A Beginner’s Guide to Farcaster Frames on Base

Bring Base Apps into Onchain Social with Farcaster Frames

Base believes in a future internet where a billion people participate onchain, joining a global economy enabled by a new internet. We love to see others also making this vision a reality, and we believe that what Farcaster is doing with Frames is empowering builders in a special way.

What are Frames?

Frames are mini apps embedded within social posts on Warpcast, the platform built on the Farcaster protocol. They let builders create bite-sized onchain experiences that are easily accessible without requiring users to leave their feed or deal with dapp connectors.

Frames help make an onchain internet easier by bringing onchain apps directly into social posts. Since they’ve launched, we’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is to integrate onchain actions into a social feed, and we want to help everyone tap into this potential.

For example, someone scrolling Warpcast might encounter a Frame that generates and mints an NFT when clicked, or a Frame that instantly allows you to create a shopping cart full of Girl Scout Cookies. The possibilities are endless.

Because Frames add the app experience seamlessly into the post, all the power of onchain applications are embedded directly within the social flow. Frames allow people to see something interesting, click, and do something onchain.

Why are Frames a Big Deal?

Frames remove friction from adoption. Today, using an app often means clicking out of the site, connecting to your wallet, signing, and returning back to the app. Too many steps can turn people away.

Frames fix that by meeting users where they already are: Social. When a Frame pops up mid-scroll, going onchain moves from intimidating to inevitable —and the growth of Frames since their launch shows that potential coming alive. Usage has skyrocketed as builders make cool mini-experiences while users enjoy using them seamlessly.

Frames are also getting adopted outside of Warpcast, with XMTP announcing support for Frames within their messaging platform.

How Base is Helping Builders Create Frames

Since Frames launched, Base has run multiple grants rounds for Based Frames, sent pizza to Frames hackathons, created an open-source collection of tools called Onchainkit to help you build a Frame, and started a Telegram chat for builders.

If you’re interested in building Frames, there are lots of tools that exist to get builders up and running quickly. Here are some of the best:

• Want to learn how to mint an NFT within a Frame? Follow this guide.
• Frames don’t have to be resource-intensive. Here’s a GitHub repo of a Frame in less than 100 lines, ready to be deployed to Vercel.
• Ready to really begin customizing a Frame even further? We’ve created an open-source collection of tools called Onchainkit to help you build a Frame.
• Want to sell an item through a Frame? This Frames x Commerce guide will help you do just that.
• Want to connect with other builders? Join the Onchain Frames Telegram group to learn more and ask questions.

If you want to go even deeper into Frames, check out this great list of resources compiled by David Furlong, and use this guide to learn about how NFTs can be minted with Warps.

We can’t wait to see what people do with Frames next. Together, we’ll keep advancing what it means to bring people onchain.

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