App developer overview
If you're a developer looking to build on OP Mainnet, you've come to the right place. In this area of the Optimism Docs you'll find everything you need to know about building OP Mainnet applications.
Getting started
If you're brand new to OP Mainnet, try starting with the guide on deploying a basic contract. It'll get you familiar with the basic steps required to get a contract deployed to the network. OP Mainnet is EVM equivalent (opens in a new tab) so you can feel confident that your existing Ethereum smart contract skills will carry over to OP Mainnet. Just make sure to be aware of the few small differences between Ethereum and OP Mainnet.
You might also want to check out the testing on OP Networks guide and the tutorial on running a local development environment to help you feel totally confident in your OP Mainnet deployment.
Deploying Your First Contract to OP MainnetSolidity Compatibility on OP MainnetTesting Apps on OP MainnetBridging and messaging
Looking to build an application that sends ETH, tokens, or data between OP Mainnet and Ethereum? You'll find some useful guides and tutorials in this area of the docs. For instance, if you want to learn how to bridge a token from Ethereum to OP Mainnet (or vice versa!), you should check out the Standard Token Bridge.
If you're looking for something more advanced, take a look at the guide on sending data between L1 and L2. Contracts on one chain can trigger contract functions on the other chain, it's pretty cool! The Standard Token Bridge for OP Mainnet even uses this same message-passing infrastructure under the hood.
Tutorials
If you're a bit more familiar with OP Mainnet and Ethereum, you can try walking through one of the tutorials put together by the Optimism community. They'll help you get a head start when building your first Optimistic project.
| Tutorial Name | Description | Difficulty Level |
|---|---|---|
| Deploying Your First Contract on OP Mainnet | Learn how to deploy your first contract to OP Mainnet with Remix and MetaMask. | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging ETH With viem | Learn how to use viem to transfer ETH between Layer 1 (Ethereum or Sepolia) and Layer 2 (OP Mainnet or OP Sepolia). | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging ERC-20 Tokens With viem | Learn how to use viem to transfer ERC-20 tokens between Layer 1 (Ethereum or Sepolia) and Layer 2 (OP Mainnet or OP Sepolia). | 🟢 Easy |
| Bridging your Standard ERC-20 token using the Standard Bridge | Learn how to bridge your standard ERC-20 token to layer 2 using the standard bridge. | 🟡 Medium |
| Bridging your Custom ERC-20 token using the Standard Bridge | Learn how to bridge your custom ERC-20 token to layer 2 using the standard bridge. | 🟡 Medium |
| Tracing Deposits and Withdrawals with viem | Learn how to use viem to trace deposits and withdrawals. | 🟢 Easy |
| Viewing Deposits and Withdrawals by address with viem | Learn how to use viem to view deposits and withdrawals by address. | 🟢 Easy |
| Estimating Transaction Costs With the viem | Learn how to use viem to estimate the cost of a transaction on OP Mainnet. | 🟢 Easy |
| Sending OP Mainnet Transactions from Ethereum | Learn how to send transactions to OP Mainnet from Ethereum. | 🟢 Easy |
You can also suggest a new tutorial (opens in a new tab) if you have something specific in mind. We'd love to grow this list!
Next steps
If you still can't find the content you're looking for, there's a few options to get extra help.
- You can ask a question in the Optimism developer support forum (opens in a new tab).
- If you run into any problems during deployment, visit the Transactions Troubleshooting Guide for help.