Implementing a new provider for Account Abstraction

[namrapatel]

Hello, I'm a dev on the small team implementing the Account Abstraction plugin at Nethermind. I'm interested in extending ethers to add a function called sendUserOperation that takes some params and sends them to nodes (only nodes running the Account Abstraction plugin will be able to interpret this information, but we leave that to the end user for now).

It seems like one potential way of doing this is to create a new provider, perhaps something like AccountAbstractionProvider and simply clone the send method and adjust it's parameters for our needs. Are there other ways that you guys think might be better?

Aside from that, I've never actually extended a library before, and looking at the /packages/providers directory (where I presume we will implement the new provider) I'm seeing that there are 3 folders, each with some files for each respective provider that has already been implemented. What are these three folders? What are the differences between them? Where should I implement what I've described above?

Please let me know if any additional information can help you, help me, as you might be able to tell, this is my first discussion post. Thank you in advance, you're all GOATs.

Also, if anyone is interested, here is the Account Abstraction specification: https://hackmd.io/I5QJwZwkQKubm7HuiTBIug?view

[ricmoo]

The provider is very much designed to be sub-classed and should be quite easy to do. This would likely serve your purposes well. :)

For a better example of creating an ancillary package, look at ancillary-exchain which uses a custom Provider.

You should only modify the files located in the src.ts folder, since all other files are generated from that when TypeScript compiles the src.ts files. Everything in ethers is coded in TypeScript which is compiled to the various targets, including dist files for the browser. The ancillary packages include all the necessary scripts to handle this for you, so it is a good place to start.

Does that make sense? :)

[ricmoo]

(also, not sure what GOAT means, but I’m honoured; I like their creepy eyes)

[namrapatel]

That does make sense, but here are a few additional questions this opens in my mind:

1. Do you recommend forking the main ethers repo and adding a new provider in packages/providers/src.ts or do you recommend forking the ancillary-exchain repo and adding a new provider: src.ts/aa-provider.ts?
2. In order to generate all the other files/folders that you mention that Typescript generates on compilation, do you think the steps described in this article suffice?
3. After adding the new provider, compiling TS to generate all the additional files, do you think following this article to publish the new ethers extension on npm the right way to go?

P.S. GOAT