Seahorse Python Solana Guide: Deploy in Minutes!

Okay, picture this: you're a Python dev, sick of staring at Rust docs just to mess around on Solana. Friend hits you up, "Hey, build a quick counter dapp?" And you're like, boom, Seahorse. Fired up Solana Playground, wrote some Python, deployed to devnet. Cost me like 0.000005 SOL in fees, took under 10 minutes. No local setup nightmare. That's the vibe. Why struggle with Rust when you can Python your way to on chain magic?

Seahorse basically lets you write Solana programs - think smart contracts - in straight Python. It's Anchor compatible under the hood, so it spits out safe Rust code automatically. You get all the memory safety and speed without touching a single &mut. In my experience, it's perfect for prototyping. Deploy in minutes, test instantly. Sound familiar if you've fought Anchor CLI for hours?

Jump in with Solana Playground - zero installs

Don't even think about local setup yet. Head to beta.solpg.io. It's this browser VS Code clone made for Solana. Free devnet SOL airdrops, built in wallet, everything.

Hit the top right, "+ Create a new project." Name it "hello seahorse" or whatever. Pick Seahorse from the dropdown. Boom, you're in. Left side's your file explorer, right's the editor. There's a fizzbuzz.py demo - trash it, make hello_world.py instead.

Wallet? Easy mode

1. Type connect in the bottom terminal. Popup asks to save keypair - do it, ignore the warning for now.
2. Then solana airdrop 2. Grabs you 2 SOL on devnet. Fees are tiny, like ~0.000005 SOL per tx.
3. Check top right - that's your wallet address. Done.

What's next? Code time. Super short first one.

Your first program: Hello World, Python style

Wipe the file clean. Start with the imports.

from seahorse.prelude import * declare_id('11111111111111111111111111111111')

Those 32 ones? Placeholder. Playground swaps it for a real program ID on build.

Now the fun bit. Add this instruction:

@instruction
def hello(signer: Signer): print('Hello, World!')

@instruction decorator? Kinda like Flask routes. Signer is your wallet signing the tx. That's it. Four lines total.

Tools menu top left. Hit Build. Terminal says "Build successful." Then Deploy. Wait a sec - popup with Solscan links. Your program's live on devnet.

Test it. Cog bottom left, "Show transaction details." Pick "hello," dropdown to "My address" for signer, hit Test. Logs spit "Hello, World!" Congrats, you just shipped Python to Solana.

The loop? Code → Build → Deploy → Test. Repeat forever. In my experience, this flow hooks you fast.

Level up: Build a real FizzBuzz counter

Hello World is cute. But let's do something with state. FizzBuzz - on chain version. Classic.

New file, fizzbuzz.py. First, define your account class. This holds persistent data.

class FizzBuzz(Account): fizz: bool buzz: bool n: u64

u64 is unsigned 64-bit int. bools for fizz/buzz flags.

Instruction 1: Init the account.

@instruction
def init(owner: Signer, fizzbuzz: Empty[FizzBuzz]): fizzbuzz.init(payer=owner, seeds=['fizzbuzz', owner])

Empty[FizzBuzz] means "create this fresh." Payer (owner) covers ~0.000005 SOL rent. Seeds make a PDA - program derived address, unique to owner. Can't recreate it later.

Instruction 2: Do the logic.

@instruction
def do_fizzbuzz(fizzbuzz: FizzBuzz, n: u64): fizzbuzz.fizz = n % 3 == 0 fizzbuzz.buzz = n % 5 == 0 if not fizzbuzz.fizz and not fizzbuzz.buzz: fizzbuzz.n = n else: fizzbuzz.n = 0

Pass in n, compute fizz (div by 3) or buzz (div by 5). If neither, store n. Else zero it. Mutates the account on chain.

Full code? Slap declareid at top. Build, deploy. Test "init" first (owner: My address, fizzbuzz: empty dropdown). Then "dofizzbuzz" - fizzbuzz picks your new account, n=15. Check logs: fizz true, buzz true, n=0. N=7? n=7.

Pro tip: Playground shows the generated Anchor Rust code after build. Sneaky way to learn Rust without trying.

Okay, but what if you want local setup? (For when Playground feels too sandboxy)

Playground's great for minutes deploys. But big projects? Local machine. I usually do this on Mac/Linux.

