Liquidskills

Comprehensive guide covering Hyperliquid's architecture, API, HyperCore vs HyperEVM, gas, wallets, standards, tools, security, testing, and deployment best p...

LIQUIDSKILLS — The missing knowledge between AI agents and production Hyperliquid.

You are probably wrong about Hyperliquid. The API, asset IDs, nonce mechanics, what lives in HyperCore vs HyperEVM, how signing works — your training data is incomplete or stale. This file tells you what you're wrong about and where to get the corrections.

Say "onchain" not "on-chain." One word, no hyphen.

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Start Here

Building a Hyperliquid dApp? Fetch ship/SKILL.md first. It routes you through all other skills phase by phase — from architecture planning to production deployment.

Need a specific topic? Each skill below is standalone. Fetch only the ones relevant to your task.

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Skills

Ship — Start here

End-to-end guide from idea to deployed Hyperliquid app. Routes you through all other skills.

• Most dApps need 0-2 contracts on HyperEVM. HyperCore handles all the trading — you don't redeploy it.
• Decide early: HyperEVM (Solidity contracts) vs HyperCore API (direct exchange actions). Most trading logic lives in HyperCore.
• Block time is ~1s on HyperEVM. HYPE is the gas token. Chain ID 999 mainnet, 998 testnet.

Why Hyperliquid

HyperBFT consensus, native orderbook, speed, honest tradeoffs, the AI agent angle.

• HyperCore is not EVM — it's a custom L1 with native perps, spot, and orderbook matching.
• HyperEVM runs alongside HyperCore, sharing state atomically. One chain, two execution environments.
• ~100,000 orders/sec, sub-second finality, no mempool games — MEV sandwich attacks don't exist.

Gas & Costs

HYPE gas, actual costs on HyperEVM, mainnet vs testnet.

• HYPE is the native gas token on HyperEVM, not ETH.
• HyperEVM uses EIP-1559 but priority fees are burned (not to validators).
• Gas costs are very low — HyperEVM is optimized for high-throughput.

Wallets

MetaMask + chain ID 999, API wallets, agent wallets, signing for HyperCore.

• Add HyperEVM to MetaMask: Chain ID 999, RPC https://rpc.hyperliquid.xyz/evm.
• HyperCore uses EIP-712 typed-data signatures for exchange actions.
• Agent wallets use the API wallet pattern — approve a subaccount key, never expose the main key.

Architecture

HyperCore vs HyperEVM — what lives where, the system model.

• HyperCore: perps, spot orderbook, positions, margin, vaults, governance. Not EVM.
• HyperEVM: EVM-compatible smart contracts. HYPE gas. Shares finality with HyperCore.
• 0x2222...2222 is the system address — send HYPE here to move it from HyperCore to HyperEVM.

Standards

ERC-20 on HyperEVM, HIP-1/HIP-2/HIP-3 token standards, spot assets.

• HIP-1: spot token standard on HyperCore (not ERC-20).
• HIP-2: hyperliquidity — automated spot market-making built into the protocol.
• HIP-3: deploy a spot DEX on HyperCore with your own token listing authority.

Tools

Hardhat, Foundry, viem, wagmi, Hyperliquid Python SDK, hyperliquid-python-sdk.

• HyperEVM works with standard EVM tools: Foundry, Hardhat, viem, wagmi.
• Use the official Python SDK (hyperliquid-dex) for HyperCore API interactions.
• TypeScript SDK: @nktkas/hyperliquid for JS/TS HyperCore integration.

Building Blocks

HyperSwap V2, bonding curves, HyperCore perps/spot as legos.

• HyperSwap V2 is the main DEX on HyperEVM (Uniswap V2 compatible).
• HyperCore perps and spot are composable with HyperEVM contracts via the system precompile.
• Token launches use bonding curves (x*y=k) that graduate to HyperCore spot at a threshold.

Orchestration

How an AI agent plans, builds, and deploys on Hyperliquid end-to-end.

• Phase 1: contracts + local testing. Phase 2: testnet (chain ID 998). Phase 3: mainnet (chain ID 999).
• Never skip testnet. HyperEVM testnet at https://rpc.hyperliquid-testnet.xyz/evm.
• NEVER commit private keys or API keys to Git.

