Cardano Ledger Application

This is the Ledger application for the Cardano blockchain, providing secure storage and transaction signing for ADA and Cardano native tokens.

Overview

The Cardano Ledger app allows users to manage their Cardano assets on Ledger hardware devices (Stax, Flex, Nano X, Nano S+). It supports a wide range of transaction types across different Cardano eras, including Shelley, Allegra, Mary, Alonzo, Babbage, and Conway.

For detailed information about the application, please refer to:

• doc/OVERVIEW.md: High-level architecture, data flow, and testing infrastructure.
• doc/tx.md: Detailed transaction body processing and hashing specifications.
• doc/apdu.md: Compact APDU command/flow reference and source-of-truth pointers.
• AGENTS.md: Development guidelines and instructions for AI agents.

Quick start guide

With VSCode

You can setup a convenient environment to build and test your application using Ledger's VSCode developer tools extension.

1. Install and run Docker.
2. Install VSCode and add Ledger's extension.
3. Open this folder in VSCode.
4. Use the extension's sidebar to build, run with Speculos, or execute functional tests.

With a terminal

See doc/testing.md for environment setup (system dependencies, Python venv) and the full testing workflow.

Compilation

Note: Nano S is no longer supported.

The repo-root Makefile is used exclusively for building the device binary inside the Ledger SDK / Docker environment. It is not used by unit tests, fuzzing, or Python tooling (those are driven by tests/Makefile and cmake).

make DEBUG=1  # compile optionally with TRACE enabled

Extra preprocessor defines can be passed via DEFINES+=, e.g.:

make DEBUG=1 DEFINES+=TRACE_TX_PARSE

Supported BOLOS_SDK targets:

• STAX_SDK
• FLEX_SDK
• NANOX_SDK
• NANOSP_SDK

Test

The application uses a multi-layered testing approach, including unit tests, end-to-end functional tests, and fuzzing.

For detailed instructions on setting up the test environment and running different test suites, please refer to doc/testing.md.

Quick Commands

# Unit tests (regenerates fixtures, checks drift, builds, and runs)
make -C tests tests-unit

# Functional tests (requires Speculos/Ragger setup)
pytest tests/standalone/ --device nanox

Documentation

• Architecture Overview: doc/OVERVIEW.md
• Testing Overview: doc/testing.md
• Transaction Processing: doc/tx.md
• APDU Overview: doc/apdu.md
• Known Non-Issues: doc/non_bugs.md
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Unit Tests: tests/unit/README.md
• Fuzzing: tests/fuzzing/FUZZING.md

Continuous Integration

The project uses GitHub Actions for CI, including guidelines enforcement, code formatting checks, compilation for all supported devices, unit tests, and functional tests.