Testing SNS in local testing environment

This repository currently does not accept external contributions in the form of pull requests. Please submit your suggestions and bug reports by opening a ticket.

Purpose

The main purpose of sns-testing is to enable developers of Internet Computer (IC) dapps to test Service Nervous System (SNS) decentralization. However, this solution may also be applicable in other scenarios, e.g.:

• Testing tools such as dfx, quill, sns.
• Testing UX-related aspects before releasing the NNS frontend dapp.

How to use these instructions

Assuming you are a developer who wants to test SNS-decentralization of their dapp, you need to establish your own dapp's deployment process before using this solution. Usually, a testing deployment is done in a shell script that interacts with a local replica via DFX.

You might need to slightly adjust your deployment script to work with sns-testing. In particular, please avoid running dfx start or dfx replica inside your deployment script (sns-testing will take care of starting a replica instance for you).

If you do not yet have a dapp that is ready for decentralization, you may still run sns-testing with the built-in test dapp.

Special instructions for Apple silicon users

Skip to the next section if you are using an x86-compatible system, e.g., Linux, Windows, or Intel-based Mac.

The sns-testing solution is based on Docker; however, there are subtle issues while running Docker on new Apple silicon systems (e.g., Apple M1, Apple M2). Therefore, Apple silicon users are advised to run the commands provided by this repository directly. This requires additional preparation:

0. Make sure you have Homebrew installed.

   • Instructions: https://brew.sh/
   • Use Homebrew to install (or upgrade to the latest available versions) bash, coreutils (needed for tools e.g., sha256sum), jq, and yq:

     brew install bash coreutils jq yq

   You also need rosetta that you can install by running:

   softwareupdate --install-rosetta

   Also make sure you have Rust installed including the wasm32-unknown-unknown target.

   • Instructions: https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install
   • Add wasm32-unknown-unknown into your active toolchain by running:

   rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown

1. Ensure the newly installed tools are added to your PATH:

   echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin/:/usr/local/opt/coreutils/libexec/gnubin"' >> "${HOME}/.bashrc"

   Above, we rely on .bashrc, as the main commands from this repository are to be executed via Bash.

2. Clone this repository:

   git clone git@github.com:dfinity/sns-testing.git
   cd sns-testing

3. Run the installation script:

   bash install.sh

4. Start a local replica (this will keep running in the current console; press ⌘+C to stop):

   DX_NET_JSON="${HOME}/.config/dfx/networks.json"
   mkdir -p "$(dirname "${DX_NET_JSON}")"
   cp "$DX_NET_JSON" "${DX_NET_JSON}.tmp" 2>/dev/null  # save original config if present
   echo '{
      "local": {
         "bind": "0.0.0.0:8080",
         "type": "ephemeral",
         "replica": {
            "subnet_type": "system",
            "port": 8000
         }
      }
   }' > "${DX_NET_JSON}"
   ./bin/dfx start --clean; \
   mv "${DX_NET_JSON}.tmp" "$DX_NET_JSON" 2>/dev/null  # restore original config if it was present

   While running these instructions for the first time, you may need to hit the "Allow" button to authorize the system to execute the binaries shipped with sns-testing, e.g., ./bin/dfx.

   This should print the dashboard URL:

   Replica API running on 0.0.0.0:8000
   

5. Open another Bash console:

   bash

   and run the setup script:

   ./setup_locally.sh  # from Bash

   After this step, you can also access the NNS frontend dapp from the browser.

6. To validate the testing environment, run the test dapp shipped with this repository through the entire SNS lifecycle:

   ./run_basic_scenario.sh  # from Bash

   If the basic scenario finished successfully, you should see the message Basic scenario has successfully finished. on the last line of the output.

   Observe the newly created SNS instance via the NNS frontend dapp. When you try to login for the first time, you will need to register a new Internet Identity for testing.

   If you have successfully executed the above commands, you are now ready to test your own dapp's SNS decentralization.

