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Publish a Contract

In this lesson, you'll deploy the counter contract to Devnet. It's not difficult — compile the code, publish it, find the PackageID, and you're done.

Prerequisites​

What is Publishing?​

Publishing means registering your locally written Move contract on the Sui blockchain. After publishing:

  • The contract is stored on-chain as a Package
  • A unique address called a PackageID is assigned
  • The PackageID lets clients reference the package on-chain; its public and entry functions can be called by anyone, subject to each function's argument and access requirements

Try It Out​

Choose whichever method works for you.

Option A: Move Playground​

No local setup required. The Playground comes pre-loaded with the complete counter code. Click Compile, then Publish to deploy to Devnet right in your browser.

The key difference from the CLI: the Playground uses your browser wallet, which shows an approval popup before signing. The CLI signs automatically using your local keystore with no popup.

The address connected to your wallet must have SUI test tokens for gas. If you haven't obtained them yet, get them here.

Steps:

  1. Click Connect Wallet in the top-right corner
  2. Switch to Devnet in your wallet (how to switch)
  3. Click Compile and wait for the build to succeed
  4. Click Publish (it's disabled until Compile completes)
  5. Approve the transaction in your wallet popup
  6. After confirmation, the Package ID appears in the Playground
my_first_package
Move.toml
sources
my_first_package.move
Move.toml
README.md
Console
Build ready.
info

Copy the Package ID shown above — you'll need it in the next lesson.

Option B: VSCode + CLI​

From the project root directory (where Move.toml is located), run:

cd ~/sui-projects/my_first_package
sui client publish

The CLI signs automatically with your local keystore and submits the transaction to Devnet — no wallet popup appears.

Reading the output​

When successful, a large amount of output is displayed. You only need to find two things.

Look for Status: Success in the Transaction Effects section — this confirms the publish worked.

Find the Published Objects section under Object Changes:

│ Published Objects:                                          │
│  ┌──                                                        │
│  │ PackageID: 0x1234abcd...                                │
│  │ Version: 1                                               │
│  │ Digest: AbCdEf...                                        │
│  │ Modules: counter                                         │
│  └──                                                        │
info

The PackageID: 0x... value is your contract's on-chain address. Save it — you'll need it in the next lesson.

Publishing also creates an UpgradeCap object transferred to your address. This object controls future contract upgrades.

Near the top or bottom of the output you'll also find a Transaction Digest, which you can use to look up the transaction in Sui Explorer.

Verify on Sui Explorer​

Open Sui Explorer (Devnet) and paste your PackageID or transaction digest into the search box. Confirm that the Package is listed and the PackageID matches what you received.

If You Get an Error​

InsufficientGas / No valid gas coins found for the transaction: You don't have enough test tokens. Get more from the faucet. Check your balance with sui client gas.

Unresolved dependencies: The [environments] section is missing from Move.toml. See L14 to add the devnet chain ID.

Build failed: Run sui move build first to diagnose the error.

Success Checklist​

  • Compiled and published the contract (Playground or sui client publish)
  • Obtained the PackageID
  • Verified the Package on Sui Explorer

What You Did in This Lesson​

  • Deployed the counter contract to Devnet (Playground or CLI)
  • Obtained the PackageID
  • Verified the deployed Package on Sui Explorer