create-codama-clients

Zero config, ero installation tool that makes TypeScript clients from your Solana program IDLs.

Just run npx create-codama-clients. This package will download, find all IDL files in your project, and generate TypeScript clients for all your programs with one command.

The problem this solves

The Codama CLI (codama run) requires:

• A codama.json config file for each program
• Manual configuration of IDL paths and output directories
• Separate commands or shell scripts to handle multiple programs

With create-codama-clients, you can generate clients for all your programs in one command, with zero configuration.

Usage

Basic usage (recommended)

npx create-codama-clients

This will:

1. Look for IDL files in target/idl/ (Anchor's default location)
2. Generate a TypeScript client for each IDL found
3. Output clients to dist/<idl-name>-client/ folders (e.g., dist/election-client/)

Custom directories

npx create-codama-clients --idl-dir ./idls --output-dir ./clients

Options

-i, --idl-dir <dir>      Directory containing IDL files (default: target/idl)
-o, --output-dir <dir>   Directory for generated clients (default: dist)
-h, --help               Show this help message

Example output

🔍 Searching for IDL files in target/idl...
📦 Found 2 IDL file(s)
✅ Generated client for election at dist/election-client
✅ Generated client for voting at dist/voting-client

🎉 Successfully generated 2 client(s)

Each generated client folder (e.g., dist/election-client/) contains:

• TypeScript types for your program's accounts and instructions
• Helper functions for interacting with your program
• Full compatibility with @solana/kit

Requirements

Your project should have IDL files (JSON format) from:

• Anchor programs (anchor build generates these in target/idl/)
• Shank-based programs
• Any other Codama-compatible IDL format

How it works

For each IDL file found:

1. Loads the IDL JSON
2. Converts it to a Codama root node using @codama/nodes-from-anchor
3. Generates TypeScript client code using @codama/renderers-js
4. Outputs to <output-dir>/<idl-filename>-client/ (the -client suffix is automatically appended)

Comparison with Codama CLI

| Feature | create-codama-clients | codama run | | ----------------- | ----------------------- | ------------------------- | | Installation | None (npx) | Requires local install | | Configuration | Zero config | Requires codama.json | | Multiple programs | Automatic | Manual config per program | | Discovery | Auto-finds IDLs | Manual paths |

License

ISC