7. Clean-up (after you are done testing):

   Note that performing the clean-up will delete some files in the sns-testing repository and your DFX wallets for the local network (not affecting mainnet). Make sure to back up all files you move into the sns-testing repository.

   ./cleanup.sh  # from Bash

   It should now be possible to repeat the scenario starting from step 4.

Bootstrapping a testing environment via Docker

This section explains the simplest way to set up a local environment for testing SNS decentralization. However, this solution is based on Docker and is currently not supported on Apple silicon systems. Please proceed if you are using Linux, Windows, or Intel-based Mac.

After getting familiar with the basic scenario, you may replace the test canister with your own one, and use this repo as a skeleton for creating a custom testing environment.

1. If your dapp is ready for testing, clone it into the current directory and cd into it.

2. Start a local replica instance:

   SNS_TESTING_INSTANCE=$(
      docker run -p 8000:8000 -p 8080:8080 -v "`pwd`":/dapp -d ghcr.io/dfinity/sns-testing:main dfx start --clean
   )
   while ! docker logs $SNS_TESTING_INSTANCE 2>&1 | grep -m 1 'Replica API running'
   do
      echo "Awaiting local replica ..."
      sleep 3
   done

   This should print the dashboard URL:

   Awaiting local replica ...
   Dashboard: http://localhost:8000/_/dashboard
   

3. Run setup:

   docker exec -it $SNS_TESTING_INSTANCE bash setup_locally.sh

   After this step, you can also access the NNS frontend dapp from the browser on your host machine.

4. Run the basic scenario:

   docker exec $SNS_TESTING_INSTANCE bash run_basic_scenario.sh

   If the basic scenario finished successfully, you should see the message Basic scenario has successfully finished. on the last line of the output.

   Observe the newly created SNS instance via the NNS frontend dapp. When you try to login for the first time, you will need to register a new Internet Identity for testing.

5. If you have successfully executed the above commands, enter a Bash shell inside your sns-testing Docker instance by running

   docker exec -it $SNS_TESTING_INSTANCE bash

   Note: The instruction for testing your own dapp's SNS decentralization assume that all commands are executed from this bash session (inside Docker). You should still have access to your dapp's files, as the repo was mounted at /dapp inside the container.

   You are now ready to test your own dapp's SNS decentralization.

6. Clean-up (after you are done testing):

   docker kill $SNS_TESTING_INSTANCE

   It should now be possible to repeat the scenario starting from step 1.

The above run-book could be easily automated and integrated into your CI/CD pipeline.

Troubleshooting

• If either of the ports 8000 or 8080 are occupied, then docker run -p 8000:8000 -p 8080:8080 ... and ./bin/dfx start --clean are expected to fail. In that case, you should run docker ps (if you have Docker installed on your system) and lsof -i :8000 or lsof -i :8080 to determine the service listening on the port 8000 or 8080, correspondingly, and then close the service.

SNS lifecycle

This section assumes that you have successfully deployed a local environment for testing SNS decentralization and validated your setup by creating an SNS instance for the test dapp (shipped with sns-testing).

We now explain how to test your own dapp's SNS decentralization.

Your SNS configuration file should only specify a single initial SNS developer neuron controlled by your DFX principal for the following instructions to work without any additional steps required (otherwise, you'd need to manually vote on SNS proposals created during these steps with your initial SNS developer neurons).

0. Run the following script to ensure the local file system is in the right state:

   ./cleanup.sh  # from Bash

1. Deploy your dapp onto the local replica instance as per usual. You can find your dapp repo under the path /dapp in the Docker container. This step requires your dapp repo to have a deployment script that interacts with the replica via the 8080 port.

   If you don't yet have a solution to deploy your custom dapp, you can still proceed with these instructions by deploying the test dapp provided with this repo:

   ./deploy_test_canister.sh  # from Bash

   This will deploy a test canister (see Section Test canister for further details) which can be thought of as a placeholder for your dapp.

