Stellar Community Fund

By Soroban SDK Tools

Development of soroban-sdk-tools

SCF #39

$60.0K

Build

Awarded

Develops soroban-sdk-tools crate to help Stellar smart contract developers streamline storage, error handling, and unit testing.

Products & Services

We are developing soroban-sdk-tools, a Rust crate published on crates.io, compatible with the Soroban SDK. This toolkit provides high-level abstractions to simplify storage management, error handling, and authorization testing in Soroban smart contracts, adhering to Soroban's environmental constraints such as env.storage() APIs. Key features include macros for shorter, human-readable key names with uniqueness guarantees; mechanisms for automatically minimizing key sizes to optimize ledger efficiency; composable storage patterns for modular contract behaviors; a system for defining, propagating, and extending error types; and utilities for streamlined authorization flow testing.

This tool is designed to complement the official SDK. While the Soroban SDK offers foundational APIs, soroban-sdk-tools focuses on refined, standalone enhancements for storage optimization, composable errors, and authorization testing—areas not fully addressed in current tooling. It bridges gaps by enabling more efficient ledger usage, better debugging, and simplified testing, without overlapping core SDK functionalities.

Soroban

Yes

Requested Budget

$60.0K

Success Criteria

- A stable soroban-sdk-tools v1.0 is released on crates.io with full storage enhancements and composable error features, validated through benchmarks showing at least 10-20% reduction in ledger key footprint for typical use cases.

- The crate is adopted by at least one external Soroban project or community tool, such as integration into Loam-based contracts or third-party developers.

- Comprehensive documentation and examples enable seamless migration, with positive feedback from the Stellar Developers Discord indicating reduced development barriers.

Go-To-Market Plan

The primary audience comprises Soroban developers seeking efficient storage and error management tools to build maintainable contracts. The initial launch will target testnet compatibility, with a beta release shared via Stellar community forums, Soroban channels, and GitHub for feedback collection. We will provide migration guides to facilitate adoption from existing Loam users and collaborate with ecosystem projects for integration, such as embedding macros into contract templates. As the crate matures, outreach will include presentations in Stellar meetups and contributions to Soroban documentation, aiming for widespread use in production contracts to bolster the ecosystem's maturity.

Traction Evidence

The project builds on established progress from the Loam SDK, which is already open-source with deployed production contracts utilizing its storage macros. A preliminary prototype of storage enhancements is functional and integrated into Soroban testnet and mainnet contracts, demonstrating feasibility. The GitHub repository for Loam (https://github.com/loambuild/loam - over 18k downloads) serves as a public demo of foundational features, and exploratory discussions with Soroban developers on Discord have confirmed demand for these refinements. The team is committed to transparent development, with ongoing community engagement to gather input and ensure alignment with ecosystem needs.

Tranche 1 (Deliverable Roadmap) - MVP

[Deliverable 1]

Brief description: Prototype of storage macros with short key aliases and mechanisms for automatically minimizing key sizes.

How to measure completion: Deployable MVP in a sample Soroban testnet contract, showcasing reduced key sizes and simplified authorization testing.

Estimated date of completion: November 1, 2025.

Budget: $8,000.

[Deliverable 2]

Brief description: Composable storage patterns for modular contract behaviors.

How to measure completion: Deployable MVP in a sample Soroban testnet contract, showcasing reduced key sizes and simplified authorization testing.

Estimated date of completion: November 15, 2025.

Budget: $8,000.

[Deliverable 3]

Brief description: Unit tests, authorization testing utilities, and basic documentation.

How to measure completion: Deployable MVP in a sample Soroban testnet contract, showcasing reduced key sizes and simplified authorization testing.

Estimated date of completion: December 1, 2025.

Budget: $4,000.

Tranche 2 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Testnet

[Deliverable 1]

Brief description: Full composable error system with macros for generating unique error integers and seamless type conversions.

How to measure completion: Features testable via Soroban CLI, with performance evidence shared on Discord.

Estimated date of completion: December 15, 2026.

Budget: $7,000.

[Deliverable 2]

Brief description: Extended error handling with support for cross-contract calls and compile-time uniqueness checks.

How to measure completion: Features testable via Soroban CLI, with performance evidence shared on Discord.

Estimated date of completion: January 15, 2026.

Budget: $7,000.

[Deliverable 3]

Brief description: Integration testing (including authorization flows), benchmarks, and testnet deployment examples.

How to measure completion: Features testable via Soroban CLI, including authorization utilities, with performance evidence shared on Discord.

Estimated date of completion: February 1, 2026.

Budget: $6,000.

Tranche 3 (Deliverable Roadmap) - Mainnet

[Deliverable 1]

Brief description: Comprehensive API documentation, code examples (including authorization testing), and migration guides.

How to measure completion: Stable crate ready for production use, with adoption tracking via GitHub stars and integrations.

Estimated date of completion: February 15, 2026.

Budget: $6,000.

[Deliverable 2]

Brief description: crates.io publication and community feedback incorporation.

How to measure completion: Stable crate ready for production use, with adoption tracking via GitHub stars and integrations.

Estimated date of completion: March 1, 2026.

Budget: $6,000.

[Deliverable 3]

Brief description: Final optimizations for mainnet compatibility, including testing (with authorization utilities) and marketing efforts.

How to measure completion: Stable crate ready for production use, with adoption tracking via GitHub stars and integrations.

Estimated date of completion: March 15, 2026.

Budget: $8,000.

Team

- Blaine Heffron (GitHub: https://github.com/blaineheffron), a software developer with 2 years of experience in Rust and smart contract development. He serves as a contributor to the Loam SDK, scaffold-stellar, js-stellar-sdk, and stellar-cli, in addition to his work with AhaLabs. He has contributed to and written the EquitX Soroban contract.

- Willem Wyndham (GitHub: https://github.com/willemneal), Chief Technology Officer of Aha Labs (https://ahalabs.dev), a blockchain engineer based in Boston with three years of involvement in Stellar projects. He is the primary maintainer of the Loam monorepo, with significant contributions to the Stellar CLI and TENK-DAO/smartdeploy frameworks, emphasizing decentralization and WebAssembly technologies.

- Enzo Soyer, Chief Operating Officer at Aha Labs, an open-source contributor with experience in crates.io publications and community-driven tools. With Web3 expertise across multiple blockchains including Stellar, Ethereum, NEAR, Cosmos, and Flow, he provides guidance on smart contract tooling and decentralized application development.

Blaine Heffron

Enzo Soyer

Willem Neal Wyndham

Project Stats

Team Size

Project Type

SDK

Other Submissions

No other submissions.