tools

name: tools description: Current Ethereum development tools, frameworks, libraries, RPCs, and block explorers. What actually works today for building on Ethereum. Includes tool discovery for AI agents — MCPs, abi.ninja, Foundry, Scaffold-ETH 2, Hardhat, and more. Use when setting up a dev environment, choosing tools, or when an agent needs to discover what's available.

Ethereum Development Tools

What You Probably Got Wrong

Blockscout MCP server exists: https://mcp.blockscout.com/mcp — gives AI agents structured blockchain data via Model Context Protocol. This is cutting-edge infra as of Feb 2026.

abi.ninja is essential: https://abi.ninja — paste any verified contract address, get a UI to call any function. Zero setup. Supports mainnet + all major L2s. Perfect for agent-driven contract exploration.

x402 has production SDKs: @x402/fetch (TS), x402 (Python), github.com/coinbase/x402/go — production-ready libraries for HTTP payments.

Foundry and Hardhat 3 are both legitimate choices in 2026. Foundry: faster, Solidity-native. Hardhat 3: TypeScript-first, mature plugin ecosystem.

Tool Discovery Pattern for AI Agents

When an agent needs to interact with Ethereum:

1. Read operations: Blockscout MCP or Etherscan API
2. Write operations: Foundry cast send or ethers.js/viem
3. Contract exploration: abi.ninja (browser) or cast interface (CLI)
4. Testing: Fork mainnet with anvil, test locally
5. Deployment: forge create or forge script
6. Verification: forge verify-contract or Etherscan API

Blockscout MCP Server

URL: https://mcp.blockscout.com/mcp

A Model Context Protocol server giving AI agents structured blockchain data:

• Transaction, address, contract queries
• Token info and balances
• Smart contract interaction helpers
• Multi-chain support
• Standardized interface optimized for LLM consumption

Why this matters: Instead of scraping Etherscan or making raw API calls, agents get structured, type-safe blockchain data via MCP.

abi.ninja

URL: https://abi.ninja — Paste any contract address → interact with all functions. Multi-chain. Zero setup.

x402 SDKs (HTTP Payments)

TypeScript:

npm install @x402/core @x402/evm @x402/fetch @x402/express

import { x402Fetch } from '@x402/fetch';
import { createWallet } from '@x402/evm';

const wallet = createWallet(privateKey);
const response = await x402Fetch('https://api.example.com/data', {
  wallet,
  preferredNetwork: 'eip155:8453' // Base
});

Python: pip install x402 Go: go get github.com/coinbase/x402/go Docs: https://www.x402.org | https://github.com/coinbase/x402

Scaffold-ETH 2

• Setup: npx create-eth@latest
• What: Full-stack Ethereum toolkit: Solidity + Next.js + Foundry
• Key feature: Auto-generates TypeScript types from contracts. Scaffold hooks make contract interaction trivial.
• Deploy to IPFS: yarn ipfs (BuidlGuidl IPFS)
• UI Components: https://ui.scaffoldeth.io/
• Docs: https://docs.scaffoldeth.io/

Choosing Your Stack (2026)

Essential Foundry cast Commands

# Read contract
cast call 0xAddr "balanceOf(address)(uint256)" 0xWallet --rpc-url $RPC

# Send transaction
cast send 0xAddr "transfer(address,uint256)" 0xTo 1000000 --private-key $KEY --rpc-url $RPC

# Gas price
cast gas-price --rpc-url $RPC

# Decode calldata
cast 4byte-decode 0xa9059cbb...

# ENS resolution
cast resolve-name vitalik.eth --rpc-url $RPC

# Fork mainnet locally
anvil --fork-url $RPC

RPC Providers

Free (testing):

• https://eth.llamarpc.com — LlamaNodes, no key
• https://rpc.ankr.com/eth — Ankr, free tier

Paid (production):

• Alchemy — most popular, generous free tier (300M CU/month)
• Infura — established, MetaMask default
• QuickNode — performance-focused

Community: rpc.buidlguidl.com

Block Explorers

MCP Servers for Agents

Model Context Protocol — standard for giving AI agents structured access to external systems.

1. Blockscout MCP — multi-chain blockchain data (primary)
2. eth-mcp — community Ethereum RPC via MCP
3. Custom MCP wrappers emerging for DeFi protocols, ENS, wallets

MCP servers are composable — agents can use multiple together.

What Changed in 2025-2026

• Foundry became the default over Hardhat for new projects — then Hardhat 3 (Aug 2025) shipped Solidity testing, fuzzing, and Rust internals, making it a legitimate choice again.
• Viem gaining on ethers.js (smaller, better TypeScript)
• MCP servers emerged for agent-blockchain interaction
• x402 SDKs went production-ready
• ERC-8004 tooling emerging (agent registration/discovery)
• Deprecated: Truffle (use Foundry/Hardhat), Goerli/Rinkeby (use Sepolia)

Testing Essentials

Fork mainnet locally:

anvil --fork-url https://eth.llamarpc.com
# Now test against real contracts with fake ETH at http://localhost:8545

Primary testnet: Sepolia (Chain ID: 11155111). Goerli and Rinkeby are deprecated.

Testnet ETH Faucets

Once you have Sepolia ETH you can bridge it to any L2 using each L2's testnet bridge then you will have ETH on that L2 testnet.