Cairo By Example

Cairo By Example is an open-source documentation and learning starter that pairs minimal Cairo smart contracts for Starknet with verbose, line-by-line commentary, and presents them on a Next.js site styled with Chakra UI.

What is Cairo By Example?

Cairo By Example is a GitHub repository by a5f9t4 that is both a working website and a collection of Starknet contract examples. It takes a series of minimal Cairo contracts, documents them in detail, and renders them on a Next.js front end written in TypeScript and styled with Chakra UI. The production build is deployed to Vercel, as shown by the deployment badge, and the contracts themselves live in the contracts subdirectory for reuse. The project openly states its goal as "Verbosely Documented, Minimal Starknet Contract Examples."

How does Cairo By Example work?

The repository follows a standard Next.js development workflow. You clone the repo, run yarn to install dependencies, and yarn dev to launch the site locally. The Cairo side of the project requires a Python virtual environment. After creating one with python3 -m venv env, you install the Nile dev environment with pip3 install cairo-nile and then run nile install to pull the Cairo language, a local Starknet devnet, and the pytest testing framework. Contracts compile with nile compile and tests run with pytest.

Who is Cairo By Example for?

It is aimed at developers learning to write Cairo contracts for Starknet. Smart contract developers can study the minimal, heavily commented examples to understand common patterns without wading through production code. Educators and technical writers can use the structured examples as building blocks for Starknet curriculum. Teams evaluating Cairo tooling can also follow the setup instructions to provision a local development environment with Nile and a devnet in a few steps.

What are the key features of Cairo By Example?

• Minimal, verbose contracts — each contract is intentionally small and documented line-by-line, which flattens the learning curve for Starknet.
• Next.js and Chakra UI front end — the site uses Next.js with the Chakra UI component library and TypeScript, confirmed by the repository topics and package metadata.
• Nile integration — the readme wires up the OpenZeppelin Nile toolchain for compiling contracts and running pytest-based tests.
• Vercel deployment — the production badge points to a Vercel deployment, giving you a ready hosting target.
• Cairo VSCode support — setup instructions reference the cairo-0.6.2.vsix extension from the Cairo language v0.6.2 release for syntax highlighting.
• Local Starknet devnet — through nile install, the setup pulls starknet-devnet to test contracts against a local network.
• AGPL-3.0-only license — the contracts in this repository are released under the AGPL-3.0-only license.

What can you do with Cairo By Example?

• Cairo developers: clone the repository and read the verbosely documented contracts to learn Starknet patterns and idiomatic Cairo.
• Starknet educators: reuse the minimal examples as handout material for workshops or tutorials.
• Tooling evaluators: follow the readme steps to quickly stand up Nile, a devnet, and pytest to test contract workflows.

FAQ

Is Cairo By Example free to use?

Yes, the project is open source. The contracts are released under the AGPL-3.0-only license, and the repository is public on GitHub, so you can clone, modify, and self-host the site freely.

Can I use these contracts in production?

The readme explicitly warns that the project is in an early and experimental phase and has never been audited or thoroughly reviewed for security vulnerabilities. It is not recommended for production use.

What development environment do I need to run the contracts?

You need Python 3 to create a virtual environment, then pip3 install cairo-nile to get the Nile toolchain. Running nile install pulls the Cairo language, a local Starknet devnet, and pytest. The setup also documents installing a VSCode Cairo extension for editors.

Does Cairo By Example require a specific Cairo version?

The VSCode setup references a specific Cairo release: version 0.6.2 from the Cairo language releases. The rest of the toolchain comes from Nile, so you do not need to install Cairo separately.

Is there a live demo of the site?

Yes, the repository is deployed to https://cairo-by-example.xyz via Vercel.