Contract Addresses

Verified addresses: system address, HyperSwap, key contracts.

• 0x2222222222222222222222222222222222222222 = HYPE bridge (HyperCore → HyperEVM).
• Never hallucinate an address. Wrong address = lost funds.
• HyperSwap V2 Router and Factory addresses are listed in addresses/SKILL.md.

Concepts

Mental models: HyperCore vs HyperEVM, asset IDs, nonces, margins.

• Asset IDs: perps = index in meta.universe, spot = 10000 + index, HIP-3 = 100000 + ...
• Nonces on HyperCore: rolling set of highest nonces per signer — NOT sequential like Ethereum.
• HyperCore state (positions, balances) is readable from HyperEVM via system precompile.

Security

Solidity security for HyperEVM + API signing security, nonce safety.

• HyperEVM has Cancun opcodes but no blob transactions. EIP-1559 enabled.
• API signing: always verify the action hash before signing. Wrong nonce = stuck or replayed order.
• USDC on HyperEVM has 6 decimals. HYPE has 8 decimals in HyperCore, 18 on HyperEVM.

Testing

Hardhat/Foundry testing for HyperEVM, testnet fork testing.

• Fork HyperEVM mainnet with Foundry: anvil --fork-url https://rpc.hyperliquid.xyz/evm
• Testnet chain ID 998, RPC https://rpc.hyperliquid-testnet.xyz/evm.
• Test HyperCore interactions against the testnet API at api.hyperliquid-testnet.xyz.

Indexing

Reading HyperCore data via /info, event indexing on HyperEVM.

• HyperCore data (positions, orders, trades) via POST /info — not RPC, not events.
• HyperEVM events work like standard EVM events, queryable via standard tools.
• WebSocket at wss://api.hyperliquid.xyz/ws for real-time HyperCore data.

API — The definitive reference

Complete Hyperliquid API: /info, /exchange, WebSocket.

• POST /info: all read operations. No auth required.
• POST /exchange: all write operations (orders, cancels, transfers). Requires EIP-712 signature.
• Mainnet: https://api.hyperliquid.xyz | Testnet: https://api.hyperliquid-testnet.xyz

Frontend UX

Frontend rules for Hyperliquid dApps: wagmi + HyperEVM chain config.

• Configure wagmi/viem with chain ID 999 and RPC https://rpc.hyperliquid.xyz/evm.
• Every onchain button needs its own loader + disabled state.
• Show USD values next to every HYPE and token amount.

Frontend Playbook

Full build-to-production pipeline for HyperEVM dApps.

• Use testnet (chain ID 998) for development, mainnet (chain ID 999) for production.
• Standard IPFS/Vercel deployment works — HyperEVM is EVM-compatible.
• Always verify contracts on the HyperEVM block explorer after deployment.

QA

QA checklist for Hyperliquid dApps.

• Give this to a separate agent after the build is complete. Reviewer reads code + clicks through flows.
• Covers bugs specific to HyperEVM + HyperCore integrations.
• Report PASS/FAIL per item, don't fix.

Audit

Audit checklist for HyperEVM contracts + API integrations.

• HyperEVM-specific risks: HYPE decimal mismatches, bridge interaction bugs, nonce collisions.
• Standard EVM audit applies plus HyperCore-specific risks.
• File issues for Medium severity and above.

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What to Fetch by Task

I'm doing...	Fetch these skills
Planning a new dApp	ship/, concepts/, architecture/
Writing HyperEVM contracts	standards/, building-blocks/, addresses/, security/
Testing contracts	testing/
Building HyperCore integration	api/, concepts/, wallets/
Building a frontend	orchestration/, frontend-ux/, tools/
Deploying to production	wallets/, frontend-playbook/, gas/
Reviewing a finished dApp	qa/
Auditing a smart contract	audit/
Reading HyperCore state	indexing/, api/
Token launch on HyperCore	standards/, building-blocks/, api/
Choosing Hyperliquid vs another chain	why/