docs: add canister discovery, binding generation, and frontend development docs#338
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docs: add canister discovery, binding generation, and frontend development docs#338
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marc0olo
commented
Feb 4, 2026
| execSync(`icp network status -e ${environment} --json`, { encoding: "utf-8" }) | ||
| ); | ||
| const rootKey: string = networkStatus.root_key; | ||
| const proxyTarget: string = networkStatus.api_url; |
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note:
- the dev server wouldn't work correctly until we update the
network statuscommand to deliver theapi_url
raymondk
reviewed
Feb 4, 2026
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| ### Other Languages | ||
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| The `didc` CLI generates bindings for various languages. See the [Candid repository](https://github.com/dfinity/candid) for available targets. |
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We should have a note somewhere that not all generated bindings will work well with icp-cli.
- The target canister id needs to be fixed, or
- the target canister id has to be fetched from the environment variables.
raymondk
reviewed
Feb 4, 2026
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| ## Automatic Canister ID Injection | ||
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| icp-cli solves this by automatically injecting canister IDs as environment variables during deployment. |
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Suggested change
| icp-cli solves this by automatically injecting canister IDs as environment variables during deployment. | |
| icp-cli solves this by automatically injecting canister IDs as canister environment variables during deployment. |
We must be careful to distinguish between "environment variables" that folks are used to and "canister environment variables"
Maybe this should link to the canister environment variables docs
raymondk
reviewed
Feb 4, 2026
| ).unwrap(); | ||
| ``` | ||
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| **Motoko** does not currently have native support for reading canister environment variables. Use init arguments instead — pass canister IDs when initializing the canister: |
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I don't think this is correct - https://github.com/caffeinelabs/motoko/blob/a4cc7fe65bdc105fb453ba98de18beb8688b1e41/Changelog.md?plain=1#L167
There is an API to fetch a canister environment variable in motoko (caffeinelabs/motoko#5443)
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Summary
Add documentation for canister discovery, binding generation, and frontend development workflows.
New Documentation
docs/concepts/canister-discovery.mdicp deployinjectsPUBLIC_CANISTER_ID:*variables into all canisters;ic_envcookie mechanism for frontends; Rust/Motoko patterns for reading IDsdocs/concepts/binding-generation.mdUpdated Documentation
docs/guides/local-development.mddocs/reference/environment-variables.mdPUBLIC_CANISTER_ID:*andIC_ROOT_KEYdocs/concepts/build-deploy-sync.mddocs/tutorial.mddocs/index.md,docs/concepts/index.mddocs-site/astro.config.mjsUpdated Example
examples/.../vite.config.tsicp network status --jsonfor all environments; properic_root_keycookie formatexamples/.../App.tsxIC_ROOT_KEYtype toUint8Array; cleaner implementationexamples/.../README.mdic_envcookie mechanismKey Technical Details
ic_root_key(lowercase); library returnsIC_ROOT_KEYasUint8Arrayic_cdk::api::env_var_value()+Principal::from_text()