Proposal: Denex Localnet

CLOSEDPull Request

by mgaare08-05-2026Approved

Approvedneeds-sig-label

Development Fund Proposal Submission

Proposal file: ./proposals/denex-localnet.md

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Summary

denex-localnet is a Testcontainers-style SDK and CLI for running Canton Network LocalNets, collapsing what would currently require dozens of scattered config files into a single declarative YAML file. It orchestrates the full Canton stack — Super Validator, regular validators, Splice, Keycloak auth, and all associated web UIs — directly via the Docker API (no Docker Compose), with sensible defaults for ports, party hints, realm naming, and OAuth2 wiring.

It lowers the barrier to local development and integration testing: developers can spin up a fully-wired multi-validator network programmatically (via the cross-runtime SDK on Deno/Node/Bun) or interactively (via the Deno CLI), then query state, allocate parties, and provision users through clean high-level APIs. This enables programmatic and flexible integration for app developers, and makes Canton LocalNets viable as ephemeral fixtures in CI pipelines and SDK-driven test suites — a workflow that's currently very challenging with existing tooling.

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Checklist

[x] Proposal file added under /proposals/
[x] Milestones and funding amounts defined
[x] Acceptance criteria included
[x] Alignment with Canton priorities described

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Notes for Reviewers

(Add anything the Tech & Ops Committee should pay attention to.)