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What are message _options? Because the source chain has no concept of the destination chain’s state, you must specify the amount of gas you anticipate will be necessary for executing your lzReceive or lzCompose method on the destination smart contract. LayerZero provides robust Message Execution Options, which allow you to specify arbitrary logic as part of the message transaction, such as the gas amount and msg.value the Executor pays for message delivery, the order of message execution, or dropping an amount of gas to a destination address. The most common options you will use when building are lzReceiveOption, lzComposeOption, and lzNativeDropOption.
It’s important to remember that gas values may vary depending on the destination chain. For example, all new Ethereum transactions cost 21000 wei, but other chains may have lower or higher opcode costs, or entirely different gas mechanisms.

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Options Builders

A Solidity library and off-chain SDK have been provided to build specific Message Options for your application.

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Generating Options

You can generate options depending on your OApp’s development environment:
  • Remix: for quick testing in Remix, you can deploy locally to the Remix VM a contract using the OptionsBuilder.sol library. See the example provided below. Open in Remix What is Remix?

  • Foundry: _options can be generated directly in your Foundry unit tests using the OptionsBuilder.sol library. See the OmniCounter Test file as an example for how to properly invoke options.
  • Hardhat: you can also locally declare options in Hardhat via the options.ts file.
All tools use the same method for packing the _options bytes array to simplify your experience when switching between environments.

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Import Options

All _options tools must be imported into your environment to be used.

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Options Library

Import the OptionsBuilder from @layerzerolabs/oapp-evm into either your Foundry test or smart contract to be deployed locally. 
import { OptionsBuilder } from "@layerzerolabs/oapp-evm/contracts/oapp/libs/OptionsBuilder.sol";

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Options SDK

Start by importing Options from @layerzerolabs/lz-v2-utilities. 
import {Options} from '@layerzerolabs/lz-v2-utilities';

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Initialize Options

The newOptions method is used to initialize a new bytes array. 
const _options = Options.newOptions();
It’s a starting point to which you can add specific option configurations. The command below in Solidity allows you to conveniently extend the bytes type with LayerZero’s OptionsBuilder library methods, simplifying the creation and manipulation of message execution options. 
using OptionsBuilder for bytes;

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Add Options Types

When generating _options, you will want to allocate specific gas amounts for handling different message types used in your smart contract. For instance, addExecutorLzReceiveOption is a method that can be used to specify how much gas limit and msg.value the Executor uses when calling lzReceive on the receiving chain. 
const GAS_LIMIT = 1000000; // Gas limit for the executor
const MSG_VALUE = 0; // msg.value for the lzReceive() function on destination in wei

const _options = Options.newOptions().addExecutorLzReceiveOption(GAS_LIMIT, MSG_VALUE);
You can continue appending new Options methods to add more Executor message handling; all packed into a single call. See below for all Option Types.
For each chain pathway, your OApp’s configured Executor has a native cap: an upper bound for how much gas can be sent to the destination chain.In general, the sum of your message execution options must be LESS THAN the native cap.To check the native gas cap, you can query the Executor contract’s DstConfig using the Executor address and the IExecutor.sol interface:
function dstConfig(uint32 _dstEid) external view returns (uint64, uint16, uint128, uint128);

struct DstConfig {
    uint64 baseGas; // for verifying / fixed calldata overhead
    uint16 multiplierBps;
    uint128 floorMarginUSD; // uses priceFeed PRICE_RATIO_DENOMINATOR
    uint128 nativeCap; // the MAX amount of native gas an OApp can use in execution options
}
The create-lz-oapp npx package includes a script by default for checking all the Executor DstConfigs for your project:
npx hardhat lz:oapp:config:get:executor

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Pass Options in Send Call

After generating _options, you will want to test them in a send call.

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Options SDK

Using the Options SDK, this can be passed directly into a Hardhat task or unit test depending on your use case. 
// Other parameters for the send function
const _dstEid = 'someEndpointId'; // Destination endpoint ID
const message = 'Your message here'; // The message you want to send

// Call the send function on the smart contract
// Convert your options array toHex()
const tx = await yourOAppContract.send(destEndpointId, message, _options.toHex());
await tx.wait();
In this Typescript snippet, the send function is being called on the YourOAppContract contract instance, passing in the destination endpoint ID, the message, and the _options that were constructed: 
contract YourOAppContract {
    // ... other functions and declarations

    function send(uint32 _dstEid, string memory message, bytes memory _options) public payable {
        // Logic to handle the sending of the message with the provided options
        // This might involve interacting with other contracts or internal logic
        bytes memory _payload = abi.encode(message);
        _lzSend(
            _dstEid, // Destination chain's endpoint ID.
            _payload, // Encoded message payload being sent.
            _options, // Message execution options (e.g., gas to use on destination).
            MessagingFee(msg.value, 0), // Fee struct containing native gas and ZRO token.
            payable(msg.sender) // The refund address in case the send call reverts.
        );
    }

    // ... other functions and declarations
}
In this Solidity snippet, the send function takes three parameters: _dstEid, message, and _options. The function’s logic would then use those parameters to to send a message crosschain.

