Clients

Clients combine wallets and providers to enable different blockchain operations. The Evolution SDK provides four client types, each optimized for specific capabilities and security requirements.

Overview

A client's capabilities depend on its configuration:

• Wallet: Provides signing capability and address context
• Provider: Enables blockchain queries and transaction submission

Different combinations create different client types with distinct capabilities.

Client Types

Configuration Pattern

All clients use createClient with different configurations:

createClient({
  network: "mainnet" | "preprod" | "preview",
  provider?: ProviderConfig,  // Optional
  wallet?: WalletConfig       // Optional
})

Rules:

• At least one of provider or wallet must be present
• wallet alone → API Wallet Client
• provider alone → Provider-Only Client
• Both → Full Client or Read-Only Client (depends on wallet type)

Decision Tree

What do you need to do?

Build + Sign + Submit transactions?
├─ Development/Testing → Full Client (seed wallet)
└─ Production automation → Full Client (private-key wallet)

Sign only (frontend dApp)?
└─ API Wallet Client (CIP-30)

Build only (backend)?
└─ Read-Only Client (user's address)

Query + Submit pre-signed?
└─ Provider-Only Client

Next Steps

• Client Basics - Understanding client capabilities
• Provider Setup - Provider configuration comparison
• Architecture - Frontend/backend patterns
• Wallets - Wallet types and security
• Providers - Provider-only client patterns