Basic smart contract tutorials

Learn the fundamentals of NEAR smart contract development through these hands-on tutorials. Each tutorial builds on core concepts to help you master contract development.

Available tutorials

Hello NEAR

A simple contract that stores and retrieves a greeting message. Perfect for beginners.

Guest Book

Learn to store and retrieve data with a guest book contract that records messages.

Counter

Build a counter contract to understand state management and function calls.

Status Message

Create a social status message contract with collections and data structures.

What you’ll learn

Contract structure and initialization

How to structure a NEAR smart contract
Initializing contract state
Using the #[near] macro (Rust) or decorators (JavaScript)
Defining contract methods

State management

Storing and retrieving data
Working with contract storage
Understanding storage costs
Managing state efficiently

Function types

View functions (read-only, no gas cost)
Change functions (modify state, require gas)
Payable functions (accept NEAR deposits)
Private functions (internal use only)

Testing and deployment

Writing unit tests
Testing with NEAR Workspaces
Deploying to testnet
Interacting with deployed contracts

Getting started

Set up your development environment

Install the required tools:

# Install Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Install cargo-near
cargo install cargo-near

# Install NEAR CLI
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  https://github.com/near/near-cli-rs/releases/latest/download/near-cli-rs-installer.sh \
  | sh

Clone an example

Start with the Hello NEAR example:

git clone https://github.com/near-examples/hello-near-examples
cd hello-near-examples

Build and test

Rust
JavaScript

# Build the contract
cargo near build

# Run tests
cargo test

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the contract
npm run build

# Run tests
npm test

Deploy and interact

# Deploy to testnet
near contract deploy <your-account>.testnet \
  use-file ./target/near/contract.wasm \
  without-init-call \
  network-config testnet

# Call a method
near contract call-function as-transaction <your-account>.testnet \
  set_greeting json-args '{"greeting":"Hello!"}' \
  prepaid-gas '30 TeraGas' \
  attached-deposit '0 NEAR' \
  network-config testnet

Example: Hello NEAR contract

Rust
JavaScript

use near_sdk::{near, env, log};

#[near(contract_state)]
pub struct Contract {
    greeting: String,
}

impl Default for Contract {
    fn default() -> Self {
        Self {
            greeting: "Hello".to_string(),
        }
    }
}

#[near]
impl Contract {
    #[init]
    pub fn new(greeting: String) -> Self {
        Self { greeting }
    }
    
    pub fn get_greeting(&self) -> String {
        self.greeting.clone()
    }
    
    pub fn set_greeting(&mut self, greeting: String) {
        log!("Saving greeting: {}", greeting);
        self.greeting = greeting;
    }
}

import { NearBindgen, near, call, view } from 'near-sdk-js';

@NearBindgen({})
class Contract {
  greeting = "Hello";
  
  @view({})
  get_greeting() {
    return this.greeting;
  }
  
  @call({})
  set_greeting({ greeting }) {
    near.log(`Saving greeting: ${greeting}`);
    this.greeting = greeting;
  }
}

Next steps

Cross-contract calls

Learn how contracts can interact with each other

Testing guide

Deep dive into testing smart contracts

Security best practices

Secure your smart contracts

NFT tutorial

Build a complete NFT contract

Protocol Basics

Smart Contracts

Multi-Chain

Full Stack

Basic smart contract tutorials

Available tutorials

Hello NEAR

Guest Book

Counter

Status Message

What you’ll learn

Getting started

Example: Hello NEAR contract

Next steps

Cross-contract calls

Testing guide

Security best practices

NFT tutorial

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Protocol Basics

Smart Contracts

Multi-Chain

Full Stack

​Available tutorials

Hello NEAR

Guest Book

Counter

Status Message

​What you’ll learn

​Getting started

​Example: Hello NEAR contract

​Next steps

Cross-contract calls

Testing guide

Security best practices

NFT tutorial

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Available tutorials

What you’ll learn

Getting started

Example: Hello NEAR contract

Next steps