A First Anchor Program Checklist for Devnet

Deploying your first program to devnet feels ceremonial, but most delays come from skipped prerequisites rather than Rust complexity.

Confirm solana config get points to devnet and that your keypair file path matches the wallet you fund. A surprising number of cohort members deploy with an empty local keypair while checking balances on another.

Run anchor build before anchor deploy every time. IDL changes that compile locally but fail on chain usually trace back to stale target directories.

After deployment, verify the program ID on explorers using the same RPC you used to deploy. Mixed providers here create phantom not-found errors that waste an afternoon.

Write a one-paragraph README describing what the program stores and which accounts must exist before invoke. Your future teammates — and your RPC logs — depend on that clarity.