**Never heard of Tezos?** Let's get acquainted! Tezos is a distributed consensus platform (a blockchain) with meta-consensus capability. This means that, unlike other blockchains like Bitcoin or Ethereum, Tezos comes to consensus not only about the state of its ledger, but also about how the protocol and the nodes should adapt and upgrade. This is a fundamental design choice, allowing Tezos to be seamlessly upgradable and continuosly evolving. Due to this feature, Tezos is built to last, and always stay at the leading edge of blockchain technology. To learn more about Tezos, its implementation, and its ecosystem, see :doc:`introduction/tezos`. .. raw:: html

**Newcomer to Tezos?** Come and participate! Start participating to Tezos by following the ``Introduction`` section in the documentation menu. These tutorials explain: - how to :doc:`get the latest release of Octez ` (a complete, open-source implementation of Tezos) in various forms, - how to :doc:`start using Octez to join Tezos `, - different :doc:`ways to participate to the network `, and more. .. raw:: html

**Already a user?** Here is everything you need to know! If you already installed Octez and can participate in the Tezos blockchain, the most useful resources are grouped in the ``User`` section in the documentation menu. These pages: - present the key concepts and mechanisms for setting up Octez, including :doc:`user/setup-client`, :doc:`user/setup-node`, and so on; - empowers you to take advantage of Octez' basic and more advanced features, such as :doc:`user/key-management`, :doc:`user/multisig`, :doc:`user/logging`, and much more. If you intend to participate to Tezos not just as a mere user, but also as a baker, you could also check more specialized resources such as the `NL Knowledge Center `__ or `Open Tezos `__. .. raw:: html

**Want to know how it works?** It's no secret, let us explain! If you want to know more about the Tezos *technology*, there are several sections in the documentation presenting the main design principles of Tezos, and some high-level implementation principles of Octez: - Section ``Shell`` introduces the common :ref:`architectural principles of any Tezos implementation `, mainly consisting of a "shell" and a "protocol". It also presents in particular the :ref:`architectural principles of the Octez implementation `. A group of pages in this section detail some major subsystems of :doc:`shell/shell`. - Sections named `` Protocol`` explain the design principles and the salient features of several Tezos protocols, current or upcoming, such as: the :doc:`active protocol `, a :doc:`protocol proposal under development `, and possibly some protocol(s) that are currently candidate(s) for future adoption. .. raw:: html

**Are you an application developer?** Find how to program with Tezos! Tezos is an open platform. As any programmable blockchain, its value lies in the increasing base of smart contracts and distributed applications covering various domains, but also in the tools that make the ecosystem easier to use and more efficient, such as wallets, indexers, and many others. If you are looking for an accessible and pedagogical exposition on how to write smart contracts or Dapps, there are many great resources out there for developing on Tezos, such as the `Tezos Developer Portal `__ and `Open Tezos `__. For Tezos developers, this website mostly provides reference and API documentation, but also some guidelines, including: - A complete reference of :doc:`active/michelson` - Important API concepts such as the :doc:`developer/rpc` - API references such as :doc:`shell/rpc`, :doc:`api/openapi`, or :doc:`api/errors` - Guidelines for writing smart contracts in Michelson, such as :doc:`active/michelson_anti_patterns`. .. raw:: html

**Are you a platform developer?** Here are the nuts and bolts! The main focus of this technical documentation website is on resources for platform developers, that is, those contributing to the Tezos platform, including contributors to its Octez implementation (Octez developers) and contributors to the Tezos protocol (protocol developers). Platform developers can find a rich set of explanations, tutorials, and howtos, mainly in the ``Platform Developer`` section, including: - a tutorial on the various forms of contributing (:doc:`developer/contributing`), and guidelines such as :doc:`developer/guidelines` - programming tutorials covering various libraries and frameworks specific to the Octez OCaml implementation, such as using :doc:`developer/gadt`, using :doc:`developer/error_monad`, using :doc:`developer/clic`, :doc:`developer/event_logging_framework`, etc. - howtos for specific maintenance tasks such as :doc:`developer/michelson_instructions`, :doc:`developer/protocol_environment_upgrade`, or :doc:`developer/howto-freeze-protocols` - a whole subsection on the :doc:`various testing frameworks ` for Octez, explaining how to use them and how to add different kinds of tests - presentations of various tools for platform developers, such as support for :doc:`developer/profiling` and :doc:`developer/snoop`. Platform developers are also provided reference materials for internal APIs of Octez, such as: - The :doc:`API of OCaml libraries and modules ` reference - The :doc:`shell/p2p_api` reference - The :doc:`developer/merkle-proof-encoding-formats` reference. .. raw:: html