Clusters & Environments

Zink operates independent cluster environments in the same way Solana separates mainnet, test networks, and local development. Each cluster has its own genesis, ledger state, RPC endpoints, and upgrade lifecycle.

Available clusters

Zink Mainnet

The production cluster for live Zink applications and production traffic.

Property	Value
RPC URL	Operator-provided / not publicly published in these docs yet
WebSocket	Operator-provided / not publicly published in these docs yet
Explorer	Not publicly published in these docs yet
Status	Live, but public endpoint details are not published here yet

Zink Testnet

The currently published non-production Zink environment used by the live bridge stack and bridge UI.

Property	Value
RPC URL	https://testnet-rpc.z.ink
WebSocket	Not separately published
Role	Current verified public Zink testnet endpoint
Status	Live

Upstream-compatible

Zink clusters speak the same JSON-RPC and WebSocket protocols as Solana. Any tool that works with a Solana endpoint works with Zink — the main change is the URL.

Local development

For local program development, the fastest path is still:

• solana-test-validator
• Starframe, Mollusk, and cargo test flows
• local client development against http://127.0.0.1:8899

Use a live Zink cluster only when you need Zink-specific state or a real network environment.

Configuring your environment

Solana CLI

# Point the CLI at Zink Testnet
solana config set --url https://testnet-rpc.z.ink

# Verify the connection
solana cluster-version

Starframe projects

Starframe uses the Solana CLI endpoint for deployment. Build locally, then deploy to the configured Zink cluster:

cargo build-sbf
solana program deploy target/deploy/my_program.so --url https://testnet-rpc.z.ink

web3.js

import { Connection } from '@solana/web3.js'

const connection = new Connection('https://testnet-rpc.z.ink', 'confirmed')

Choosing an environment

Use case	Cluster
Local unit tests and rapid iteration	solana-test-validator
Integration testing against current Zink bridge / test state	Zink Testnet
Production application traffic	Zink Mainnet

Zink recommendation

Do not assume that non-production Zink state mirrors mainnet. If your workflow depends on specific live accounts, token liquidity, or bridge routes, verify that those exact assets and accounts exist on the cluster you are targeting.

Validator-operator note

A prospective validator operator still needs more than the public Testnet RPC URL. To join a permissioned cluster safely, you also need the current:

• entrypoints
• known-validator pubkeys
• expected genesis hash
• recommended validator version
• approval path for validator-set admission

That cluster bootstrap bundle should come from the Zink network team, not from guesswork or naming conventions.

Verifying connectivity

After configuring your cluster URL, confirm the connection is live:

# Check the validator version running on the cluster
solana cluster-version

# View your current CLI configuration
solana config get

# Confirm you can fetch a recent block height
solana block-height

If any of these commands time out or return errors, see Troubleshooting.