Compile and Test

This page turns contracts/counter.cam into backend projects you can build and test. Run the commands from the cambrian-lang repository root (or pass absolute paths to the .cam file). Examples use ./target/release/cambrian-transpiler; substitute cambrian-transpiler if the binary is on your PATH.

EVM: transpile and Foundry

Entity only

./target/release/cambrian-transpiler contracts/counter.cam \
  -o /tmp/counter-evm --target evm

Output for the plain entity:

/tmp/counter-evm/
  .cambrian-manifest.json   # list of generated files with SHA-256 hashes
  src/
    Counter.sol             # Solidity ^0.8.24: Counter + CambrianFactory

The transpiler prints a reminder such as cd /tmp/counter-evm && bash setup.sh && forge test. With only the entity source (no test / fuzz / invariant declarations), that Foundry scaffolding is not emitted—you still have a readable Counter.sol to compile or deploy with your own Foundry project.

On EVM every entity is deployed with CREATE2 through the generated CambrianFactory contract, emitted in the same file. Counter’s constructor takes the factory address, so deploy the factory and call deployCounter() on it rather than new Counter() directly.

With Cambrian tests (Foundry harness)

To generate foundry.toml, setup.sh, and test/Counter.t.sol, include contracts/counter.test.cam via a project file. Source paths are resolved relative to the YAML file’s directory.

From the cambrian-lang root, write counter-evm.yaml:

name: counter
target: evm
output_dir: /tmp/counter-evm
sources:
  - contracts/counter.cam
  - contracts/counter.test.cam

./target/release/cambrian-transpiler --project counter-evm.yaml
cd /tmp/counter-evm
bash setup.sh    # installs forge-std into lib/ if missing
forge test

setup.sh runs forge install foundry-rs/forge-std --no-git when needed, then prints the usual forge test / profile hints. In project mode the contracts live in src/_counter_project.sol; src/Counter.sol is a stub that imports it.

Lean: same source, Lake project

./target/release/cambrian-transpiler contracts/counter.cam \
  -o /tmp/counter-lean --target lean
cd /tmp/counter-lean && lake build

Or let the CLI run Lake for you:

./target/release/cambrian-transpiler contracts/counter.cam \
  -o /tmp/counter-lean --target lean --check-lean

Typical layout (for contracts/counter.cam on current transpilers):

/tmp/counter-lean/
  lakefile.toml
  lean-toolchain
  Cambrian.lean
  Cambrian/
    SimpAttrs.lean
    Core.lean             # vendored domain-free foundations (U256, results, ...)
    Evm.lean              # vendored EVM domain (MsgCtx, SysCtx, WorldState)
    Prelude.lean          # imports SimpAttrs, Core and Evm
    Generated/
      World.lean
      Counter.lean
      CounterRoutes.lean
      CounterSpec.lean    # when test / property sources are included

Adding counter.test.cam through --project (with target: lean) also emits specification modules derived from those tests.

Useful flags while iterating

# Parse, validate and check target compatibility without writing files
./target/release/cambrian-transpiler contracts/counter.cam --check --target lean

# See the parsed program without writing files
./target/release/cambrian-transpiler contracts/counter.cam --dump-ast

Next steps

Language Guide for the full surface
Targets for per-backend details

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