Building midnight-agent-skills: AI-Powered Development for Privacy-First Blockchain

The Problem: Privacy Blockchain Development is Hard

Building on Midnight Network presents unique challenges compared to traditional blockchains:

• New Language: Compact, a domain-specific language for zero-knowledge circuits
• Privacy Primitives: Shielded/unshielded states, selective disclosure, witnesses
• Complex Tooling: Proof servers, indexers, specialized nodes
• Limited Resources: Fewer tutorials, examples, and Stack Overflow answers

Developers face significant friction debugging syntax errors, understanding deprecated patterns, and configuring infrastructure components with proper version synchronization.

The Insight: AI Agents Need Midnight-Specific Knowledge

Existing AI coding assistants have knowledge cutoffs and lack domain expertise in:

• Latest Compact syntax (v0.19+ as of December 2025)
• Midnight-specific patterns (commit-reveal, selective disclosure)
• Infrastructure setup quirks
• Common mistakes and corrections

The solution involves packaging domain-specific knowledge that AI agents can consume and utilize effectively.

The Solution: midnight-agent-skills

This project extends AI coding assistants with curated, verified Midnight development knowledge through the Agent Skills format from Vercel.

How It Works

The system provides a structured knowledge base that AI agents read automatically:

AI Agent reads CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md → accesses skills/ directory →
generates correct Midnight code

Available skills include:

• midnight-compact-guide: Correct Compact v0.19+ syntax and common error prevention
• midnight-sdk-guide: TypeScript SDK integration patterns
• midnight-infra-setup: Local infrastructure configuration
• midnight-deploy: Deployment workflows
• midnight-test-runner: Testing with Vitest

Syntax Corrections Provided

Technical Architecture

Project Structure

midnight-agent-skills/
├── bin/cli.js                    # npx entry point
├── skills/
│   ├── midnight-compact-guide/
│   ├── midnight-sdk-guide/
│   ├── midnight-infra-setup/
│   ├── midnight-deploy/
│   └── midnight-test-runner/
├── AGENTS.md                     # Agent guidance
├── CLAUDE.md                     # Claude-specific guidance
└── package.json

Verification Process

All code patterns were verified against authoritative sources prioritized as:

• MeshJS Starter Template (December 2025 update)
• Midnight Official Documentation
• midnight-mcp Syntax Guide
• OpenZeppelin Compact Contracts

Quick Start

mkdir my-midnight-dapp
cd my-midnight-dapp
npx midnight-agent-skills init

After installation, AI assistants automatically discover and apply the skills when working on Midnight projects.

Example: Voting Contract

The system enables AI to generate properly-structured contracts like shielded voting systems with correct syntax:

pragma language_version >= 0.19;
import CompactStandardLibrary;

export ledger totalVotes: Counter;
export ledger hasVoted: Map<Bytes<32>, Boolean>;

witness local_secret_key(): Bytes<32>;

circuit get_voter_id(): Bytes<32> {
  const sk = local_secret_key();
  return persistentHash<Vector<2, Bytes<32>>>([pad(32, "vote:id:"), sk]);
}

export circuit vote(choice: Uint<8>): [] {
  const voter = get_voter_id();
  assert(disclose(!hasVoted.member(voter)), "Already voted");
hasVoted.insert(disclose(voter), true);
totalVotes.increment(1);
}

Problems Solved

• Syntax Generation: Eliminates incorrect return types and deprecated patterns
• Outdated Patterns: Prevents use of deprecated block syntax
• Infrastructure Confusion: Provides exact version requirements
• Missing Patterns: Supplies verified, working implementations
• Testing Struggles: Includes simulator and private state patterns

Future Enhancements

Planned skills include midnight-audit, midnight-upgrade, midnight-bridge, and midnight-identity. Additional tooling planned includes VS Code extension, web interface, and auto-update mechanisms.

Resources

• GitHub: https://github.com/UvRoxx/midnight-agent-skills
• Midnight Documentation: https://docs.midnight.network
• Compact Language Reference: https://docs.midnight.network/develop/reference/compact/lang-ref
• MeshJS Template: https://github.com/MeshJS/midnight-starter-template