Cairo DevEx: Panel Discussion & Open Feedback

🏛 Governance
1

:date: Date: April 17, 2025
:alarm_clock: 14:00 UTC
:link: [Register Here]

Join Starknet’s April Governance Call focused on Cairo DevEx and improving our developer tools.

Starknet needs to hear from you: delegates, developers, and community members about the current challenges with Cairo and ideas for future improvements.

StarkWare engineers, Ohad and Leo, will be sharing insights and potential roadmap ideas.

Agenda:

Panel Discussion (20 minutes):

  • Key panelists—Ohad, Leo, and select delegates—discuss DevEx challenges with Cairo and current feature requests.
  • Sharing insights, observations, and potential ideas for the roadmap.

Delegate & Developer Sharing (25 minutes):

  • Open floor for delegates and developers to share their feedback, pain points, and wishlists.
  • Participate via live Q&A through Zoom Webinar chat or a moderated call.

Your Input Matters:
Feedback and dialogue is essential in shaping the ongoing efforts to enhance Starknet’s ecosystem. This call is your chance to share honest insights, ask questions, and contribute to a vibrant discussion.

We welcome you to post any questions or preliminary feedback in the comments below ahead of the call.

See you on the 17th of April!

2

It’s great to see StarkWare opening up space for real-time community feedback. Can’t wait to hear from Ohad and Leo, and also from fellow builders on what’s working and what’s not.
Already jotting down a few thoughts to bring to the table :eyes::memo:

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Sounds great Immanuel! Please do share your thoughts!

5

Hey everyone,

Thanks to all who joined the April Governance Call.

Here’s a written summary for those who couldn’t make it, covering two key topics: Cairo Developer Experience (DevEx) and the Fee Market post v0.14.0.

Let’s dive in :backhand_index_pointing_down:

:wrench: Cairo DevEx – Challenges & Improvements

Pain points surfaced:

  • :gear: Slow compilation times
  • :red_exclamation_mark: Poor error messages that confuse rather than help
  • :link: Overly strict versioning and frequent breaking changes
  • :puzzle_piece: Tooling inconsistencies across the ecosystem

Suggested improvements:

  • A canonical repository that maps each Starknet version to compatible tooling (CLIs, compilers, etc.)
  • More transparent and coordinated versioning across core tools
  • Improved hint APIs and client-side tooling

Tooling gaps:

  • CLI tools like Starkscan and Voyager struggle to keep up
  • Cartridge was praised for their Open Source Stateless Explorer — a good example of what’s working

:money_with_wings: Fee Market – Aligning for the Future

The “cheapest chain” narrative is no longer a unique or relevant angle.

The focus is shifting to:

  • :white_check_mark: Long-term protocol sustainability
  • :white_check_mark: Fair validator/sequencer incentives
  • :white_check_mark: High-quality service for users and devs

Key context:

  • :warning: Today, StarkWare still controls the sequencer
  • But sequencer decentralization is on the roadmap
  • This makes the design of the fee market a critical topic

Discussion highlights:

  • Proposed fee increases to make running a sequencer economically viable in the long term
  • Concerns about pushing users out due to rising costs
  • There’s community interest in exploring:
    • Fee flows toward public goods
    • Onboarding strategies to maintain accessibility

:ballot_box_with_ballot: Governance Updates

The Builders Council has evolved into a three-tier delegate system, this is part of an ongoing push for:

  • More open and active governance
  • Clearer roles for contributors
  • Structured decision-making as the network matures
6

Thanks for the thorough recap!

On DevEx, I’d love to see a shared “tooling matrix” repo—mapping each StarkNet release to compatible CLI versions, compilers, and IDE plugins would save everyone so much time.

Re: fees, I agree sustainability is key—perhaps a small portion of fees could be automatically redirected to a public-goods pool (docs, tooling, community grants) to balance costs with ecosystem growth.

Looking forward to seeing how these ideas evolve!