2. Give control of your dapp canisters to NNS:

   ./let_nns_control_dapp.sh  # from Bash

   This automatically creates an SNS configuration file named sns_init.yaml, unless such a file already exists (e.g. you hand-crafted one yourself). The auto-generated file assumes that you are using the test dapp.

3. Submit an NNS proposal to create an SNS that will control your dapp canister(s):

   ./propose_sns.sh  # from Bash

   The proposal will pass right away, because it is made by a neuron that has an overwhelming amount of voting power (this is part of the testing environment).

   After a few minutes, you should see a new SNS instance in the Launchpad section of the NNS dapp.

4. Optional: Upgrade your dapp canister(s) via SNS proposal.

   If you are going through these instructions using the test dapp, this step can be done as follows:

   ./upgrade_test_canister.sh "Swap is taking place."  # from Bash

   This submits an SNS proposal to upgrade the test dapp. If you are using the auto-generated sns_init.yaml file, the proposing neuron will have all of the voting power in the SNS. Thus, the proposal will be adopted and executed right away. Otherwise, you you might to vote with additional initial neurons to pass the upgrade proposal.

   If you are using your own dapp rather than the test dapp, look at how upgrade_test_canister.sh works. In short, it ends up calling quill sns make-upgrade-canister-proposal. That command takes a fair number of arguments. Therefore, it is helpful to look at how the script(s) here invoke that command as a guide to how you can invoke the command to propose an upgrade to your own dapp.

5. Once the swap starts, you can simulate multiple users' participation:

   ./participate_sns_swap.sh <num-participants> <icp-per-participant>  # from Bash

   You can run ./participate_sns_swap.sh multiple times (with different arguments). For example, if you run

   ./participate_sns_swap.sh 2 7
   ./participate_sns_swap.sh 4 3
   

   The first above command creates two user identities (called participant-000 and participant-001), each contributing 7 ICPs to the swap. The second command then reuses the first two participants, each of which now contributes 3 more ICPs; it then creates two new participants, each contributing 3 ICPs as well. So, the overall contributions will be:

   Identity Name	Swap Contribution, ICP
   participant-000	10
   participant-001	10
   participant-002	3
   participant-003	3

   You can also participate in the swap using the NNS Dapp (another feature of the test environment). There, you can conjure some ICP for yourself using the "Get ICP" button (another feature of the test environment), and use the ICP to participate in the ongoing swap.

   You can make the swap complete immediately by making the total participation amount equal to the target ICP amount.

6. Optional: Submit (another) proposal to upgrade one of your dapp canisters. Unlike before, the proposal will probably not pass right away, because now, the voting power is spread among multiple neurons.

   If using the test dapp, this step can be performed like so:

   ./upgrade_test_canister.sh "First upgrade after the initial token swap."  # from Bash

   This is similar to step 4, but we use a different message argument so that there will be a visible change to the dapp.

   • To make the upgrade proposal pass, tell the participants created by participate_sns_swap.sh to vote on the proposal, like so:

     ./vote_on_sns_proposal.sh <num-participants> <proposal-id> y  # from Bash

   • If you would rather test the proposal rejection scenario, simply replace y in the above command with n.

   Casting sufficient votes. In either of the above cases, make sure that <num-participants> is sufficient for the proposal to be decided by majority; i.e., we need strictly more than 50%.

   For example, if you called ./participate_sns_swap.sh 100 <icp-per-participant>, then ./vote_on_sns_proposal.sh 51 <proposal-id> y will cast enough yes-votes for the proposal to be adopted, and ./vote_on_sns_proposal.sh 51 <proposal-id> n will cast enough no-votes for the proposal to be rejected, whereas, e.g., ./vote_on_sns_proposal.sh 50 <proposal-id> n will still keep the proposal open.

