Polkadot Runtime Releaser

• Team Name: hack-ink
• Payment Address:
  • 156HGo9setPcU2qhFMVWLkcmtCEGySLwNqa3DaEiYSWtte4Y (AssetHub) USDC 50%
  • 156HGo9setPcU2qhFMVWLkcmtCEGySLwNqa3DaEiYSWtte4Y (Polkadot) DOT 50%
• Level: 2

Project Overview 📄

Overview

Polkadot Runtime Releaser aka PRR.

Since last year, my work is mainly focused on the chain/node maintenance. Runtime upgrade is a great feature for the Polkadot-SDK. But there are lots of potential issues that could happen during the runtime upgrade. Especially to the new teams, they might not have enough experience to handle it.

• How to setup a try-runtime CI?
• How to setup the release CI?
  • The log affects the runtime file size.
  • The rustc/OS version affects the compiled artifacts.
  • There are also some unclear things of the srtool.
    • E.G. https://substrate.stackexchange.com/questions/11686/getting-error-rust-nightly-not-installed-when-starting-an-srtool-container-to-bu​a
• How to host a wasm-override repository for the community?
  • Debug log WASM.
    • We always use sp-api/disable-logging in the release build, so no more detail logs in the general runtime.
    • We can enable the sp-debug-derive/force-debug in the debug build, so we can get more logs instead of WASM stripped (I think people often see this a lot while they are trying to get some debug log).
  • EVM tracing WASM.
    • For some EVM chains, they need to trace the EVM execution.

PRR's goal is to streamline the process of releasing a new runtime for the Polkadot-SDK-based chain. It provides a standard way to release a new runtime, including the CI setup, runtime upgrade notification, and wasm-override repository hosting.

Ecosystem Fit

For any Polkadot-SDK-based chain, they could use PRR to release their runtime. It's a tool that could help them to release the runtime in a more standard way.

Details(spec)

For PRR's utilization, the chain team requires two repositories: one for their code and another for the release.

Take foo-network as an example. They should have two repositories, foo-network/foo and foo-network/foo-runtime-overrides.

foo-network/foo is the base Polkadot-SDK-based chain repository that everyone should have.

foo-network/foo-runtime-overrides is a new repository that PRR requires. It will have 2 branches, foo and bar if they have 2 networks, foo(mainnet) and bar(canary network). It will host the override WASMs and the release under the corresponding network branch.

PRR will supply these components, which will all be hosted in one repository.

• A specialized custom Docker image maintained by Hack-Ink for building Polkadot-SDK-based runtimes.
• A GitHub Action to response the try-runtime. (Users can comment something like /bot try-runtime <network> under a release PR to trigger this action.)
• A GitHub Action to build the release runtime.
• A GitHub Action to notify release repository there is a new release that release repository can start preparing the override WASMs.
• A tool to build and manage the override WASMs.
• A tool to inspect the basic information from the WASM file.

GitHub Action	Trigger	Output
try-runtime	Comment /bot try-runtime <network> under the PR.	Bot will comment the try-runtime result under the PR.
Runtime release	Usually by tag, this can be configured by users.	Build and release the runtime files.
WASM override	Runtime release action will notify this action.	Build and push the runtime files to the repository.

Each component will have a very detailed guide to help the chain team to set up.

Team 👥

Team members

• Xavier Lau

Contact

• Contact Name: Xavier Lau
• Contact Email: x@acg.box
• Website: https://linktr.ee/aurevoirxavier

Legal Structure

Personal. (no legal structure entry)

Team's experience

Xavier Lau

• Seven years of experience in Rust.
• Four years of experience in Substrate.
• Darwinia Network core developer, since 2019.
• Actively at Substrate StackExchange.
• Grants contributor, Subalfred, Slothunter.

Team Code Repos

• https://github.com/hack-ink
• https://github.com/hack-ink/AiR
• https://github.com/hack-ink/array-bytes
• https://github.com/hack-ink/atomicalsir
• https://github.com/hack-ink/subalfred

Please also provide the GitHub accounts of all team members. If they contain no activity, references to projects hosted elsewhere or live are also fine.

• https://github.com/AurevoirXavier

Team LinkedIn Profiles (if available)

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/xavier-lau-b0655310a

Overview

• Total Estimated Duration: 8 weeks
• Full-Time Equivalent (FTE): 1 FTE
• Total Costs: 22,500 USD

Milestone 1 Polkadot Runtime Releaser Tool Set

• Estimated duration: 8 weeks
• FTE: 1
• Costs: 22,500 USD

Number	Deliverable	Specification
0a.	License	GPLv3
0b.	Documentation	There will be a guide to tell people how to use this and inline docs will cover core functionalities.
0c.	Testing guide	There will be a guide and a demo repository to tell the auditor how to run the tests. All components will be covered.
1.	Docker image	A well-maintained, long-term version Docker image for Polkadot-SDK-based runtime managed by Hack-Ink.
2.	Try-Runtime CI	Comment on a release PR and see the try-runtime result.
3.	Release CI	Build and release the deterministic runtime.
4.	WASM override tool	It can build the specify feature WASM in one step and manage them well in the corresponding folder.
5.	WASM override CI	Listen for build requests from the release CI.
6.	WASM info inspect tool	Use it to inspect the WASM basic information and integrate the result into the release note.
7.	Releases	Publish on GitHub release and crates.io release.
8.	Workshop	There will be a workshop repository for teams to learn how to setup the release pipeline step by step.

Future Plans

• Keep connected with the community/parity and make it better.

Additional Information ➕

Since every component is connected closely, I prefer to finish them all in one milestone for easy auditing and testing.

How did you hear about the Grants Program? GitHub.