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Thank you for your interest in contributing to Erst! We welcome contributions from the community to help make Stellar debugging better for everyone.

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What is Erst?

Erst is a specialized developer tool for the Stellar network, designed to solve the “black box” debugging experience on Soroban. The primary goal is to clarify why a Stellar smart contract transaction failed by:
  • Fetching and replaying failed transactions
  • Simulating transactions in a local environment
  • Mapping execution failures to readable instructions and source code
  • Providing error suggestions for common Soroban errors

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Project structure

Erst consists of two main components:
  1. Go CLI (cmd/erst): The user-facing command-line tool
  2. Rust Simulator (simulator/): The core logic that replays transactions using soroban-env-host

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed:
  • Go: Version 1.24.0 or later
  • Rust: Version 1.70 or later (stable toolchain)
  • Stellar CLI: For comparing results
  • make: For running development tasks
  • (Optional) Docker: If you prefer building in a container

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Getting started

1

Fork and clone the repository

Fork the repository on GitHub, then clone your fork locally:
git clone https://github.com/your-username/hintents.git
cd hintents
2

Install dependencies

Download Go dependencies and fetch Rust crates:
go mod download
cd simulator && cargo fetch && cd ..
3

Build the Rust simulator

The simulator must be built first because the Go CLI depends on it:
cd simulator
cargo build --release
cd ..
The binary will be located at simulator/target/release/erst-sim
4

Build the Go CLI

Build the command-line interface:
go build -o erst cmd/erst/main.go
Verify it works:
./erst --help
5

Run tests

Ensure everything is working by running both test suites:
go test ./...

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Feature requests and voting

We believe the community should drive the project’s priorities.

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Requesting a new feature

  1. Check existing requests: Browse GitHub Discussions under “Feature Requests” to see if someone has already suggested it
  2. Create a discussion: If your idea is new, start a discussion with:
    • A clear, descriptive title
    • The problem or use case you’re trying to solve
    • Your proposed solution or approach
    • Any relevant examples or context
  3. Engage with the community: Respond to questions and feedback to help refine the idea
If GitHub Discussions are not enabled, open a GitHub Issue with the feature-request label instead.

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Voting on features

  • Use reactions: Vote for features you’d like to see by adding a 👍 reaction to the original discussion post
  • Avoid “+1” comments: Please use reactions instead of comments to keep discussions focused
  • Priority ranking: Features with the most 👍 reactions will be prioritized in the development roadmap

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From discussion to implementation

  1. Popular feature requests will be reviewed by maintainers and converted into GitHub Issues when approved
  2. Approved issues will be labeled with feature and community-requested
  3. You’re welcome to implement features yourself! Comment on the issue to let others know you’re working on it
  • Be specific: Vague requests are hard to implement
  • Explain the “why”: Help us understand the problem you’re solving
  • Consider scope: Smaller, focused features are easier to review and merge
  • Think about compatibility: How does this fit with Stellar/Soroban’s ecosystem?

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Getting help

  • Questions? Open a GitHub Discussion
  • Found a bug? Create an Issue with reproduction steps
  • Have an idea? Start a Discussion before implementing
  • Documentation issue? Create an Issue with details

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Next steps

Code standards

Learn about coding conventions and style guidelines

Testing

Understand testing requirements and how to write tests

Development workflow

Follow the workflow for submitting pull requests