Kit Plugins ➤ Signer

This package offers plugins that set up the payer and identity signers on your Kit clients. Each plugin comes in three variants so you can set only the payer, only the identity, or both at once.

Installation

pnpm install @solana/kit-plugin-signer

Payer vs Identity

Kit clients can hold two distinct signer roles:

• payer — the signer responsible for paying transaction fees and storage costs (i.e. the minimum balance required to keep newly created accounts alive based on their size).
• identity — the signer representing the wallet that owns things in the application, such as the authority over accounts, tokens, or other on-chain assets.

In many cases both roles are filled by the same keypair. Every plugin in this package therefore comes in three variants:

| Variant | Sets | | ----------- | --------------------------------------------- | | signer* | Both payer and identity (same signer) | | payer* | Only payer | | identity* | Only identity |

For instance, signer(mySigner) is a shorthand for using both payer(mySigner) and identity(mySigner).

signer / payer / identity plugins

These plugins accept an existing TransactionSigner and install it on the client.

import { createClient } from '@solana/kit';
import { signer } from '@solana/kit-plugin-signer';

const client = createClient().use(signer(mySigner));

Use payer(mySigner) or identity(mySigner) to set only one role.

generatedSigner / generatedPayer / generatedIdentity plugins

These asynchronous plugins generate a new random KeyPairSigner and install it on the client.

import { createClient } from '@solana/kit';
import { generatedSigner } from '@solana/kit-plugin-signer';

const client = await createClient().use(generatedSigner());

Use generatedPayer() or generatedIdentity() to generate a signer for only one role.

generatedSignerWithSol / generatedPayerWithSol / generatedIdentityWithSol plugins

These asynchronous plugins generate a new random KeyPairSigner, airdrop some SOL to it, and install it on the client. They require an airdrop function to already be available on the client (e.g. via rpcAirdrop or litesvmAirdrop).

import { createClient, lamports } from '@solana/kit';
import { rpcAirdrop, solanaRpcConnection, solanaRpcSubscriptionsConnection } from '@solana/kit-plugin-rpc';
import { generatedSignerWithSol } from '@solana/kit-plugin-signer';

const client = await createClient()
    .use(solanaRpcConnection('http://127.0.0.1:8899'))
    .use(solanaRpcSubscriptionsConnection('ws://127.0.0.1:8900'))
    .use(rpcAirdrop())
    .use(generatedSignerWithSol(lamports(10_000_000_000n)));

Use generatedPayerWithSol(amount) or generatedIdentityWithSol(amount) to target only one role.

airdropSigner / airdropPayer / airdropIdentity plugins

These plugins airdrop SOL to a signer that is already installed on the client. They are particularly useful when the airdrop function is provided by a plugin that requires a signer to already be installed on the client. For instance, solanaLocalRpc bundles an airdrop function but requires a payer to be set first. In that case, you can generate the signer first, then install the RPC plugin, and then use airdropSigner to fund the signer after the fact.

import { createClient, lamports } from '@solana/kit';
import { solanaLocalRpc } from '@solana/kit-plugin-rpc';
import { generatedSigner, airdropSigner } from '@solana/kit-plugin-signer';

const client = await createClient()
    .use(generatedSigner())
    .use(solanaLocalRpc())
    .use(airdropSigner(lamports(1_000_000_000n)));

Use airdropPayer(amount) or airdropIdentity(amount) to target only one role. Note that airdropSigner(amount) will throw if the payer and identity on the client are not the same signer.

signerFromFile / payerFromFile / identityFromFile plugins

These plugins load a KeyPairSigner from a local JSON keypair file and install it on the client. Node.js only — other environments will throw an error.

import { createClient } from '@solana/kit';
import { signerFromFile } from '@solana/kit-plugin-signer';

const client = await createClient().use(signerFromFile('~/.config/solana/id.json'));

Use payerFromFile(path) or identityFromFile(path) to load a signer for only one role.