, efficiency, regulatory compliance, and simplicity.

• Cardano metadata oracle: this repository contains the code and configuration files of the metadata oracle for Cardano.

• Cardano token registry: a repository facilitating the registration of off-chain token metadata to map it to on-chain identifiers for Cardano native tokens.

• Charli3: an open-sourced, decentralized network of oracles bringing off-chain data onto the Cardano blockchain using inter-node vetoing to ensure data accuracy.

• Fluree: the full spectrum of data management tooling for data-centric organizations – from the first step of integrating and migrating legacy system data infrastructure through to building modernized operational and analytical data infrastructure. 

• Heidrun: an automation platform for Cardano that triggers various actions based on the detection of a payment to a wallet address.

• Kupo: a lightweight, configurable, chain-index for the Cardano blockchain.

• Logosphere: Web3 protocol of interoperable metadata represented as a semantic knowledge graph, providing a framework for building interoperable decentralized applications.

• Orcfax: a decentralized Cardano oracle. Oracles publish data about the real world to blockchain smart contracts.

• Scrolls: a tool to build and maintain read-optimized collections of Cardano's on-chain entities. The tool crawls the history of the chain and aggregates all data to reflect the current state of affairs. Once the whole history has been processed, Scrolls watches the tip of the chain to keep the collections up-to-date.

• TapTools: a token, NFT, and wallet tracking platform.

• Wolfram Alpha: a major computational knowledge engine providing technology for major services. Wolfram Alpha acts as the so-called “answer-engine,” providing answers to factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data. WBL integrates Cardano’s blockchain data into Wolfram Alpha, allowing developers to integrate external data into Cardano’s smart contracts.

Native tokens

• cardano-wallet-js: a JavaScript/Typescript SDK for Cardano with several functionalities. It can be used as a client for the official cardano-wallet and also to create native tokens and NFTs.

Open source, developer tools, decentralized protocols, enterprise apps

• Anastasia Labs: a Cardano smart contracts audit & development company, working on open-source infrastructure which makes developing on Cardano easier.

• Atlas: an application backend for Plutus smart contracts on Cardano.

• Blink Labs: open-source software and custom solutions for the Cardano Blockchain.

• BlockMetro: helps launch projects on the Cardano with Web3 site design, DApp development, and web hosting services.

• BloxBean: a list of open-source projects aimed at solving tooling issues and development challenges on blockchain protocols.

• Cardano-kit-crystal: a toolkit for Crystal to ease development for the Cardano blockchain.

• Cardano developer portal: a developer portal created by the Cardano Foundation to provide both new and seasoned developers with the resources to be successful on Cardano.

• CardanoPress: a plugin for WordPress that allows any WordPress-powered website to connect the Cardano blockchain and build DApp-style websites with no code.

• Cardano Stack Exchange: Cardano Stack Exchange is a question-and-answer site for users and developers of the Cardano cryptocurrency ecosystem.

• Clarity Protocol: the Clarity Protocol provides a platform to create and manage DAOs with no code.

• Dandelion APIs: a set of developer tools to help with fast integration into the Cardano chain.

• Go-ouroboros-network: a Go implementation of the Cardano Ouroboros protocol.

• Koios: a consistent query layer for developers to build upon Cardano, with multiple, redundant endpoints that allow for easy scalability.

• Koios-api-python: a Python package for the Cardano Blockchain Koios API.

• Koios Java Client: a Decentralized and Elastic RESTful query layer for exploring data on the Cardano blockchain to consume within applications/wallets/explorers/etc.

• Oura: a Rust-native implementation of a pipeline that connects to the tip of a Cardano node through a combination of Ouroboros mini-protocols (using either a UNIX socket or TCP bearer).

• Sign with Wallet: an authentication tool for Web3 and Web2 apps that uses the oAuth2.0 protocol and secure message signing from a user's crypto wallet to allow them to log in with their wallet credentials instead of traditional social media accounts. Users can log in with a single set of credentials across multiple apps while also maintaining control over their data.

