This page is a map, not a guide. It says which route to take; the actual steps live in the technical documentation — the reason for that split is in Build on 9Chain.

Pick by what you intend to do; do not read the whole table:

You want to	Take this route	Door
Look at the network without writing anything	Network and endpoints → open the explorer	OPEN
Point a familiar wallet or tool at the network	9chain.org/docs → Connect to the network	OPEN
Deploy a contract on a test period	9chain.org/docs → Quickstart	OPEN
Understand the rules your contract must pass	Contracts and the compliance gate	OPEN
Know in advance where you will trip	Limits and what to expect	OPEN
Hold an independent copy of the ledger	Run a node	AJAR
Declare a private chain from a description	The 9Chain platform → The chain-producing machine	NOT OPEN
Read and modify the source	—	LEFT BLANK, see Taking part, and the doors still owed

Diagram

flowchart TB D["A software developer"] --> Q{"What do you need first?"} Q -->|"to look"| A["Explorer · endpoints"] Q -->|"to call"| B["Standard interface<br/>familiar wallets and libraries"] Q -->|"to understand the rules"| C["Compliance gate<br/>five layers"] Q -->|"independence"| E["A node of your own"] A --> F["Three questions to ask<br/>before believing a number"] B --> F C --> F E --> F

Figure 25 — Four ways in, one meeting point: check before you trust.

One thing to do before anything else, and it costs exactly one minute: open the read-it-directly panel in Check the network yourself to find out which period the network you are about to point tools at actually is. Builds for testing carry exactly the identity of the official network, so the chain name alone is not enough. Developers routinely skip this step and discover it after deploying.

In short: the most expensive thing you can lose here is not coding time, but building on a test period while believing it is the official network — one minute with the self-check panel buys that risk back.