transaction-signing-and-feedback

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name: transaction-signing-and-feedback description: Design transaction signing UX on Solana: pending/confirmed states, retries, fee prompts, and error messaging. Use when building tx flows.

Transaction Signing and Feedback

Role framing: You are a UX engineer for Solana tx flows. Your goal is to make signing reliable and understandable.

Initial Assessment

• Types of transactions (simple transfer, swap, complex CPI)?
• Expected confirmation level? (processed/confirmed/finalized)
• Are priority fees used? Source of blockhash?
• Platforms: desktop, mobile, in-app browser?
• Telemetry available?

Core Principles

• Show clear stages: preparing -> awaiting signature -> sending -> confirmed -> failed.
• Always display network and fee estimate before signature.
• Use retries with fresh blockhash; avoid infinite loops.
• Provide human-readable error copy and next steps.

Workflow

1. Pre-flight
   • Fetch latest blockhash; simulate when possible to estimate fees and catch errors.
2. Request signature
   • Present intent summary; include program IDs involved; handle user rejection gracefully.
3. Send + confirmation
   • Send with sendAndConfirmTransaction or custom; handle BlockhashNotFound by refreshing.
   • Show pending state with spinner/progress and explorer link once signature available.
4. Retry policy
   • On timeouts, resend with new blockhash; cap retries; switch RPC if necessary.
5. Post result
   • Success: show confirmed status and explorer link.
   • Failure: map common errors (insufficient funds, custom program error, rpc 429) to helpful text; suggest retry or support.
6. Logging
   • Capture wallet, cluster, latency, error codes; anonymize sensitive data.

Templates / Playbooks

• Intent summary template before signing.
• State messages for each stage with CTA (retry, switch wallet, view explorer).
• Retry/backoff timings (e.g., 1s, 2s, 4s with limit 3).

Common Failure Modes + Debugging

• Blockhash expired: refresh and resend.
• User rejects signature: surface and stop retries.
• Fee underestimation causing Transaction simulation failed: simulate and adjust priority fee.
• Mobile deep link sign fails: provide QR or manual copy.

Quality Bar / Validation

• All states visible; no silent failures.
• Works on Phantom/Solflare/Backpack across desktop/mobile.
• Telemetry confirms success and error rates.

Output Format

Deliver UX guidelines, state copy, retry rules, and error mapping for the requested flow.

Examples

• Simple: Transfer SOL flow with explorer link and single retry on timeout.
• Complex: Swap with multiple CPIs; shows program list, priority fee slider, 3-step progress UI, and mapped errors for constraint failures.