Building Instructions

Construct typed instructions from generated Codama clients.

Recipe

import { getIncrementInstruction } from "./generated/clients/js";
import { appendTransactionMessageInstruction } from "@solana/kit";

When to reach for this:

• Composing program calls in wallet flows.
• Server-built partial transactions.
• Multi-instruction DeFi routes.

Working Example

import {
  createTransactionMessage,
  pipe,
  setTransactionMessageFeePayerSigner,
  setTransactionMessageLifetimeUsingBlockhash,
  appendTransactionMessageInstruction,
  createSolanaRpc,
} from "@solana/kit";
import { getIncrementInstruction } from "./generated/clients/js";
 
const rpc = createSolanaRpc(process.env.RPC_URL!);
const { value: bh } = await rpc.getLatestBlockhash().send();
 
const ix = getIncrementInstruction({
  counter: counterAddress,
  authority: walletSigner,
});
 
const message = pipe(
  createTransactionMessage({ version: 0 }),
  (m) => setTransactionMessageFeePayerSigner(walletSigner, m),
  (m) => setTransactionMessageLifetimeUsingBlockhash(bh, m),
  (m) => appendTransactionMessageInstruction(ix, m)
);

What this demonstrates:

• Generated builder encodes discriminator + Borsh args.
• Signer objects satisfy authority meta requirements.
• Combine multiple program ixs in one message.

Deep Dive

How It Works

• Instruction data = 8-byte discriminator + serialized args.
• Account metas include signer/writable flags per IDL.
• Remaining accounts for CPI show in IDL as well.
• Simulate to catch constraint failures early.

Gotchas

• Wrong account order - program error 0x... Fix: never hand-reorder metas.
• Pubkey strings instead of signers - missing signature. Fix: pass Signer type for signers.
• Missing init accounts - needs system + rent. Fix: include init instructions from IDL helpers.
• Argument type mismatch - BN vs bigint. Fix: use generated TS types literally.
• CPI depth CU - simulation OOM. Fix: raise compute unit limit.

Alternatives

FAQs

Related

• Building Transaction Messages - compose tx
• Client-Side Signing - wallet send
• Codama - generate builders

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.