First, Solana tools, Rust, Node, Anchor. Follow Solana docs for that - sh -c "$(curl -sSfL https://release.solana.com/stable/install)" or whatever's current.

Then rustfmt: rustup component add rustfmt.

Seahorse: cargo install seahorse lang. Check seahorse --version.

Paper wallet: solana keygen new. Save the JSON. Airdrop: solana airdrop 2 on devnet.

New project: seahorse init my counter. Cd in, edit src/lib.py (your Python). seahorse build - makes Anchor Rust in target/anchor/. Then anchor deploy. Tests? anchor test. Writes TS tests automatically ish.

Issue I hit once: Anchor version mismatch. Update with avm install latest or something. Fees same as Playground, devnet free mostly.

Local vs Playground: Quick compare

	Playground	Local
Setup time	0 mins	30-60 mins first time
Best for	Prototypes, learning	Big dapps, CI/CD
Cost	~0.000005 SOL/tx	Same + your electric
Debugging	Easy logs	Full VS Code

Start Playground. Graduate local. That's my flow.

Counter app - PDAs and real state

Next real one: Counter. Needs a PDA for shared state. No owner lock in.

Account:

class Counter(Account): count: u64

Init:

@instruction
def init(counter: Empty[Counter]): counter.init( seeds=['counter'] )

No owner? Global counter anyone can init once. Then:

@instruction
def increment(counter: Counter): counter.count += 1

Deploy, init once. Spam increment. Watch it tick up on Solscan. Why PDAs? Deterministic addresses. Your program computes 'em from seeds. No storing random pubkeys.

Gotcha: Init fails second time? "Account already exists." Good - prevents double init.

Transfer SOL? SystemProgram tricks

SOL transfers. Need SystemProgram. Import it? Nah, Seahorse handles.

@instruction
def transfersol(recipient: Account, lamports: u64, signer: Signer): recipient.addlamports(lamports) signer.sub_lamports(lamports)

Wait, accounts need SystemProgram implicit? Playground auto adds. Test: recipient some address, lamports=1000000 (0.001 SOL). Signer pays.

Real talk: Fees eat tiny bits. Devnet ignores, mainnet ~0.000005 SOL base + rent.

Common screw ups and fixes

• Build fails? Check syntax. Python strict - no typos in types like u64 vs i64.
• Deploy hangs? Airdrop more SOL. 2 usually plenty.
• Empty account wrong? Seeds must match exactly everywhere.
• No print logs? Cog → transaction details.
• Local Cargo hell? rustup update, reinstall seahorse.

Oh, and PDAs? Use find_pda off chain later. For now, Playground derives 'em.

Full stack it: JS frontend quickie

Program live? Hook JS. Anchor generates IDL JSON post build. Use @coral xyz/anchor in React/Next.

Snippet:

import { Program, AnchorProvider } from '@coral xyz/anchor';
import { PublicKey } from '@solana/web3.js';
// Load your IDL
const program = new Program(idl, programId, provider); // Call increment
await program.methods.increment().accounts({counter: pda}).rpc();

PDA calc: PublicKey.findProgramAddressSync(['counter'], programId). Fetch count: await program.account.counter.fetch(pda). Button clicks? Counter ticks on chain. Magic.

I built a poll app like this once. Users vote via PDA seeds like ['poll', owner]. No database needed.

What's Seahorse not great at? Be real

Super complex logic? Python's fine, but Rust shines for perf. Seahorse compiles to Rust, so same speed. But custom syscalls? Dig into prelude docs.

Token stuff? SPL imports easy: from spl.token import * or whatever. Check learnseahorse.com/blog for examples.

Mainnet? Switch cluster to mainnet beta, fund real SOL. Fees add up - compute units k per simple tx, 0.000005 SOL min.

Scale up: Tips from my deploys

Multiple instructions? Group related ones. Accounts validate automatically - wrong type? Tx fails safe.

Events? emit! or logs. Off chain listens via websockets.

Versioning: Playground snapshots projects. Local git it.

Honestly, after 5 programs, you'll grok Solana accounts. Signers sign, Empty inits, plain Account reads/writes.

Next projects to try

1. Todo list - array in account.
2. Simple DEX swap - math + tokens.
3. Vote poll with results PDA.

Grab Seahorse University GitHub for full examples. Or YouTube "Seahorse Solana" - tons of walkthroughs.