Generating TS Clients

Generate TypeScript clients from Anchor IDL for typed account resolution, instruction builders, and error decoding.

Recipe

anchor build
# Legacy Anchor client
anchor idl parse -f target/idl/my_program.json -o app/src/idl.ts

import { Program, AnchorProvider } from "@coral-xyz/anchor";
import idl from "./idl/my_program.json";
 
const program = new Program(idl as MyProgram, provider);
await program.methods.initialize().accounts({ payer }).rpc();

When to reach for this: You build dApps or integration tests against Anchor programs.

Working Example

import { AnchorProvider, Wallet, Program } from "@coral-xyz/anchor";
import { Connection, Keypair } from "@solana/web3.js";
import idl from "../target/idl/counter.json";
 
const connection = new Connection("http://127.0.0.1:8899");
const wallet = new Wallet(Keypair.generate());
const provider = new AnchorProvider(connection, wallet, {});
const program = new Program(idl, provider);
 
await program.methods
  .increment()
  .accounts({
    counter: counterPda,
    authority: wallet.publicKey,
  })
  .rpc();

What this demonstrates:

• IDL JSON is the contract between program and client
• methods.* builders encode instruction data
• accounts() maps IDL account names
• types from IDL for account decoding

Deep Dive

Modern Stack

For greenfield apps, prefer Codama + @solana/kit 7.0.0 generated clients (see next article). Anchor TS client remains common in anchor test workflows.

Publishing

Ship IDL npm package or commit generated types in CI.

Gotchas

• IDL not updated in client repo - Silent layout bugs. Fix: Automate IDL copy in CI.
• Account name typos in .accounts() - Runtime failures. Fix: Use generated types where possible.
• Wrong cluster program id in IDL - Transactions sent to wrong program. Fix: Per-cluster IDL or override address.
• Mixing web3.js versions - Dependency conflicts. Fix: Align with Anchor peer deps or migrate to kit.
• Skipping simulation - Poor UX on errors. Fix: Simulate before wallet sign.

Alternatives

FAQs

Related

• Codama from an Anchor IDL - kit codegen
• The Anchor TS Client - client patterns
• IDL Versioning - sync

Stack versions: This page was written for Agave 4.1.1, Solana CLI 3.0.10, Anchor 0.32.1, anchor-lang 0.32.1, Rust 1.91.1, @solana/kit 7.0.0, Surfpool 0.12.0, and LiteSVM 0.6.x. Y29kZWd1aWRlcy5pb3xjZ2lvMzQ0fDIwMjYwNw==