Understand the project
Practical overview
When it fits
Use ink! when a project needs Rust-based smart-contract development targeting Polkadot SDK-compatible environments and the documented ink! contract model fits its design.
Who it is for
- Rust developers building smart contracts for Polkadot SDK environments
- Teams working with Polkadot, Kusama or Substrate contract projects
- Developers seeking public, Apache-2.0-licensed contract tooling
Documented uses
- Define contract storage and callable behavior in Rust
- Create constructors, messages and events with ink! attributes
- Control contract selectors, payable messages and event topics
- Use the documented end-to-end contract testing framework
Before you choose
Requirements & limits
The project is distributed through a public GitHub repository under the Apache-2.0 license. The documented development model uses Linux, command-line and self-hosted environments. The repository currently states that active maintenance and development have been unavailable since January 2026 and that issue and pull-request creation is locked.
- Rust and WebAssembly are central to the development model.
- The target ecosystem is the Polkadot SDK, with project topics also covering Polkadot, Kusama and Substrate.
- The framework documents storage, constructors, messages, events and selector-related attributes.
- The repository identifies ink_e2e as an end-to-end testing framework.
- The current repository maintenance caution should be assessed before adopting ink! for new work.
Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.
Evidence and transparency
Sources & review
Source record details
- Source availability
- Active
- Sources checked
- 2 October 2026
- Original website title
- use-ink/ink · Official homepage title · retained in its source language