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Introduction

The Polkadot Products Devnet is a public developer preview of the Polkadot app and the platform behind it. It exists so you can do something concrete: install the app, try Products other people built, and ship one of your own.

The idea is simple. Products should feel like polished web experiences while running on decentralized infrastructure. A Product is named, published, discovered, opened, and used through Polkadot-native services instead of a traditional app server — no app store, no backend to operate, no server sitting between a user and your app.

What you can do

For users, the Devnet is the Polkadot app: a self-custodial client for mobile and desktop, plus a web gateway at dev-dot.li. Create an account, claim a username, try CASH flows, chat, and open Products.

To try the app as an end user, start with Getting started for users — install the app (or open the gateway), then create an account and get funds.

For developers, it is a way to ship a web app into a Polkadot-native host. You build a static frontend, give it a .dot domain, publish the bundle, and call host-provided services for accounts, signing, identity, payments, contracts, and storage.

Products are addressed by human-readable .dot domains. A name resolves to a published bundle, and the bundle runs inside the Polkadot app or the web gateway. Your Product talks to the surrounding host through the Host API, so the same code runs across mobile, desktop, and web without asking users to manage raw keys, RPC endpoints, or chain-specific plumbing.

The model to keep in your head

Four layers stack on top of each other. When you get stuck, first work out which layer you are in: the entry point, your Product, the developer tools, or the platform services.

flowchart TD
  subgraph U[Entry points]
    APP[Polkadot app<br/>mobile + desktop]
    GW[Web gateway<br/>dev-dot.li]
  end
  subgraph D[Your dApp]
    BUNDLE[Static web bundle<br/>.dot domain -> content]
  end
  subgraph S[Developer tooling]
    SDK[Product SDK<br/>@parity/product-sdk]
    HOST[Host API<br/>@novasamatech/host-api]
    CLIS[CLIs: pad / dotns / cdm]
  end
  subgraph P[Platform services on Paseo]
    NAME[DotNS naming<br/>Asset Hub contracts]
    STORE[Bulletin content storage]
    ID[Identity + personhood<br/>People chain]
    MONEY[CASH + assets<br/>People chain / Asset Hub]
    CONTRACTS[PolkaVM contracts<br/>pallet-revive + CDM]
    BROWSE[Browse directory<br/>Publisher registry]
  end
  APP --> BUNDLE
  GW --> BUNDLE
  BUNDLE --> HOST
  BUNDLE --> SDK
  SDK --> HOST
  CLIS --> NAME
  CLIS --> STORE
  CLIS --> CONTRACTS
  HOST --> ID
  HOST --> MONEY
  NAME --> STORE
  BROWSE --> NAME
  • The Polkadot app keeps keys on-device, runs Products in a sandbox, and exposes the Host API.
  • Your app is a static web bundle addressed by a .dot domain.
  • The SDK and CLIs build, name, publish, and connect a Product.
  • The platform services provide naming, storage, identity, money, contracts, and discovery.

For how each piece actually works — and the full path of a request from a .dot name to chain storage and back — read the architecture overview.

Ready to build?

That is the whole model. The Developer quickstart takes you through it end to end — build a static frontend, give it a .dot domain, publish the bundle, and add contracts only when you need custom on-chain logic.