SUI Developer

High-quality SUI Move smart contract development with multi-level quality assurance.

Overview

This skill assists with writing production-ready SUI Move code through:

• Code generation from specifications
• Multi-level quality checks (Fast/Standard/Strict)
• Real-time development suggestions
• Frontend-friendly contract design
• TypeScript type generation from Move ABI

Quick Start

# Generate code from spec
sui-developer generate --spec docs/specs/project-spec.md

# Run quality checks
sui-developer check --mode fast      # Development iteration
sui-developer check --mode standard  # Feature complete
sui-developer check --mode strict    # Pre-deployment (default)

# Generate TypeScript types
sui-developer gen-types

# Watch mode for continuous checking
sui-developer watch

Quality Check Levels

Fast Mode (Development Iteration)

Use when: Rapidly prototyping and iterating

Checks:

• ✓ Syntax correctness
• ✓ Compilation (sui move build)
• ✓ Basic linter warnings

Speed: ~5 seconds

sui move build

Standard Mode (Feature Complete)

Use when: Feature is complete and ready for review

Checks:

• ✓ All Fast mode checks
• ✓ Move analyzer deep analysis
• ✓ Basic security patterns:
  • Integer overflow risks
  • Access control verification
  • Capability leak detection
• ✓ Gas usage analysis (basic)
• ✓ Naming convention compliance

Speed: ~30 seconds

sui move build
sui move test
# Custom security checks

Strict Mode (Pre-deployment, Default)

Use when: Preparing for deployment, especially mainnet

Checks:

• ✓ All Standard mode checks
• ✓ Deep security audit:
  • Reentrancy attack patterns
  • Shared object race conditions
  • Capability escape analysis
  • Integer arithmetic logic errors
  • Authorization bypass attempts
• ✓ Gas optimization analysis (detailed)
• ✓ Move idioms and best practices
• ✓ Documentation completeness (all public functions)
• ✓ Formal verification suggestions (critical logic)
• ✓ Comparison with official security checklist

Speed: ~2 minutes

Cross-reference: For deep Move semantics review (enum correctness, ability constraints, borrow safety), invoke the move-code-quality skill after Strict mode passes.

See scripts/ for implementation details.

SUI v1.68.1 Updates (Protocol 118)

Key changes affecting Move development (as of March 2026):

Platform & Runtime

• gRPC Data Access (GA): gRPC is the primary data access method. JSON-RPC is deprecated (removal April 2026) — Quorum Driver for transaction submission is fully disabled. Use Transaction Driver exclusively.
• Display V2 (Activated): Display Registry (system object 0xd) is live on all networks. JSON-RPC and GraphQL now prioritize Display V2 lookups over legacy Display v1. Use sui::display::DisplayRegistry for new projects.
• Address Aliases (Mainnet): Human-readable address mappings now enabled on mainnet (v1.68.0+).
• Adaptive Concurrency Control: Indexing framework replaces fixed worker counts with automatic scaling. Processor::FANOUT is removed — use ConcurrencyConfig enum instead.
• Display Registry in APIs: JSON-RPC (showDisplay) and GraphQL now prioritize Display Registry (V2) over legacy Display v1. New MoveValue.asVector for paginating vector data in GraphQL.
• SignatureScheme Union: GraphQL introduces SignatureScheme union type for UserSignature, replacing flat fields.
• chainIdentifier Full Digest: chainIdentifier now returns full Base58-encoded 32-byte digest (previously truncated).
• Metadata Hardening: Sui System metadata validation tightened (v1.68.0).

Move Runtime

• TxContext Flexible Positioning: TxContext arguments can appear in any position within PTBs.
• poseidon_bn254 Enabled: Available on all networks. Use sui::poseidon::poseidon_bn254 for zero-knowledge proof applications.
• Hot Potato Rule: Non-public entry functions cannot have arguments entangled with hot potatoes.
• Ristretto255 Group Ops: Ristretto255 group operations available for cryptographic applications (v1.67+).
• #[error] Annotation: Annotate error constants with #[error] for human-readable abort messages. The CLI decodes these automatically at runtime.
• Gas Schedule Changes: Dynamic field operations rebalanced — first loads more expensive, subsequent loads significantly cheaper (v1.62.1+).

Tooling

• DeepBook No Longer Implicit: Since v1.47, DeepBook is no longer an implicit dependency. Add it explicitly in Move.toml if needed.
• Sui Gas Meter for Tests: sui move test now uses the Sui gas meter (v1.66.2+), providing more accurate gas measurements.
• CLI Auto-completion: Use sui completion --generate [shell] for shell auto-completion (v1.66.2+).
• Regex Test Filtering: Test filtering now uses regex — use sui move test --filter "regex_pattern".

GraphQL Breaking Changes (v1.67.3+)

• Simulation: events field removed from simulateResult and ExecutionResult. Access events via effects.events() instead.
• Error field: error field removed from ExecutionResult; use effects.status for error information.

