🫧 Tolk v0.99: universal message composition

This update introduces a high-level, type-safe way to compose and send messages to other contracts.

No more manual beginCell().storeUint(...).storeRef(...) boilerplate. Just describe the message in a literal, and let the compiler do the rest.

✅ Notable changes in Tolk v0.99:

1. Universal createMessage – control body, extra currency, stateInit, and more
2. Universal createExternalLogMessage — emit logs efficiently
3. Sharding — calculate addresses "close to another contract"

PR on GitHub with detailed info.

✔ createMessage: short demo

val reply = createMessage({

    bounce: false,

    value: ton("0.05"),

    dest: senderAddress,

    body: RequestedInfo { ... }

});

reply.send(SEND_MODE_REGULAR);

Key features:

1. Supports extra currencies
2. Supports stateInit with automatic address computation
3. Supports different workchains
4. Supports sharding (formerly splitDepth)
5. Integrated with auto-serialization of body
6. Automatically detects "body ref or not"

✔ Union types as the foundation

Almost every field is a union — flexible API while staying strictly typed:

// value: either tons, or tons + extra currencies

value: ton("1.5")

value: (ton("1.5"), extraDict)



// destination: various forms

dest: someAddress

dest: (workchain, hash)

✔ Body: inline or ref?

Don't think about refs — the compiler does:
- small structs are inlined
- large ones are wrapped in a ref
- detected at compile-time — no runtime checks

// any serializable struct — no toCell!

body: RequestedInfo { ... }

Don't need body? Just leave it out.

✔ Deployment: a variant of "destination"

dest: {

    workchain: BASECHAIN,

    stateInit: { code, data },

}

The beauty of TON is that it doesn't have a dedicated deployment mechanism. You just send a message to some void — and if this void doesn't exist, but you've attached a way to initialize it — it's initialized immediately, and accepts your message.

✔ Sharding!

Built-in features to calculate an address "in the shard of contract B."

dest: {

    ...

    toShard: {

        fixedPrefixLength: 8,

        closeTo: ownerAddress,

    }

}

Perfect for optimized sharded jettons. All the hashing, StateInit packing, and bit-level work is done automatically.

⚙️ What about gas costs?

Even with all this flexibility, createMessage is not bloated. The compiler unfolds all union branches and constant conditions at compile time, producing flat, minimal code — often more optimal than hand-crafted cell composition.

❓ v0.99? So, what's next?

Yes, it's the last version before the final release. Tolk now covers the entire initial roadmap and is ready for real-world use. On top of that, we'll add several compiler optimizations and rewrite standard contracts from FunC to Tolk — to demonstrate how exactly everything ties together.