Portaldot Mini Hackathon S1 · Builder Tools

pdk.

Portaldot Dev Kit — turn cryptic transaction failures into clear, actionable diagnoses. Live, as they happen.

github.com/PugarHuda/portaldot-pdk · portaldot-pdk.vercel.app

The problem

Portaldot is new. Its errors are cruel.

ExtrinsicFailed: DispatchError { Module: { index: 6, error: 2 } }
# no message. no explanation. now what?

Brand-new, Rust-first chain — in Season 1 you run it from a local node.
Failed transactions return raw codes with zero guidance.
The hackathon Q&A is full of "how do I get POT?" — builders stuck, unanswered.

The solution

One CLI for the whole local dev loop.

pdk up

Node + funded accounts + a real verification tx.

pdk accounts

Pre-funded POT — answers "how do I get POT?".

pdk debug

FailLens — decode any failure.

pdk explain

Queryable error reference.

pdk doctor

Node, ink! compat, chain liveness.

pdk simulate

Preview fee + feasibility, no send.

pdk seed

Fund accounts from fixtures.

pdk pallets

Browse pallets / calls / errors.

…plus send · storage · watch · keys — twelve commands in one CLI.

FailLens · the hero

The same failure, decoded.

$ pdk debug --demo

✗ Balances.InsufficientBalance

What happened
You tried to transfer more POT than the account holds.

How to fix
  1. Check the sender balance.
  2. Lower the amount, or fund the account first.

Metadata-driven — resolved against the chain's own runtime, so it never goes stale. Every error verified against the live chain.

The wow

Watch failures decode live.

$ pdk debug --watch
FailLens watching from block #14 …
✗ Balances.InsufficientBalance  ← decoded the instant it landed

A live monitor for every failure on the chain.
--json for CI · pdk explain for the long tail.

Why it wins

The only debugger for Portaldot.

Unique — the only tool that decodes failed Portaldot transactions into fixes; generic Substrate tooling can't.
Native — real transactions, POT paid as gas.
Application value — solves the ecosystem's #1 documented pain, on the critical path of the chain's own growth goal.
Adoption-ready — pip install portaldot-pdk · CI-gating (--exit-code) · community-owned knowledge base.
Aligned — directly serves the organizer's goal: developer onboarding.
Quality — 23 unit + live + adversarial tests · CI green · no mocks.

The ask

The standard Portaldot dev toolkit.

On PyPI today. Roadmap: typed TypeScript SDK (unblocks contract deploy) · editor extensions · deeper CI integrations.

Thanks — let's make Portaldot easy to build on.