Solidity scripting is a way to declaratively deploy contracts using Solidity, instead of using the more limiting and less user friendly forge create
.
Solidity scripts are like the scripts you write when working with tools like Hardhat; what makes Solidity scripting different is that they are written in Solidity instead of JavaScript, and they are run on the fast Foundry backend, which provides dry-run capabilities.
forge script
does not work in a sync manner. First, it collects all transactions from the script, and only then does it broadcast them all. It can essentially be split into 4 phases:
- Local Simulation - The contract script is run in a local evm. If a rpc/fork url has been provided, it will execute the script in that context. Any external call (not static, not internal) from a
vm.broadcast
and/orvm.startBroadcast
will be appended to a list. - Onchain Simulation - Optional. If a rpc/fork url has been provided, then it will sequentially execute all the collected transactions from the previous phase here.
- Broadcasting - Optional. If the
--broadcast
flag is provided and the previous phases have succeeded, it will broadcast the transactions collected at step1
. and simulated at step2
.
Given this flow, it's important to be aware that transactions whose behaviour can be influenced by external state/actors might have a different result than what was simulated on step 2
. Eg. frontrunning.
Let’s try to deploy the NFT contract made in the solmate tutorial with solidity scripting. First of all, we would need to create a new Foundry project via:
forge init solidity-scripting
Since the NFT contract from the solmate tutorial inherits both solmate
and OpenZeppelin
contracts, we’ll have to install them as dependencies by running:
# Enter the project
cd solidity-scripting
# Install Solmate and OpenZeppelin contracts as dependencies
forge install transmissions11/solmate Openzeppelin/[email protected]
Next, we have to delete the Counter.sol
file in the src
folder and create another file called NFT.sol
. You can do this by running:
rm src/Counter.sol test/Counter.t.sol script/Counter.s.sol && touch src/NFT.sol && ls src
Once that’s done, you should open up your preferred code editor and copy the code below into the NFT.sol
file.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: UNLICENSED
pragma solidity >=0.8.10;
import {ERC721} from "solmate/tokens/ERC721.sol";
import {Ownable} from "openzeppelin-contracts/contracts/access/Ownable.sol";
import {Strings} from "openzeppelin-contracts/contracts/utils/Strings.sol";
error MintPriceNotPaid();
error MaxSupply();
error NonExistentTokenURI();
error WithdrawTransfer();
contract NFT is ERC721, Ownable {
using Strings for uint256;
string public baseURI;
uint256 public currentTokenId;
uint256 public constant TOTAL_SUPPLY = 10_000;
uint256 public constant MINT_PRICE = 0.08 ether;
constructor(
string memory _name,
string memory _symbol,
string memory _baseURI
) ERC721(_name, _symbol) Ownable(msg.sender) {
baseURI = _baseURI;
}
function mintTo(address recipient) public payable returns (uint256) {
if (msg.value != MINT_PRICE) {
revert MintPriceNotPaid();
}
uint256 newTokenId = ++currentTokenId;
if (newTokenId > TOTAL_SUPPLY) {
revert MaxSupply();
}
_safeMint(recipient, newTokenId);
return newTokenId;
}
function tokenURI(uint256 tokenId)
public
view
virtual
override
returns (string memory)
{
if (ownerOf(tokenId) == address(0)) {
revert NonExistentTokenURI();
}
return
bytes(baseURI).length > 0
? string(abi.encodePacked(baseURI, tokenId.toString()))
: "";
}
function withdrawPayments(address payable payee) external onlyOwner {
uint256 balance = address(this).balance;
(bool transferTx, ) = payee.call{value: balance}("");
if (!transferTx) {
revert WithdrawTransfer();
}
}
}
Now, let’s try compiling our contract to make sure everything is in order.
forge build --zksync
If your output looks like this, the contracts successfully compiled.
We’re going to deploy the NFT
contract to the ZKsync Sepolia testnet, but to do this we’ll need to configure Foundry ZKsync a bit, by setting things like a ZKsync Sepolia RPC URL, and the private key of an account that’s funded with ZKsync Sepolia Eth.
💡 Note: You can get some ZKsync Sepolia testnet ETH here .
Once you have all that create a .env
file and add the variables. Foundry automatically loads in a .env
file present in your project directory.
The .env file should follow this format:
ZKSYNC_SEPOLIA_RPC_URL=
PRIVATE_KEY=
We now need to edit the foundry.toml
file. There should already be one in the root of the project.
Add the following lines to the end of the file:
[rpc_endpoints]
zksync-sepolia = "${ZKSYNC_SEPOLIA_RPC_URL}"
This creates a RPC alias for ZKsync Sepolia.
Next, we have to create a folder and name it script
and create a file in it called NFT.s.sol
. This is where we will create the deployment script itself.
The contents of NFT.s.sol
should look like this:
// SPDX-License-Identifier: UNLICENSED
pragma solidity ^0.8.13;
import {Script} from "forge-std/Script.sol";
import {NFT} from "../src/NFT.sol";
contract MyScript is Script {
function run() external {
uint256 deployerPrivateKey = vm.envUint("PRIVATE_KEY");
vm.startBroadcast(deployerPrivateKey);
NFT nft = new NFT("NFT_tutorial", "TUT", "baseUri");
vm.stopBroadcast();
}
}
Now let’s read through the code and figure out what it actually means and does.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: UNLICENSED
pragma solidity ^0.8.13;
Remember even if it’s a script it still works like a smart contract, but is never deployed, so just like any other smart contract written in Solidity the pragma version
has to be specified.
import {Script} from "forge-std/Script.sol";
import {NFT} from "../src/NFT.sol";
Just like we may import Forge Std to get testing utilities when writing tests, Forge Std also provides some scripting utilities that we import here.
