Atlas, Open-source Plutus Application Backend for Off-chain Cardano Development

Episode by Peter Bui on March 31st, 2023

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Atlas is an application backend that is designed by Genius Yield to simplify the development of off-chain code for on-chain Plutus smart contracts. Some of its key features include an intuitive API for building transactions, leveraging first-class Haskell to avoid code duplication, and modular data providers for querying ledger state information. Developers can also use Atlas to write realistic unit tests that correspond to on-chain behaviour and execute integration tests against a Cardano node in a private network.

In this interview, I’m joined by Chase Maity from MLabs, Manu Gunther & Ale Gadea from Plank and Dr. Lars Bruenjes & Marvin Bertin from Genius Yield. All key team members that helped contribute to the design and development of Atlas to deliver a first class open source tool for the Cardano ecosystem to use.

Atlas has key features that will help anyone developing a decentralised application on Cardano including:

Easily build transactions: Atlas provides an intuitive API that abstracts away the complexity of building transactions, balancing UTxOs, and interfacing with Plutus smart contracts.
Leverage first-class Haskell: Developers can use Haskell to avoid code duplication between on-chain and off-chain code, take advantage of advanced functionalities offered by IOG’s Cardano/Plutus libraries, and easily convert between Atlas and Cardano/Plutus types.
Utilize modular data providers: Atlas allows developers to query ledger state information from Maestro, a local node, or Cardano DB Sync. Additionally, developers can build and contribute their own data providers.
Test extensively: Atlas comes with a test harness that enables developers to write realistic unit tests that correspond to on-chain behaviour. Developers can also execute integration tests against a Cardano node in a private network.

Atlas is constantly evolving to stay up-to-date with the latest innovations in Cardano, such as Reference Inputs, Inline Datums, and Reference Scripts. Developers can access Atlas and get started with an end-to-end example by following the Getting Started guide on the Atlas website.

Atlas is an open source project developed by Genius Yield under the direction of Dr. Lars Brünjes in partnership with development teams, MLabs, Well-Typed and Plank.