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Options Library

Using the OptionsBuilder.sol library, these _options can be directly referenced in your Foundry tests for quick local testing. 
import { MyOApp } from "../contracts/oapp/examples/MyOApp.sol";
import { TestHelper } from "../contracts/tests/TestHelper.sol";
import { OptionsBuilder } from "@layerzerolabs/oapp-evm/contracts/oapp/libs/OptionsBuilder.sol";

contract MyOAppTest is TestHelper {
    using OptionsBuilder for bytes;
    // ... other test setup functions
    function test_increment() public {
        bytes memory options = OptionsBuilder.newOptions().addExecutorLzReceiveOption(50000, 0);
        (uint256 nativeFee, ) = aCounter.quote(bEid, MsgCodec.VANILLA_TYPE, options);
        aCounter.increment{ value: nativeFee }(bEid, MsgCodec.VANILLA_TYPE, options);
    // ... other test logic
    }
}
The above example is taken from the OmniCounter Foundry Test in the LayerZero V2 repo.
See TestHelper.sol for full Foundry testing support.

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Option Types

There are multiple option types to take advantage of, each controlling specific handling of LayerZero messages.

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lzReceive Option

The lzReceive option specifies the gas values the Executor uses when calling lzReceive on the destination chain. 
Options.newOptions().addExecutorLzReceiveOption(50000, 0);
It defines the amount of _gas and msg.value to be used in the lzReceive call by the Executor on the destination chain: OPTION_TYPE_LZRECEIVE contains (uint128 _gas, uint128 _value) _gas: The amount of gas you’d provide for the lzReceive call in source chain native tokens. 50000 should be enough for most transactions, but this value should be profiled based on your function’s specific opcode cost on each chain. _value: The msg.value for the call. This value is often included to fund any operations that need native gas on the destination chain, including sending another nested message.

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lzCompose Option

This option allows you to allocate some gas and value to your Composed Message on the destination chain. lzCompose is used when you want to call external contracts from your lzReceive function. 
Options.newOptions().addExecutorLzComposeOption(0, 30000, 0);
OPTION_TYPE_LZCOMPOSE contains (uint16 _index, uint128 _gas, uint128 _value) _index: The index of the lzCompose() function call. When multiples of this option are added, they are summed PER index by the Executor on the remote chain. This can be useful for defining multiple composed message steps that happen sequentially. _gas: The gas amount for the lzCompose call varies based on the destination’s compose logic and the destination chain’s characteristics (e.g., opcode pricing). It’s important to perform tailored testing to determine the optimal gas requirement for your specific transaction needs. _value: The msg.value for the call.

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lzNativeDrop Option

This option contains how much native gas you want to drop to the _receiver, this is often done to allow users or a contract to have some gas on a new chain. 
Options.newOptions().addExecutorNativeDropOption(100000, receiverAddressInBytes32);
OPTION_TYPE_LZNATIVEDROP contains (uint128 _amount, bytes32 _receiver) _amount: The amount of gas in wei to drop for the receiver. _receiver: The bytes32 representation of the receiver address.

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OrderedExecution Option

By adding this option, the Executor will utilize Ordered Message Delivery. This overrides the default behavior of Unordered Message Delivery. 
Options.newOptions().addExecutorOrderedExecutionOption(bytes(''));
For example, if nonce 2 transaction fails, all subsequent transactions with this option will not be executed until the previous message has been resolved with. bytes: The argument should always be initialized as an empty bytes array ("").
These message _options must be combined with in-app contract changes, listed under Ordered Message Delivery.

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Duplicate Option Types

Multiple options of the same type can be passed and appended into the same options array. The logic on how multiple options of the same type are summed differs per option type: 
bytes memory options = OptionsBuilder.newOptions().addExecutorLzReceiveOption(50000, 0).addExecutorLzComposeOption(0, 30000, 0).addExecutorLzComposeOption(1, 30000, 0);
  • lzReceive: Both the _gas and _value parameters are summed.
  • lzCompose: Both the _gas and _value parameters are summed by index.
  • lzNativeDrop: The _amount parameter is summed by unique _receiver address.
Make sure that appending multiple options is the intended behavior of your unique OApp.

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Determining Gas Costs

Gas profiling and optimization is outside the scope of LayerZero’s documentation, however, the following resources may be useful for determining what _options should be used for your _lzReceive and lzCompose calls.

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Tenderly

For supported chains, the Tenderly Gas Profiler can be extremely useful for determining how much to reduce your execution options by: Tenderly Gas In the above image, you can see that the _lzReceive call for this OFT token transfer with composed call used 45,358 wei for gas.
  • Provided lzReceive Option: 50000 wei
  • Actual lzReceive Cost: 45,358 wei
In general, this opcode cost may fluctuate depending on the destination chain and how your contract logic executes, so you should take care in defining _options based on the message types for your application.