Loader V3: Allow Prefunded ProgramData

Summary

This SIMD proposes changing the DeployWithMaxDataLen instruction in Loader V3 to create the programdata account with the System program's CreateAccountAllowPrefund instruction ([SIMD-0312]) instead of CreateAccount, so that pre-funded programdata accounts are accepted.

Motivation

DeployWithMaxDataLen currently creates the programdata account by invoking the System program's CreateAccount instruction via CPI. CreateAccount fails with AccountAlreadyInUse if the target account holds any lamports.

This can create an annoying scenario if funds are sent to the programdata account ahead of time, requiring a new program keypair to be generated. Using CreateAccountAllowPrefund avoids this scenario without incurring any further CPI cost to the Loader program.

Dependencies

This proposal depends on the following previously accepted proposals:

• [SIMD-0312]: CreateAccountAllowPrefund

  Its feature, 6sPDzwyARRExKH52LECxcGoqziH8G7SZofwuxi8Ja331, is active on all clusters (mainnet-beta, testnet, and devnet).

New Terminology

N/A

Detailed Design

DeployWithMaxDataLen MUST invoke CreateAccountAllowPrefund instead of CreateAccount to create the programdata account.

CreateAccountAllowPrefund takes the same instruction data as CreateAccount (lamports, space, owner). space and owner are unchanged. Instead of the full rent-exempt minimum, lamports is only the top-up needed to make the programdata account rent-exempt:

required_lamports = minimum_balance(programdata_len)
top_up_lamports = required_lamports.saturating_sub(programdata_lamports)

Where programdata_len is the programdata metadata size plus max_data_len, and programdata_lamports is the programdata account's balance before the CPI. Any lamports in excess of required_lamports remain in the programdata account. As today, the buffer's lamports are drained to the payer before the CPI.

When top_up_lamports is zero, the payer is omitted from the CPI and is not required to sign DeployWithMaxDataLen. The payer MUST still be writable, since it receives the buffer's lamports.

Note that CreateAccountAllowPrefund takes its accounts in reverse order:

0. [ws] ProgramData account
1. [ws] Payer, if top_up_lamports > 0

Alternatives Considered

The loader could invoke Allocate and Assign without transferring any lamports. This would require every caller to pre-fund the programdata account before deployment, which breaks existing deployment workflows and is not worth the developer experience cost.

Impact

Deployments no longer fail when the programdata account holds lamports.

Security Considerations

The target is always the derived programdata address, so the wallet-locking concern noted in [SIMD-0312] does not apply.

An unsigned payer only ever receives lamports (the drained buffer balance), and the upgrade authority, which must sign, still authorizes the deployment.

Backwards Compatibility

This proposal changes the behavior of DeployWithMaxDataLen and requires a feature gate for consensus safety. The instruction's interface is unchanged.

[SIMD-0312]: https://github.com/solana-foundation/solana-improvement-documents/blob/main/proposals/0312-create-account-allow-prefund.md