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From midnight-tooling
This skill should be used when the user asks about the Compact CLI, Compact Dev Tool, Compact Developer CLI, or compact devtools for Midnight Network smart contract development, including setting up the Compact toolchain on a new machine, resolving "compact: command not found" or "No default compiler set" errors, validating that Compact source code compiles correctly, switching between compiler versions, pinning a project to a specific compiler version, understanding why compilation is slow or how to speed it up, figuring out which version of the compiler or language they're running, setting up a project-local toolchain directory, configuring import search paths for multi-file contracts, understanding error messages or exit codes from the compiler or formatter, setting up or uninstalling the Compact toolchain, resolving GitHub API rate limiting when listing or updating versions, or troubleshooting why format or fixup is reporting failures
npx claudepluginhub devrelaicom/midnight-expert --plugin midnight-toolingHow this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/midnight-tooling:compact-cliThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
The Compact CLI (`compact`) is the command-line tool for managing the Midnight Network's smart contract development toolchain. It handles compiler version management, code formatting, fixup transformations, and compiler invocation.
This skill should be used when the user asks about scaffolding, extending, or debugging an Oclif CLI for Midnight Compact contracts -- including CLI scaffold, Oclif CLI template, wallet commands, contract deployment CLI, devnet CLI, CLI development, add CLI commands, Midnight CLI patterns, CLI error handling, CLI spinner and progress patterns, building a command-line interface for Compact contracts, scaffolding a new CLI project, or extending the generated CLI with new commands
This skill should be used when the user asks to create a new Midnight project, scaffold a Compact smart contract project, use create-mn-app, initialize a DApp, set up a new Midnight application, start a new project, use a project template, set up hello-world or counter template, or set up a Midnight development environment for the first time. Also triggered by "new project", "start a project", "init project", "create-mn-app", or "scaffold".
Verification by running Compact CLI commands and observing output. Checks CLI availability, runs commands, captures stdout/stderr/exit code, inspects filesystem changes, and interprets results. Covers flag existence, flag behavior, output structure, error messages, exit codes, version info, and CLI-vs-compactc comparisons. Loaded by the cli-tester agent.
Share bugs, ideas, or general feedback.
The Compact CLI (compact) is the command-line tool for managing the Midnight Network's smart contract development toolchain. It handles compiler version management, code formatting, fixup transformations, and compiler invocation.
Three distinct things share the "Compact" name. Always be precise about which is being referenced.
| Term | What It Is | Binary / Location | Version Command |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compact CLI | The command-line management tool (also called Compact Dev Tool, Compact Developer CLI, compact devtools) | compact (typically ~/.local/bin/compact) | compact --version |
| Compact (language) | The smart contract programming language | Source files: *.compact | N/A |
| Compact compiler | The compiler that transforms Compact source into ZK circuits and TypeScript | compactc.bin (managed by CLI, stored in $COMPACT_DIRECTORY) | compact compile --version |
Relationship: The Compact CLI manages and invokes the Compact compiler, which compiles Compact (the language) source files. The CLI is the orchestrator; the compiler is the worker it manages.
When users say "install Compact", they typically mean installing the Compact CLI (which then manages the compiler). When they say "update Compact", determine whether they mean:
compact self updatecompact updateThese are independent operations. The CLI and compiler have separate version numbers.
The toolchain reports three independent version numbers. Confusing them is a common source of errors.
| What | Commands | Example Output |
|---|---|---|
| CLI tool version | compact --version, compact self --version | compact 0.5.1 |
| Compiler version | compact compile --version, compact format --version, compact fixup --version | 0.30.0 |
| Language version | compact compile --language-version, compact format --language-version, compact fixup --language-version | 0.22.0 |
The compiler also reports two additional versions relevant to DApp developers:
| What | Command | Example Output |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger version | compact compile -- --ledger-version | ledger-8.0.2 |
| Runtime JS package version | compact compile -- --runtime-version | 0.15.0 |
The CLI and compiler update independently:
| What to Update | Command | Check First |
|---|---|---|
| The compiler | compact update | compact check |
| The CLI tool | compact self update | compact self check |
| Command | Aliases | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
compact compile <source> <target-dir> | c | Compile a Compact source file |
compact compile +<VER> <source> <target-dir> | Compile with a specific compiler version (full semver required) | |
compact format [FILES] | f, fmt | Format Compact source files |
compact format --check [FILES] | Check formatting without changes | |
compact fixup [FILES] | fx, fix | Apply fixup transformations (e.g. rename deprecated identifiers) |
compact fixup --check [FILES] | Check if fixups are needed without changes | |
compact update [VERSION] | u, up | Download compiler version, set as default |
compact list | l | List all available compiler versions (remote) |
compact list --installed | List locally installed compiler versions | |
compact check | ch | Check for compiler updates without downloading |
compact clean | cl | Remove all installed compiler versions |
compact clean --keep-current | Remove all except current default version | |
compact clean --cache | Remove only cached download artifacts | |
compact update --no-set-default [VERSION] | Download compiler version without setting it as default | |
compact self check | s check | Check for CLI tool updates |
compact self update | s update | Update the CLI tool itself |
Every command accepts these flags:
| Flag | Environment Variable | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
--directory <DIR> | COMPACT_DIRECTORY | Use a custom artifact directory instead of $HOME/.compact |
The --directory flag can appear before or after the subcommand — both positions are equivalent. When both the flag and environment variable are set, the flag takes precedence. The directory is created automatically if it does not exist.
The CLI invokes the compiler via compact compile <source> <target-dir>. Use --skip-zk during development to skip proving key generation (significantly faster). Prefix with +VERSION (full semver, e.g. +0.29.0) to use a specific installed compiler version. See references/compile-format-fixup.md for all compiler flags, output structure, import paths, and compilation troubleshooting. See references/troubleshooting.md for compilation error messages and exit codes.
compact format formats .compact source files in place. When no files are specified, it recursively formats all .compact files in the current directory, respecting .gitignore. Use --check for CI pipelines (exits non-zero if changes needed).
compact fixup applies source-level transformations such as renaming deprecated identifiers. It shares the same file-targeting and --check behavior as format. See references/compile-format-fixup.md for full details on both commands. See references/troubleshooting.md for formatting and fixup error messages.
Install, list, switch, and remove compiler versions with update, list, check, and clean. The update command accepts partial versions (0, 0.29, or 0.29.0). See references/version-management.md for workflows and troubleshooting.
Update the CLI tool itself with compact self update. This is independent of compiler updates. See references/self-management.md for details.
| Reference | When to Read |
|---|---|
references/installation.md | First-time setup, PATH issues, new machine |
references/compile-format-fixup.md | Compiling contracts, formatting, fixup, compiler flags |
references/version-management.md | Installing, switching, listing, or removing compiler versions |
references/self-management.md | Updating the CLI tool, checking versions |
references/troubleshooting.md | Error messages, exit codes, common failures |