Program Patterns Best Practices

Reusable patterns only help when applied consistently. This list captures initialization, custody, state, and upgrade discipline for production Solana programs.

How to Use This List

• Map each instruction to pattern checklist before implementation.
• Cross-link SEEDS.md and state transition tables in reviews.
• Simulate failure paths not only happy paths.

A - Lifecycle

• Separate account creation from initialization; write discriminators before accepting value. Blocks reinit attacks.
• Model business flows as explicit state machines with illegal transition guards. Prevents logic bypass.
• Close accounts by zeroing data and routing rent to a declared recipient. Stops revival.
• Use Clock sysvar for expiries - never trust client-supplied time alone. Honest time source.
• Apply checks-effects-interactions before any external CPI. Reentrancy safety.

B - Custody

• Isolate vault PDAs per user or per escrow with unique seed prefixes. Blast radius control.
• Verify mint, ATA, and authority graph before token CPI. Anti-substitution.
• Collect fees with checked math and capped configurable bps. Economic safety.
• Provide cancel/timeout paths for escrows. User fund safety.
• Minimize admin powers; use multisig and two-step admin transfer. Governance safety.

C - Evolution

• Reserve account space or plan realloc before immutable deploy. Forward compatibility.
• Version schemas and ship migration instructions with upgrades. Live user continuity.
• Document state transition and seed tables for auditors. Faster review.
• Emit events on material state changes for indexers. Operational visibility.
• Regression-test pattern invariants in LiteSVM after every change. Prevent drift.

FAQs

Related

• Program Patterns Basics - Intro
• PDA Best Practices - PDAs
• CPI Best Practices - CPIs

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.