The next line just imports the NFT
contract.
contract MyScript is Script {
We have created a contract called MyScript
and it inherits Script
from Forge Std.
function run() external {
By default, scripts are executed by calling the function named run
, our entrypoint.
uint256 deployerPrivateKey = vm.envUint("PRIVATE_KEY");
This loads in the private key from our .env
file. Note: you must be careful when exposing private keys in a .env
file and loading them into programs. This is only recommended for use with non-privileged deployers or for local / test setups. For production setups please review the various wallet options that Foundry supports.
vm.startBroadcast(deployerPrivateKey);
This is a special cheatcode that records calls and contract creations made by our main script contract. We pass the deployerPrivateKey
in order to instruct it to use that key for signing the transactions. Later, we will broadcast these transactions to deploy our NFT contract.
NFT nft = new NFT("NFT_tutorial", "TUT", "baseUri");
Here we have just created our NFT contract. Because we called vm.startBroadcast()
before this line, the contract creation will be recorded by Forge, and as mentioned previously, we can broadcast the transaction to deploy the contract on-chain. The broadcast transaction logs will be stored in the broadcast
directory by default. You can change the logs location by setting broadcast
in your foundry.toml
file.
The broadcasting sender is determined by checking the following in order:
- If
--sender
argument was provided, that address is used. - If exactly one signer (e.g. private key, hardware wallet, keystore) is set, that signer is used.
- Otherwise, the default Foundry sender (
0x1804c8AB1F12E6bbf3894d4083f33e07309d1f38
) is attempted to be used.
Now that you’re up to speed about what the script smart contract does, let’s run it.
You should have added the variables we mentioned earlier to the .env
for this next part to work.
At the root of the project run:
# To load the variables in the .env file
source .env
# To deploy our contract
forge script --chain zksync-testnet script/NFT.s.sol:MyScript --rpc-url $ZKSYNC_SEPOLIA_RPC_URL --broadcast --zksync -vvvv
Forge is going to run our script and broadcast the transactions for us - this can take a little while, since Forge will also wait for the transaction receipts.
This confirms that you have successfully deployed the NFT
contract to the ZKsync Sepolia testnet.
💡 Note: A full implementation of this tutorial can be found here and for further reading about solidity scripting, you can check out the
forge script
reference. This confirms that you have successfully deployed theNFT
contract to the Sepolia testnet and have also verified it on Etherscan, all with one command.
Let's enhance our script to accept arguments, making it more flexible and reusable. This approach allows us to deploy different NFT contracts with varying names, symbols, and base URIs without modifying the script each time. We'll start by modifying the NFT.s.sol
script:
// SPDX-License-Identifier: UNLICENSED
pragma solidity ^0.8.13;
import {Script} from "forge-std/Script.sol";
import {NFT} from "../src/NFT.sol";
contract MyScript is Script {
function run(
string calldata _name,
string calldata _symbol,
string calldata _baseUri
) external {
uint256 deployerPrivateKey = vm.envUint("PRIVATE_KEY");
vm.startBroadcast(deployerPrivateKey);
NFT nft = new NFT(_name, _symbol, _baseUri);
vm.stopBroadcast();
}
}
At the root of the project run:
# To load the variables in the .env file
source .env
# To deploy and verify our contract
forge script --chain sepolia script/NFT.s.sol:MyScript "NFT tutorial" TUT baseUri --sig 'run(string,string,string)' --rpc-url $SEPOLIA_RPC_URL --broadcast --verify -vvvv
Let's break down the additions to our command:
"NFT tutorial" TUT baseUri --sig 'run(string,string,string)'
"NFT tutorial"
- is the first argument of the new run command - the name of the collectionTUT
- is the second argument - the symbol of the collectionbaseUri
- is the third argument - the baseURI of the collection--sig 'run(string,string,string)'
- changes the signature of the function we want to call in the contract
Forge is going to run our script and broadcast the transactions using the parameters we specified on the command line. You should see an output similar to the previous section.
You can deploy to Anvil, the local testnet, by configuring the port as the fork-url
.
Here, we have two options in terms of accounts. We can either start anvil without any flags and use one of the private keys provided. Or, we can pass a mnemonic to anvil to use.
First, start Anvil:
anvil
Update your .env
file with a private key given to you by Anvil.
Then run the following script:
forge script script/NFT.s.sol:MyScript --fork-url http://localhost:8545 --broadcast
Add the following line to your .env
file and complete it with your mnemonic:
MNEMONIC=
It is expected that the PRIVATE_KEY
environment variable we set earlier is one of the first 10 accounts in this mnemonic.
Start Anvil with the custom mnemonic:
source .env
anvil -m $MNEMONIC
Then run the following script:
forge script script/NFT.s.sol:MyScript --fork-url http://localhost:8545 --broadcast
💡 Note: A full implementation of this tutorial can be found here and for further reading about solidity scripting, you can check out the
forge script
reference.