deploy

Deploy an actor (smart contract) to the Convex network. Use when the user wants to create a new on-chain actor with exported functions.

npx skills add https://github.com/convex-dev/convex --skill deploy

Deploy a Convex Actor

Actors are autonomous on-chain programs with their own address, state, and exported functions.

Actor Structure

A typical actor deployment:

(deploy
  '(do
     ;; Internal state (private to the actor)
     (def counter 0)

     ;; Callable functions: mark each with ^:callable so it can be
     ;; invoked from outside the actor via (call ...)
     (defn ^:callable increment []
       (set! counter (+ counter 1))
       counter)

     (defn ^:callable get-count []
       counter)))

Key Rules

  • deploy returns the new actor's address (e.g. #12345)
  • Only functions tagged with ^:callable metadata can be called from outside (there is no export form). The equivalent map form is ^{:callable true}
  • Use set! to update an existing def from inside a function; plain defs declared in the actor body are private state
  • Actors have their own *address* and *balance*
  • Use (set-controller #ADDR) inside the actor to set who can upgrade it

After Deployment

  1. Note the returned address for the user
  2. Optionally register a CNS name: (call #9 (cns-update 'my.actor.name *address*))
  3. Test by calling a ^:callable function: (call #NEW-ADDR (get-count))

Workflow

  1. Help the user design the actor based on $ARGUMENTS
  2. Write the Convex Lisp source
  3. Deploy using transact with the (deploy ...) expression
  4. Verify the deployment with a test query