Setting up developer environments

Working with Tezos usually includes setting up an IDE to write code in and connecting to a test network or sandbox to test applications on.

IDEs and extensions

You can work with Tezos from any IDE, but these IDEs have special features for working with Tezos:

VSCode

VSCode provides extensions for working with Tezos including these:

• Taqueria
• Archetype language
• Michelson Syntax
• Michelson debugger

VSCode also has extensions for the LIGO language, primarily these extensions offered by ligolang.org:

• ligo-vscode
• LIGO debugger

Online IDEs

These online IDEs let you write, test, and deploy smart contracts from your web browser:

• LIGO: https://ide.ligolang.org
• SmartPy: https://smartpy.io/ide

Development platforms

Taqueria is a development platform for Tezos that helps you work on smart contracts and dApps at the same time and keep them in sync as you work through your development cycle. See https://taqueria.io/.

Test environments

To test smart contracts and dApps, you can use these test environments:

• Test networks behave like Tezos mainnet but have differences that make it easier to test on them, such as faucets that provide free tokens and reduced block times for faster testing.
• Sandbox environments like Flextesa run Tezos nodes locally on your computer in a sandbox mode.

For more information about test environments, see Using sandboxes and testnets.