   Observing voting errors. It is expected to get the error "Neuron not eligible to vote on proposal." for some neurons because each participant gets a basket of neurons with various dissolve delays and only neurons with dissolve delay at least neuron_minimum_dissolve_delay_to_vote_seconds (according to the SNS configuration file from step 1.) are eligible to vote. It is also expected to get the error "Neuron already voted on proposal." for some neurons because they are followers of other neurons and our simple voting script does not take this into account.

Congratulations! You have now seen SNS in action in a test environment. We recommend that you experiment with different configurations until you find one that works best for your project.

Check out SNS state

You can inspect the SNS state by running the following scripts:

• get_last_sns_proposal.sh: displays the SNS proposal that was added most recently;
• get_sns_proposal.sh <proposal-id>: displays the SNS proposal with given <proposal-id>;
• get_sns_canisters.sh: shows the canister IDs of the SNS canisters and the registered dapp canisters;
• get_sns_neurons.sh: displays all SNS neurons of your DFX identity;
• get_all_sns_neurons.sh: displays all SNS neurons in the SNS governance canister;
• get_sns_swap_state.sh: displays the SNS swap's state.

Test canister

The test canister is available in the directory test. Its purpose is

• to provide a simple dapp that can be deployed and handed over control of to an SNS in the basic scenario and
• to show how generic SNS functions can be implemented and secured to be only called by the SNS governance canister.

Internally, the test canister keeps an integer counter and a greeting message. Furthermore, the test canister exposes public methods to get the value of the counter, a greeting text starting with the greeting message, and a pair of functions (called validate and execute that can be used as generic SNS functions, which means that these methods can be called as a result of an SNS proposal --- see Section 7 of this tutorial for further details). Callers to the execute function are restricted to a canister ID that can be set in the initial arguments when deploying or upgrading the test canister. By specifying the SNS governance canister ID as the allowed canister ID to call the execute function you make sure that this method can only be invoked as a result of an adopted SNS proposal. Note that the validate function must be safe to call with any arguments because every submitted SNS proposal for executing generic SNS functions triggers the execution of the validate function (also if the SNS proposal is eventually rejected) and every SNS neuron can make such an SNS proposal. Hence, callers of the validate function are not restricted in the test canister (you might still want to restrict callers of the validate function in your own canister, e.g., to prevent users from using up your canister's cycles by calling the validate function) and the validate function is implemented to be safe to call by anyone with any arguments.

You should specify the SNS governance canister ID as the allowed canister ID to call the execute function.

1. You can deploy the test canister from this repository by running the script ./deploy_test_canister.sh.

You should run the following steps after deploy_sns.sh <config-path> and before open_sns_swap.sh according to the SNS lifecycle section.

2. You can then register the test canister with the SNS by running the script ./register_dapp.sh <canister-id>.

   Here, <canister-id> is the principal of the canister that you want to decentralize.

3. Upgrade the test canister by running the script upgrade_test_canister.sh. The upgrade also stores the SNS governance canister ID in the canister's memory to implement access control restrictions to the execute method of the test canister (only the SNS governance canister is allowed to call this method).

4. To test generic functions of the test canister, you need to register them first. An example SNS proposal to register generic functions (the functions validate and execute of the test canister) is submitted by running the script ./register_generic_functions_test.sh.

5. Now you can submit SNS proposals to execute the generic functions by running ./execute_generic_functions_test.sh <greeting> where <greeting> is the new greeting message to be set in the test canister. Note that <greeting> must be non-empty (otherwise the proposal validation should fail).

6. Once the SNS proposal is executed, you should see the new greeting message when invoking dfx canister call test greet "Martin". You should also see that the counter obtained via dfx canister call test get got incremented after executing the SNS proposal (the counter gets incremented upon every call to the execute function).

Check out canister status

You can inspect the status of a canister <name> (with a corresponding entry in the dfx.json file) by running the script ./get_canister_status.sh <name>. Note that your DFX identity must be a controller of the canister <name> for that script to succeed. In particular, you can also invoke the script to check if your DFX identity is a controller of the canister <name>.

Hacking

You can find further instructions for expert users in the file HACKING.md.