Overview
TyphonJS is a free, open-source code library that lets JavaScript developers create wallet addresses and build transactions inside their own apps1. It is aimed at teams making wallets, DApps (decentralized apps), and backend services2. When an app needs to send funds, TyphonJS can pick which of the app's available coins to spend, set the fee, and return the change3.
TyphonJS is a transaction builder for Cardano made by Strica, the company behind Typhon Wallet and the Cardanoscan blockchain explorer4. Typhon Wallet uses it1. The original build was paid for through a Project Catalyst grant, part of Cardano's community-voted funding program2. Two later Catalyst grants kept it in step with network upgrades5,6.
Key Features
- Works with Cardano's main address types. TyphonJS creates and reads base, enterprise, pointer, and reward addresses, and reads Byron addresses7.
- Payments without the coin math. A ready-made helper turns a list of recipients and available funds into a finished ADA payment, and a general function fills in inputs, fees, and change for more complex transactions3.
- Smart contract transactions. Apps can build transactions for Plutus smart contracts, the programs that run on Cardano, across Plutus versions 1, 2, and 38. Reference scripts, contract code stored once on the network and reused, are supported as well5.
- Voting and governance built in. TyphonJS can register DReps (representatives that ADA holders delegate their votes to), cast votes, and submit governance proposals, added through a Catalyst-funded upgrade6.
- Tokens and notes on a transaction. Transactions can mint or burn native tokens and carry metadata, extra data such as a note or a record stored alongside the payment3.
What to Expect
For developers, TyphonJS installs from npm, the standard JavaScript package registry, as @stricahq/typhonjs. It can also load straight into a web page through jsDelivr or unpkg, two free hosting services for code files1. The library builds transactions but leaves keys to a companion package, bip32ed25519. That package turns a recovery phrase into signing keys, and TyphonJS then attaches the signatures1.
Documentation is a function-by-function reference generated from the code, listing each method and what it expects9. The README points to the repository's test files as the usage examples, so developers learn by reading working code1.
Strica maintains TyphonJS in the open on GitHub, where developers can report bugs through the issue tracker and follow new releases1.
For everyone else, TyphonJS works out of sight. It is code that other teams build into wallets and apps, not something you open and use directly. The Cardano Developer Portal lists it among its open-source JavaScript libraries for address generation and transaction building10.
