We’ve just released the Polkadot Smart Contracts DevContainer, a ready-to-code development environment for building, testing, and deploying smart contracts on Polkadot using Hardhat or Foundry.
Setting up a Polkadot smart contract development environment has traditionally been a slow, error-prone process, often taking 20-45 minutes per developer. These hurdles waste valuable time, drain productivity, and create real friction at hackathons where every minute counts. The new Polkadot Smart Contract DevContainer addresses this issue.
No manual setup. No dependency juggling. Just one command and you’re in.
 What’s inside
 What’s inside
- 
Hardhat stack - @parity/hardhat-polkadot, ignition, resolc, preconfigured networks (local & testnet). 
  Skip setup, start building, testing, and deploying contracts with Hardhat right away. Skip setup, start building, testing, and deploying contracts with Hardhat right away.
- 
Foundry (Polkadot toolchain) - via foundryup-polkadot with forge, cast, anvil. 
  Skip setup, start building, testing, and deploying contracts with Foundry right away. Skip setup, start building, testing, and deploying contracts with Foundry right away.
- 
Local revive dev node + ETH-RPC adapter - preinstalled and ready to run. 
  Test against a realistic local environment without needing to worry about setting up the node and ethereum transaction translator for Polkadot (eth-rpc). Test against a realistic local environment without needing to worry about setting up the node and ethereum transaction translator for Polkadot (eth-rpc).
- 
Auto key management - A developer keypair generated/imported and wired into your toolchain on first-attach. 
  No fumbling with keys - just build, deploy, and test. You get a prompt to either put in your own key or if you don’t have it, one is created for you on first-attach. No fumbling with keys - just build, deploy, and test. You get a prompt to either put in your own key or if you don’t have it, one is created for you on first-attach.
 Works in
 Works in
- VS Code Dev Containers (VS Code-based IDEs)
- GitHub Codespaces
 Architecture support
 Architecture support
 amd64 (Intel/AMD): full native support amd64 (Intel/AMD): full native support
 aarch64 (Apple Silicon): works via emulation aarch64 (Apple Silicon): works via emulation
 Quickstart
 Quickstart
Pull the .devcontainer into any repo or folder:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paritytech/smart-contracts-devcontainer/main/.devcontainer/fetch-devcontainer.sh | bash -s --
Then:
- Open in VS Code → “Reopen in Container”
- Or launch in GitHub Codespaces
 Resources
 Resources
- Repo: GitHub - paritytech/smart-contracts-devcontainer: Template devcontainer for easy to start smartcontract developement
- Docs: Dev Environments | Polkadot Developer Docs
 Feedback wanted: Tried it? Share your thoughts and ideas in this forum thread.
 Feedback wanted: Tried it? Share your thoughts and ideas in this forum thread.