# What is this?
Documentation: next (source: develop).

Install the preview: `pnpm add @aephia/atlas-kit@next`. These docs follow develop and may include changes not yet published to npm.

> What the non-custodial Atlas Kit reads and writes, who it is for, and the boundary it will not cross.

Markdown source of https://develop.atlas-kit-docs.pages.dev/start-here/what-is-this/ — see https://develop.atlas-kit-docs.pages.dev/ai/ for the full machine-readable surface.

Star Atlas is a space game. **SAGE** is the part of it where fleets fly between
star systems, mine asteroids, craft components, and trade at starbases. All of
that lives on a blockchain, which means the game's state is public: anyone can
read it.

Reading it is harder than it sounds. The data on chain is raw bytes, laid out in
a format the game's program understands and nothing else does. This SDK does
the translating.

```ts
const character = await sage.characters.forProfile(profileAddress);
const fleets = await character.fleets.all();

fleets[0].name; // "Ravager" — a string, not a padded byte array
```

## Who this is for

Anyone building something that needs to know what is happening in SAGE: a fleet
dashboard, a mining calculator, a market tracker, a Discord bot.

You do not need to know Solana. The pages ahead explain the handful of concepts
you actually need, when you need them. If you do know Solana, the SDK will feel
familiar and you can skip most of the explanation.

## The non-custodial boundary

Contexts hold no signer or key material, signers are supplied explicitly to each
write call, and Plans stay inspectable before authorization. Nothing signs,
submits, or retries implicitly. Execution can incur fees or move assets, so
treat an unknown outcome as possibly submitted until signer and chain history
prove otherwise.

Read-only capability entries remain read-only. Curated action entries expose the
planners currently available for Fleet movement, Fleet cargo transfer, and
Starbase Player registration; not every generated instruction has a planner.
The raw bindings escape hatch exposes the pinned generated clients without an
SDK-level safety guarantee.

## Which game, exactly

SAGE C4 running on the **z.ink public test realm** — a separate network from
Solana mainnet, where the current version of the game runs.

:::caution[The most common wrong turn]
The `@staratlas/sage` and `@staratlas/data-source` packages on npm target the
**previous** version of the game. They are not compatible with SAGE C4, and no
amount of adapting will make them work.

AI assistants suggest them constantly, because they appear throughout older
training data. If you find yourself installing either one, stop and come back
here. See [For AI assistants](/ai/) if you are working with one.
:::

:::game[Why "C4"?]
SAGE has been rebuilt several times as the game has evolved. C4 is the current
generation, and it runs on its own program with its own account layouts. Data
and tooling from earlier generations do not carry over — the accounts are
shaped differently, so old decoders read garbage rather than failing cleanly.
:::

## Where to go next

[Your first read](/start-here/first-read/) gets live data on your screen in
about five minutes. If you would rather understand the shape of things first,
[how Atlas Kit reads the game](/start-here/how-it-thinks/) is the short version
of the design.