• TxPipe: open-source software for a decentralized world.

• UTXO selection benchmark: a library that can be used to compare the algorithms: how they behave, how they affect the fees, and what will be the final UTXO sets.

• Wallet OneBox: provides a single cohesive tool that one can use to set up downstream indexers and RPC services required to support common endpoints needed to run a wallet.

• WingRiders/CAB Cardano Application Backend: a library to help with the development of Cardano apps for browser and Node.js.

• zkFold: building a development framework for zero-knowledge smart contracts with short proving times and built-in automatic formal verification. This innovative solution allows for significantly faster and cheaper transactions while maintaining the high level of security and decentralization that Cardano is known for.

Stake pool tooling

• AdaPools: the blockchain explorer with the support of all testnet instances and an API.

• Ansible cardano-node: a cardano-node repository that contains an Ansible playbook for provisioning secure, optimized Cardano nodes for stake pool operators.

• Cardano Light Tools: a set of lightweight tools to operate and maintain a Cardano stake pool.

• Dotare - Cardano delegation: a delegation function that uses CIP-30 to improve the quality of life for developers and delegators.

• Guild Operators Suite: a set of tools and scripts for setting up, managing, and monitoring Cardano stake pools, and also managing tokens and keys.

• StakePool Operator Scripts (SPOS): learn how to create and manage your stake pool with these simple scripts.

Plutus-specific tools

• Fracada Il Primo: a Plutus DApp that enables users to fractionalize their NFTs.

• Pluthon: a Pluto-like programming language for Cardano smart contracts in Python

• Pluto: a programming language, written in a Haskell-like human-friendly syntax.

• Plutonomicon: a developer-driven guide to the Plutus smart contract language in practice.

• Plutonomy: an optimizer for Untyped Plutus Core, that can be plugged into any Plutus compilation pipeline, by adding an extra pass.

• Plutonomy-cli: a simple command-line wrapper for Plutonomy.

• Plutus fee estimator: a tool to estimate transaction fees (eg, to determine the fees that will be charged if the network parameters change), and also to estimate fees for individual script transactions or complete DApps before or during development.

• UPLC (Untyped Plutus Language Core): a basic library to support creating and manipulating programs written in Untyped Plutus Core. It can parse, reformat, evaluate or build contract artifacts from Untyped Plutus Core code.

Domain-specific languages

• Aiken: Cardano smart contract platform providing an easy-to-learn functional programming language, a modern development environment, and an optimized toolkit for working with Plutus.

• ImperatorLang: a project to bring imperative programming languages to Cardano L1.

• Haskell: Cardano is written in Haskell, a functional language that emphasizes 'pure' functions. That is, functions that produce the same result for the same input.

• Helios: a domain-specific language that compiles to Plutus Core (ie, Cardano on-chain validator scripts). Helios is a non-Haskell alternative to Plutus.

• Marlowe Playground: an end-to-end financial smart contract development platform.

• OpShin: a simple Python programming language for smart contracts on Cardano.

• Plu-ts: Typescript-embedded smart contract programming language and transaction creation library.

• Plutarch: a typed embedded domain-specific language (eDSL) in Haskell for writing efficient Plutus Core validators.

Cardano components

• cardano-js-sdk: JavaScript SDK for interacting with Cardano, providing various key management options, with support for popular hardware wallets.

• cardano-wallet-connector: a tool to connect DApps to the web wallet and interact with the blockchain using the latest cardano-serialization-lib.

• cardano-wallet-interface: a Javascript/Typescript library to easily interact with the DApp connector of various wallets.

• cardanocli-js: a library that wraps the cardano-cli with JavaScript and enables faster and more efficient interaction with the cli-commands.

• Cardano DB Sync: one of the core Cardano components. db-sync follows the Cardano chain and takes information both from the chain itself and an internally maintained copy of the ledger state.

• Cardano serialization library: a library for serialization & deserialization of data structures used in Cardano’s Haskell implementation of Shelley, along with useful utility functions.