Move Language Updates (from Move Book)

• Extensions: New chapter on Move extensions for extending module capabilities
• Modes: New chapter on Move modes (#[test_only], etc.) for conditional compilation
• Storage Rewrite: Updated storage model documentation with latest patterns
• Type Reflection v2: Enhanced type reflection capabilities for advanced metaprogramming
• BCS Improvements: Better BCS serialization documentation and patterns
• Lambda Type Annotations: Type annotations are now supported on lambdas
• Macro Patterns: Prefer do!, tabulate!, fold!, filter!, destroy! macros over manual loops for vector/option operations
• Positional Struct Keys: Use public struct MyKey() has copy, drop, store; for dynamic field keys

Core Features

1. Code Generation from Specification

Generate complete module structure from architecture spec:

// Read specification
const spec = readSpec("docs/specs/project-spec.md")

// Query latest Move patterns
const patterns = await sui_docs_query({
  type: "docs",
  target: "sui-core",
  query: "Move module structure best practices"
})

// Generate modules
for (const module of spec.modules) {
  await generateModule(module, patterns)
}

Generated structure:

• Error codes
• Structs with proper abilities
• Public functions with doc comments
• Internal helper functions
• Events for state changes
• Test module skeleton

See examples.md for complete generated code examples.

2. Real-time Development Suggestions

Auto-suggest better patterns while coding:

// Detect hardcoded address
const ADMIN_KEY: address = @0x123;

// Suggest improvement:
// Warning: Use capability instead:
public struct AdminCap has key { id: UID }

Query latest APIs to detect deprecations:

const versionInfo = await sui_docs_query({
  type: "version",
  target: "sui"
});

// Warn if using deprecated functions

3. Frontend Integration Support

TypeScript Type Generation:

Automatically generate TypeScript types from Move ABI:

// After building Move code
sui-developer gen-types

// Generates: frontend/src/types/contracts.ts
export interface Listing {
  id: string;
  nft_id: string;
  seller: string;
  price: number | bigint;
  created_at: number | bigint;
}

Frontend-Friendly Events:

Ensure events contain all info frontend needs:

// ✅ Good: Complete event
public struct NFTPurchased has copy, drop {
    listing_id: ID,
    nft_id: ID,
    buyer: address,
    seller: address,
    price: u64,
    timestamp: u64
}

See reference.md for event design patterns.

4. Best Practices Enforcement

Query and apply latest Move best practices:

const practices = await sui_docs_query({
  type: "docs",
  target: "sui-core",
  query: "Move programming best practices patterns"
});

// Check code against practices
// - Proper error handling
// - Event emissions
// - Capability usage
// - Safe math operations

Development Workflow

1. Generate code from spec
   ↓
2. Developer writes/modifies Move code
   ↓
3. Run Fast mode checks (while developing)
   ↓
4. Feature complete → Run Standard mode
   ↓
5. Fix any issues
   ↓
6. Before commit → Run Strict mode (auto via git hook)
   ↓
7. Generate TypeScript types
   ↓
8. Ready for frontend integration

Configuration

.sui-developer.json:

{
  "quality_mode": "strict",
  "auto_format": true,
  "generate_types": true,
  "frontend_integration": {
    "enabled": true,
    "output_dir": "frontend/src/types"
  },
  "checks": {
    "security": true,
    "gas_optimization": true,
    "documentation": true,
    "naming_conventions": true
  },
  "patterns": {
    "use_capabilities": true,
    "emit_events": true,
    "validate_inputs": true
  }
}

Configuration options:

• quality_mode - Default check level (fast/standard/strict)
• auto_format - Auto-format code on save
• generate_types - Auto-generate TypeScript types after build
• frontend_integration.output_dir - Where to output TS types
• checks - Enable/disable specific checks
• patterns - Enforce specific coding patterns

Integration

Called By

• sui-full-stack (Phase 2: Development)
• sui-architect (after spec generation)

Calls

• sui-docs-query - Query latest Move APIs and best practices

Next Step

After development complete, suggest:

✅ Move development complete!
Next: Ready for testing with sui-tester?

Watch Mode

Continuous checking during development:

sui-developer watch

Automatically runs Fast mode checks on file changes.

Common Mistakes

❌ Skipping quality checks during rapid iteration

• Problem: Bugs accumulate, major refactor needed before deployment
• Fix: Use Fast mode during development, Standard mode before commits

❌ Not generating TypeScript types from Move ABI

• Problem: Frontend uses wrong types, runtime errors
• Fix: Run sui-developer gen-types after every Move contract change

❌ Ignoring Move analyzer warnings

• Problem: Subtle bugs (dead code, unused variables) slip through
• Fix: Treat warnings as errors, fix all before committing

❌ Using Strict mode during prototyping

• Problem: Slow iteration, premature optimization
• Fix: Fast mode for prototyping, Strict mode for production code

❌ Not testing with realistic gas budgets

• Problem: Works in dev, fails in production due to gas limits
• Fix: Test with mainnet-equivalent gas budgets (--gas-budget)

❌ Hardcoding addresses in Move code

• Problem: Cannot deploy to multiple networks
• Fix: Use capabilities instead of address checks

❌ Missing doc comments on public functions

• Problem: Strict mode fails, poor developer experience
• Fix: Add /// comments to all public functions before Standard mode

❌ Not querying latest Move patterns

• Problem: Using deprecated APIs, outdated patterns
• Fix: Call sui_docs_query() before implementing complex features

See Also

• reference.md - Common patterns library, complete security checklist
• examples.md - Complete generated code examples, TypeScript integration
• scripts/ - Quality check implementation scripts

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Write Move code with confidence - comprehensive quality checks ensure production-ready smart contracts!