Environment Setup

Before you start building with the Unique SDK, you need to set up your development environment. Instead of using testnets, we offer a comprehensive local development environment that gives you everything you need in one place.

Why Local Development Environment?

Traditional blockchain development often requires connecting to testnets, which can be slow, unreliable, or have limited resources. Our local development stack provides:

Full blockchain node - Your own Unique Network node in dev mode
SDK REST server - HTTP proxy for easy API access
Indexer - Fast queries for blockchain data
Simple UI - Visual interface to check your NFTs and collections

This setup gives you complete control, faster development cycles, and independence from external services.

Local Development Stack (Recommended)

This is the recommended way for local development and testing. Run all services with a single command using Docker Compose.

Services Included

chain: Unique Network node in dev mode
http-proxy: HTTP proxy that provides access to the chain via REST API
scan-crawler: Indexer that syncs data from the chain to the database
scan-api: Indexer API that provides read-only access to the indexed data
postgres: PostgreSQL database for the indexer

Configuration

Create a docker-compose.yml file with the following content:

services:

  scan-crawler:
    image: uniquenetwork/substrate-proxy-scan-crawler:master
    environment:
      - DB_URL=postgres://db_user:db_password@postgres:5432/scan_db
      - CHAIN=ws://chain:9833

  scan-api:
    image: uniquenetwork/substrate-proxy-scan-api:master
    ports:
      - 3001:3001
    environment:
      - DB_URL=postgres://db_user:db_password@postgres:5432/scan_db
      - PORT=3001
      - OPENAPI_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:3001/
      - OPENAPI_SERVER_DESCRIPTION="This server"
      - OPENAPI_SERVER_PUBLIC_PATH=/

  http-proxy:
    image: uniquenetwork/substrate-proxy-http-proxy:master
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
    environment:
      - PORT=3000
      - CHAIN=ws://chain:9833
      - MIN_LOG_LEVEL=info
      - EXTRINSIC_MORTAL_BLOCK_LENGTH=64
      - OPENAPI_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:3000/
      - OPENAPI_SERVER_DESCRIPTION="This server"
      - OPENAPI_SERVER_PUBLIC_PATH=/

  postgres:
    image: postgres:17
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: db_user
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: db_password
      POSTGRES_DB: scan_db
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    volumes:
      - scan-postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/data

  chain:
    image: uniquenetwork/unique-node-public:latest
    command:  >
      --dev
      --idle-autoseal-interval 2000
      --disable-autoseal-on-tx
      --autoseal-finalization-delay 2000
      --state-pruning archive
      --blocks-pruning archive
      --base-path /unique/data
      --port 30333
      --rpc-port 9833
      --no-prometheus
      --no-mdns
      --no-telemetry
      --unsafe-rpc-external
      --rpc-cors=all
    ports:
      - 9833:9833
      - 40333:40333
      - 30333:30333
    volumes:
      - chain-data:/chain/data

volumes:
  chain-data:
  scan-postgres:

Starting the Stack

Run the following command in the directory containing your docker-compose.yml:

docker compose up

After starting the full development stack, you can access:

HTTP Proxy (SDK endpoint): http://localhost:3000
Indexer API: http://localhost:3001
Chain RPC: ws://localhost:9833

Next Steps

Once your environment is set up, proceed to the Quick Start guide to learn how to use the Unique SDK.

# Environment Setup

# Why Local Development Environment?

# Local Development Stack (Recommended)

# Services Included

# Configuration

# Starting the Stack

# Next Steps