• Cardano starter kit: a Next.js project for building Cardano web3 applications with TypeScript, use-cardano, and Lucid.

• Carp (Cardano Postgres Indexer): a modular indexer that syncs Cardano blockchain information to a SQL Postgres database backend.

• Min ada calculator: accurately calculates the minimum ADA and Lovelace cost of both asset transactions and minting transactions with reference to the size of the token bundle.

• Testnet (tADA) faucet: the faucet is a web-based service that provides test ada to users of the testnet. While these tokens have no 'real world' value, they enable users to experiment with Cardano testnet features, without having to spend real ada on the mainnet.

• use-cardano: a react context, hook, and set of components that makes interacting with the Cardano blockchain easy.

Governance tools

• ADA Nordic SanchoNet Explorer: a platform with navigation links to explore different epochs, governance data, and pool information on SanchoNet.

• Agora: a set of Plutus scripts that compose together to form a governance system, providing a one-size-fits-all governance library for projects on Cardano.

• Cardano Ballot: a user-friendly, hybrid on- and off-chain voting system developed by the Cardano Foundation.

• Cardano Explorer: a platform built by AdaPools that offers a great on-chain tool to explore governance activities. The explorer includes a dashboard, views of the constitution, voting, activity, DReps, delegations, committees, and stats.

• Cardano Press: an open-source plugin for WordPress that helps users easily create a Cardano-powered website while its Governance features enable on-chain voting within websites.

• Cardano Signer: an open-source multifunction tool that can sign and verify data. The tool can also be used for key generation, such as the creation of delegated representative (DRep) keys as well as constitutional committee (CC) cold and hot keys with mnemonic support.

• CIP-95 web/wallet interface: extends the existing CIP-30 wallet-web bridge, to support the development of governance-related DApps.

• Clarity: a platform that builds community governance and management tools for Cardano projects.

• Consenz for Organisations and DAOs: enables organizations to focus discussion on one clearly structured document that has been edited by all users in a democratic way. Consenz drives public participation and consensus allowing the community to shape policy and listen without being overwhelmed by the noise.

• DripDropz Open Source On-Chain Voting: an open-source solution powered by the Cardano blockchain that offers a framework for those looking to conduct governance or voting on the Cardano blockchain.

• Parameter Proposal Guardrails Checker: a web-based tool that verifies the constitutionality of a Parameter Update Proposal – implementing checks for the Constitution’s guardrails.

• Round Table: an open-source wallet that allows you to easily create a multi-signature wallet. This can support collective registration as a DRep.

• SanchoNet GovTool (Voltaire GovTool): the SanchoNet GovTool allows ada holders to experience and test some of the governance features described in CIP-1694 in a simple, guided experience. SanchoNet is the testnet version of the Voltaire GovTool, allowing ada holders to register to become DReps, delegate voting power, and review and vote on governance actions.

• Summon Platform: allows ada holders to submit and vote on proposals for open and transparent decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance.

• Tempo: simplifies the vote delegation and DRep registration processes, providing insights on DRep voting behavior, profile creation features, and a discussion forum. Tempo also helps DAOs build transparent governance rules with their governance tokens, participate in discussions, and vote through polls efficiently.

• VibrantNet: a community integration system with Cardano Discord Bot, Hazelnet.

• Vote-supporting wallets: not every Cardano wallet currently supports the ability to delegate a holder’s vote to a DRep or vote as a DRep on key governance issues. Current compatible wallets include Lace, Yoroi, NuFi, and Demos (a clone of the Nami wallet made for the beta, available on Chromium browsers with developer mode on and 'load unpacked').

• Voteaire: allows everyone in the ecosystem to create a poll. All results are weighted. All proposals and votes are stored publicly on-chain.

The original list of tools was compiled thanks to the work done by Anita Jovic, Olga Hryniuk, Fernando Sanchez, and Rupert Whitehead. The list is provided for informational purposes only. Inclusion does not imply any warranty or endorsement.

Essential Cardano is your site! If you would like to add tools to this list, please do so by suggesting an edit.