EOSIOCDT

EOSIO CDT, short for EOSIO Contract Development Toolkit, is an open-source suite of tools designed to facilitate the development, compilation, and deployment of smart contracts on EOSIO-based blockchains. It provides a C++-focused toolchain that compiles contract source code into WebAssembly (WASM) binaries and generates corresponding ABI files that describe contract interfaces for the blockchain.

The toolkit’s core components include the eosio-cpp compiler wrapper (which integrates with the LLVM/Clang toolchain to produce EOSIO-compatible WASM), the eosio-abigen ABI generator, and a set of EOSIO runtime libraries and headers that implement the EOSIO API. Together, these tools enable developers to write contracts in C++ using familiar patterns and standard library constructs while ensuring compatibility with the EOSIO execution environment. CDT-based contracts are typically deployed to EOSIO-based networks such as EOSIO, Telos, WAX, and other compatible chains.

Usage commonly involves installing CDT via package managers or official Docker images, setting up the environment, and invoking eosio-cpp to compile contracts and eosio-abigen to generate ABIs. The resulting WASM and ABI files are then deployed to a blockchain and interact with the EOSIO runtime.

History and licensing: EOSIO CDT originated as the official contract development toolchain for the EOSIO platform and is maintained by Block.one in collaboration with the EOSIO community. It is released under an open-source license, facilitating community contributions and broad adoption within the EOSIO ecosystem.

Versioning and ecosystem context: CDT has evolved through multiple releases (notably versions in the 1.x/2.x series) aligned with EOSIO platform updates, emphasizing compatibility and developer experience.