CosmWasm Contract Structure

SkillDev tools

Axone contract structure and Abstract SDK patterns. Use when scaffolding or refactoring contracts, deciding layer boundaries, wiring AppContract entrypoints, or adding module metadata and replies.

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What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by axone-protocol/contracts in .agents/skills/cosmwasm-contract/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Companion Skills

Use rust-contract-domain-modeling for invariant-heavy domain design, api-design for message surfaces, api-doc-comments for schema-facing documentation, rust-testing for tests, and rust-quality-gates for validation gates.

Repository Structure

The repository has:

  • a workspace-level Makefile.toml for shared tasks
  • a contract-level Makefile.toml in each contract for local helpers
  • one directory per contract under contracts/

Minimal Contract Skeleton

Start from this minimal shape:

contracts/<contract-name>/
├── Cargo.toml
├── Makefile.toml
├── README.md
├── metadata.json
├── src/
│   ├── lib.rs
│   ├── contract.rs
│   ├── msg.rs
│   ├── state.rs
│   ├── error.rs
│   ├── handlers/
│   │   ├── mod.rs
│   │   ├── instantiate.rs
│   │   ├── execute.rs
│   │   ├── query.rs
│   │   └── migrate.rs
│   └── bin/
│       ├── schema.rs
│       ├── publish.rs
│       └── install.rs
└── tests/
    └── integration.rs

Add extra layers only when they clarify boundaries.

Optional Layers Already Used In This Repo

Current repository layers include:

  • domain/ for explicit business concepts and invariants
  • services/ for orchestration and environment-aware composition
  • gateway/ for external module interaction and protocol I/O
  • queries/ for query string / payload builders
  • replies/ for reply handlers

axone-gov is the reference example for the richer layered shape.

Layer Boundaries

  • msg.rs defines the public contract surface.
  • contract.rs wires the AppContract entrypoints and module metadata.
  • handlers/ should stay thin: decode messages, call domain/services, build responses.
  • domain/ should own invariants and canonical representations.
  • services/ should coordinate enriched flows or external calls without becoming a second handler layer.
  • gateway/ should isolate external query / module plumbing.
  • state.rs should persist and reconstruct values, not silently redefine business rules.

lib.rs Pattern

Keep module identity constants explicit:

pub const AXONE_NAMESPACE: &str = "axone";
pub const CONTRACT_NAME: &str = "my-contract";
pub const CONTRACT_ID: &str = const_format::concatcp!(AXONE_NAMESPACE, ":", CONTRACT_NAME);
pub const APP_VERSION: &str = env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION");

contract.rs Pattern

The baseline AppContract wiring looks like this:

use abstract_app::AppContract;

pub type MyContract = AppContract<
    MyContractError,
    MyContractInstantiateMsg,
    MyContractExecuteMsg,
    MyContractQueryMsg,
    MyContractMigrateMsg,
>;

const APP: MyContract = MyContract::new(CONTRACT_ID, APP_VERSION, None)
    .with_instantiate(handlers::instantiate_handler)
    .with_execute(handlers::execute_handler)
    .with_query(handlers::query_handler)
    .with_migrate(handlers::migrate_handler)
    .with_dependencies(&[]);

#[cfg(feature = "export")]
abstract_app::export_endpoints!(APP, MyContract);

abstract_app::cw_orch_interface!(APP, MyContract, MyContractInterface);

Repository-specific refinements:

  • Use Some(APP_METADATA_URL) when the contract publishes metadata from a tagged GitHub URL.
  • Add .with_replies(...) when the contract has reply-driven flows.
  • Keep .with_dependencies(&[]) explicit unless real module dependencies exist.
  • Add the non-wasm DependencyCreation impl when the interface needs the standard installation path used in this repo.

Message Wiring

Use abstract_app::app_msg_types!(...) in msg.rs when following the repository's Abstract app pattern.

Keep message docs and response typing aligned with:

  • api-design
  • api-doc-comments

Error Design

Error enums should include the standard conversion layers used by the contract and then domain-specific errors.

Do not hide domain invariants in generic StdError messages if a dedicated error variant would make the failure explicit.

Replies and Metadata

Two patterns matter in this repository:

  • metadata.json is part of the contract deliverable and should stay aligned with the module identity.
  • reply handlers are normal when contract setup involves follow-up callbacks or submessage completion.

Treat both as first-class contract structure, not optional afterthoughts.

Construction Rules

  • Put invariant checks close to domain object creation.
  • Keep handler branches short; move validation-heavy logic out of handlers.
  • Prefer explicit constructors such as new, try_new, or from_state.
  • Reuse canonical domain types rather than passing partially validated strings across layers.

Signals

GitHub stars
123
Forks
19
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
cosmwasm-contract
Source
github.com/axone-protocol/contracts