Everything you need to know about creating, managing, and operating vaults on the Ranger protocol.
What Is a Vault?
A Ranger vault is an on-chain smart contract on Solana that accepts deposits from users in a single asset (e.g., USDC, SOL) and deploys those funds into one or more DeFi strategies to generate yield. Users receive LP tokens representing their proportional share of the vault.
Note: Each vault supports one asset only. If you want to manage multiple assets, you need to create separate vaults for each.
Role-Based Access Control
Admin vs. Manager Roles
Ranger enforces role separation for security:
Role
Capabilities
Admin
Add/remove adaptors, initialize strategies, update vault configuration, calibrate high water mark
Manager
Allocate funds between strategies (deposit/withdraw to strategies)
Warning: Keep admin and manager as separate keypairs. The admin controls vault structure; the manager controls fund movement. This separation limits damage if a key is compromised.
Vault Lifecycle
A typical vault goes through these stages:
Create the vault — Initialize the on-chain vault account with your asset, fees, and configuration
Set up metadata — Create LP token metadata (name, symbol, image) so wallets display it correctly
Add adaptors & initialize strategies — Connect to DeFi protocols where funds will be deployed
Allocate funds — Deploy idle vault funds into initialized strategies
Operate — Monitor performance, rebalance, run automation scripts
Go to market — Get indexed on Ranger, verify your LP token on Jupiter
