Walrus Storage

Walrus Storage

Provides expert guidance for using Walrus, a decentralized storage and data availability protocol built for Sui. This guide focuses on the modern TypeScript SDK (2024-2025) with proper client setup, upload relay patterns, and dApp Kit integration.

Overview

Walrus is a decentralized storage and data availability protocol optimized for large binary objects (blobs). It provides fast, reliable storage with strong availability guarantees, making it ideal for NFT media, application assets, and user-generated content.

Key features:

• Decentralized storage - Distributed across multiple storage nodes with erasure coding
• Cost-effective - Pay once for storage epochs, no ongoing fees
• Fast retrieval - Low-latency blob access via HTTP
• Blob certification - Cryptographic proofs of storage
• Native Sui integration - Blobs are Sui objects with on-chain metadata

Official documentation:

• https://docs.wal.app/
• https://sdk.mystenlabs.com/walrus
• Example project: https://github.com/0x-j/hello-sui-stack

Installation & Prerequisites

Install Required Packages

# Core dependencies
npm install @mysten/walrus @mysten/walrus-wasm @mysten/sui

# For React dApps
npm install @mysten/dapp-kit

# Using yarn
yarn add @mysten/walrus @mysten/walrus-wasm @mysten/sui @mysten/dapp-kit

# Using pnpm
pnpm add @mysten/walrus @mysten/walrus-wasm @mysten/sui @mysten/dapp-kit

Critical: Vite WASM Configuration

REQUIRED FOR VITE PROJECTS: The Walrus SDK uses WASM internally. You must configure Vite to exclude WASM modules from pre-bundling.

Add to vite.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react()],
  build: {
    target: 'esnext',
  },
  optimizeDeps: {
    exclude: ['@mysten/walrus-wasm'], // CRITICAL: Don't pre-bundle WASM
    esbuildOptions: {
      target: 'esnext',
    },
  },
  worker: {
    format: 'es',
  },
});