devGround Phase 2

With Referendum #783, LimeChain began the development of the devGround platform, focused on the implementation of new developer tools using the Polkadot-API (PAPI). It offers a suite of tools designed to help developers streamline development and debugging, enabling rapid prototyping and exploration of on-chain information seamlessly across the entire Polkadot ecosystem in a more intuitive way. Since then, we have delivered on the treasury proposal, gathered feedback, and published a detailed progress report, available here.

In Phase 2, we aim to enhance the developer experience on Polkadot further. The full proposal document for devGround Phase 2 can be found in the Google Docs document here.

TL;DR

In Phase 2 of devGround, we are turning the JavaScript IDE into a collaborative, shareable coding environment, improving the explorer with deeper on-chain insights, and adding utility pages tailored to real developer workflows. Our focus is on saving developer time, reducing context switching, and making devGround a daily-use tool across Substrate-based chains.

1. Console Session Sharing: Enabling developers to share their IDE sessions with collaborators in real time - ideal for pair programming, mentorship, or even solving interview-style challenges together.
2. Console Snippet Sharing: Developers will be able to share executable code snippets through a QR code or URL. This removes the friction of copying code, setting up environments, or installing packages - just scan, click, and run.
3. More On-chain Data: We’re upgrading the block explorer to deliver deeper insights. Planned improvements include:
   • Historical block data in order to access data that’s only available from archive nodes.
   • Detailed account views: extrinsics, transfers, and balances.
   • Search by Extrinsics and Events to enhance the search capabilities of the explorer.
   • State traces and logs to improve debugging and analysis.
4. Improved UX and Feature Interoperability: We aim to significantly reduce friction across the app. This includes:
   • Streamlining navigation between features
   • Improving state persistence across tabs
   • Designing flows based on real-world developer use cases
     1. Debugging State Trie storage values while working on an alternative Polkadot Host implementation.
     2. Exploring on-chain data while working on a data indexer tooling (Subsquid)
5. More Developer Tools: We’re adding new tooling pages and improving the existing ones to increase the number and quality of utilities devGround provides.

Ecosystem Benefits:

By enhancing devGround into a unified, practical hub for runtime, dApp, and parachain developers, we reduce tool fragmentation and shorten the learning curve across parachains. This makes it easier for newcomers to onboard, for teams to collaborate, and for experienced builders to move faster; ultimately helping the entire Polkadot ecosystem scale more efficiently and attract more developers.

The total treasury request for this proposal is 172,210 USDC, distributed across 4 milestones.

Any additional feedback or ideas for the enhancement of the devGround platform are greatly appreciated and welcome.