Master Solana Development with Anchor Version Manager (AVM)

What is AVM?

AVM stands for Anchor Version Manager . It is a command‑line tool that installs, stores, and switches between multiple versions of the Anchor framework on a single development machine. By isolating each Anchor version, AVM eliminates cross‑project conflicts and enables reproducible builds.

Anchor framework overview

Anchor is the de‑facto Rust development framework for Solana programs. It provides:

Boilerplate reduction – Rust macros automatically generate account parsing and instruction dispatch code.

Built‑in security checks – common validations such as account ownership are injected by the framework.

Client IDL generation – an Interface Description Language file is emitted for front‑end integration.

Integrated testing suite – utilities for writing and running integration tests.

Why a version manager is needed

Project dependency conflicts – different projects may require different Anchor releases; AVM lets each project select its own version without manual path fiddling.

Verifiable builds – the exact Anchor CLI version used for compilation can be recorded and later re‑installed, ensuring that the binary matches the source code.

Preventing deployment failures – new Anchor releases can contain breaking changes or bugs. AVM allows developers to lock to a known‑good version until they are ready to upgrade.

Installing AVM

AVM is distributed as a Rust binary. Install it with Cargo directly from the official repository:

cargo install --git https://github.com/coral-xyz/anchor avm --locked --force

Verify the installation:

avm --version

Managing Anchor versions with AVM

Install the latest Anchor release and make it active:

avm install latest
avm use latest

avm install downloads the specified anchor-cli binary from the Anchor GitHub releases and stores it under ~/.avm . avm use creates a shim so that the anchor command resolves to the selected binary.

Install and activate a specific version (e.g., 0.25.0 ):

avm install 0.25.0
avm use 0.25.0

List all installed versions to see which Anchor CLI builds are available locally:

avm list

AVM workflow diagram

The following UML diagram visualises the typical AVM workflow: download → store → select → use as the active anchor binary.

Conclusion

AVM is a lightweight version manager that works alongside Anchor. Anchor provides the high‑level abstractions for Solana program development, while AVM ensures that developers can reliably select, reproduce, and upgrade the exact Anchor version required for each project.