Glossary
Anchor
Solana's most-used smart-contract framework — provides Rust macros, an IDL, and a client library that abstract Solana's low-level account model.
Anchor is Solana's equivalent of Hardhat or Foundry. It ships Rust macros that handle account validation, instruction dispatch, and serialization; an IDL (interface description language) so clients can generate typed bindings; and a TypeScript client library that talks to deployed programs.
Most Solana DeFi protocols (Marinade, Drift, Kamino, MarginFi) and NFT projects are built with Anchor. The framework dramatically lowers the bar for writing Solana programs versus working with the raw Solana SDK.