Compression Best Practices

Rules for scaling compressed NFTs without RPC pain, stale proofs, or tree capacity incidents on Agave 4.1.1.

How to Use This List

Apply A at tree creation and capacity planning
Review B before public mint and gallery launch
Use C for wallet transfer and marketplace integrations

A - Tree & Mint Planning

Size tree depth for peak supply + headroom. Cannot expand depth in place easily.
Set canopy depth for target tree depth. Reduces transfer tx size failures.
Secure tree authority with multisig. Compromise corrupts entire collection.
Upload metadata to Arweave before batch mint. Broken URIs permanent at leaf hash.
Rehearse batch mint on devnet. Measure CU, tx size, and indexer lag.
Budget priority fees for mint window. Concurrent mints compete for block space.

B - DAS & Reads

Use DAS-enabled RPC for all cNFT reads. Vanilla RPC cannot replace indexer.
Paginate getAssetsByGroup for galleries. Respect rate limits on launch day.
Use DAS id for follow-up calls. Not tree pubkey or leaf index alone.
Plan API tier for launch traffic. Spike mint day DAS queries.
Cache metadata; not proofs. Short TTL on proof responses only.
Monitor indexer lag metric. Delay gallery if assets missing post-mint.

C - Transfers & Operations

Refetch getAssetProof immediately before sign. Stale root is top failure mode.
Use mpl-bubblegum SDK transfer builder. Correct proof account ordering.
Simulate deep-tree transfers on devnet. Versioned txs + ALTs if size tight.
Set user expectations on send latency. Proof fetch adds steps vs Core NFT.
Do not implement manual proof verification. Delegate to Bubblegum/compression programs.
Document DAS provider in runbook. Incidents need indexer contact path.

FAQs

Top cNFT launch failure?

Tree capacity exceeded or DAS overload hiding successful mints from gallery.

Minimum team stack?

Umi + mpl-bubblegum + DAS URL + @solana/kit for sends.

When skip compression?

Under ~2k unique on-chain NFTs where Core rent is acceptable.

Proof refresh pattern?

Fetch asset + proof in one pre-sign pipeline; reject if older than few seconds during hot windows.

Multisig tree authority?

Recommended for mainnet collections with ongoing mint rights.

Support playbook?

Root mismatch -> refetch proof. Missing asset -> check indexer lag. Tx too large -> review canopy.

Testing stack?

Surfpool 0.12.0 + devnet DAS + two-wallet transfer test.

Marketplace listing?

Verify cNFT support; proofs may be needed at list time per venue.

Burn policy?

Document whether burns are allowed; proof-based burn like transfer.

Custom on-chain logic?

Prefer client Bubblegum flows unless audit covers CPI proof accounts.

State Compression Basics - overview
Cost & Trade-offs - when to compress
Transferring cNFTs - proof pipeline

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.

Compression Best Practices

Rules for scaling compressed NFTs without RPC pain, stale proofs, or tree capacity incidents on Agave 4.1.1.

How to Use This List

Apply A at tree creation and capacity planning
Review B before public mint and gallery launch
Use C for wallet transfer and marketplace integrations

A - Tree & Mint Planning

Size tree depth for peak supply + headroom. Cannot expand depth in place easily.
Set canopy depth for target tree depth. Reduces transfer tx size failures.
Secure tree authority with multisig. Compromise corrupts entire collection.
Upload metadata to Arweave before batch mint. Broken URIs permanent at leaf hash.
Rehearse batch mint on devnet. Measure CU, tx size, and indexer lag.
Budget priority fees for mint window. Concurrent mints compete for block space.

B - DAS & Reads

Use DAS-enabled RPC for all cNFT reads. Vanilla RPC cannot replace indexer.
Paginate getAssetsByGroup for galleries. Respect rate limits on launch day.
Use DAS id for follow-up calls. Not tree pubkey or leaf index alone.
Plan API tier for launch traffic. Spike mint day DAS queries.
Cache metadata; not proofs. Short TTL on proof responses only.
Monitor indexer lag metric. Delay gallery if assets missing post-mint.

C - Transfers & Operations

Refetch getAssetProof immediately before sign. Stale root is top failure mode.
Use mpl-bubblegum SDK transfer builder. Correct proof account ordering.
Simulate deep-tree transfers on devnet. Versioned txs + ALTs if size tight.
Set user expectations on send latency. Proof fetch adds steps vs Core NFT.
Do not implement manual proof verification. Delegate to Bubblegum/compression programs.
Document DAS provider in runbook. Incidents need indexer contact path.

FAQs

Top cNFT launch failure?

Tree capacity exceeded or DAS overload hiding successful mints from gallery.

Minimum team stack?

Umi + mpl-bubblegum + DAS URL + @solana/kit for sends.

When skip compression?

Under ~2k unique on-chain NFTs where Core rent is acceptable.

Proof refresh pattern?

Fetch asset + proof in one pre-sign pipeline; reject if older than few seconds during hot windows.

Multisig tree authority?

Recommended for mainnet collections with ongoing mint rights.

Support playbook?

Root mismatch -> refetch proof. Missing asset -> check indexer lag. Tx too large -> review canopy.

Testing stack?

Surfpool 0.12.0 + devnet DAS + two-wallet transfer test.

Marketplace listing?

Verify cNFT support; proofs may be needed at list time per venue.

Burn policy?

Document whether burns are allowed; proof-based burn like transfer.

Custom on-chain logic?

Prefer client Bubblegum flows unless audit covers CPI proof accounts.

State Compression Basics - overview
Cost & Trade-offs - when to compress
Transferring cNFTs - proof pipeline

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.

Compression Best Practices

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Compression Best Practices