Reef

Nodes

Learn how to setup your Reef chain RPC node.

Requirements

Reef chain is written in Rust. A basic familiarity with Rust tooling is required.

Clone the repo

git clone --recursive https://github.com/reef-chain/reef-chain-node

Install Rust

If you don’t have Rust already, you can install it with: 

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

You can install the development compiler and the toolchain with: 

make init

Start a local development node

The make run command will launch a temporary node and its state will be discarded after you terminate the process.

To run the temporary (development) node run: 

make run

You should see an output like this when the Reef chain starts producing blocks.

Use the following command to build the node without launching it:

make build

This command will start the single-node development chain:

cd target/release
./reef-node --dev

Purge the development chain’s state:

./reef-node purge-chain --dev

Configure your local development node

Here are some of the common arguments you can use for a local node:

./reef-node \
  --chain dev \
  --base-path /tmp/reefnode \
  --port 30333 \
  --ws-port 9944 \
  --rpc-port 9933 \
  --rpc-methods Auto \
  --rpc-cors all \
  --rpc-external \
  --ws-external \
  --name MyDevNode

Start a RPC node

The Reef chain mainnet or testnet RPC node can be started like so:

./reef-node \
  --chain mainnet \
  --base-path /reef/fullnode \
  --pruning=archive \
  --port 30333 \
  --ws-port 9944 \
  --rpc-port 9933 \
  --rpc-methods Auto \
  --rpc-cors all \
  --rpc-external \
  --ws-external \
  --name MyRPCNode

To make the node archival (for use with indexers or block explorers) we use the --pruning=archive flag. Omit this flag to run the light RPC node.

Additionally, you may want to configure nginx frontend with TLS. See an example.

Start a bootnode

Bootnodes are important for a healthy p2p network.

First we need to generate our persistent node key:

./reef-node key generate-node-key

This will output the public key and the private node key:

12D3KooWL4scSWDRaTNja1KH4Rnv7JxVKGkrSvr9XH8Li8yL5mCA
1ba5794ee476523629e84661ee0d28707bf43a486bb204633b789ffc226fe559

Now we can start our boot node with the generated private key by using the --node-key flag:

./reef-node \
  --chain mainnet \
  --base-path /reef/bootnode \
  --port 30333 \
  --node-key 1ba5794ee476523629e84661ee0d28707bf43a486bb204633b789ffc226fe559 \
  --name MyBootNode

This node can now be directly connected to via from another node via --bootnodes flag:

./reef-node \
  --chain mainnet \
  --base-path /reef/bootnode \
  --port 30333 \
  --bootnodes /ip4/<MyBootNode-IP-ADDRESS>/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWL4scSWDRaTNja1KH4Rnv7JxVKGkrSvr9XH8Li8yL5mCA
  --name MyOtherNode

Issues with peers

If you have issues with 0 peers for mainnet you can add flag with value: --bootnodes /dns/mainnet-bootnode1.reefscan.info/tcp/30333/ws/p2p/12D3KooWFHSc9cUcyNtavUkLg4VBAeBnYNgy713BnovUa9WNY5pp

For and for testnet network: --bootnodes /dns/testnet-bootnode1.reefscan.info/tcp/30333/ws/p2p/12D3KooWCucVs4CFNnAf1R9hoChCHGajNPrbb3eHyKYY4sKhGeM1

Start a validator node

Please check our validator guide on how to setup and configure a validator node.

Reset the chain state

To prune (reset) the node run:

./reef-node purge-chain --chain <dev/testnet/mainnet> --base-path /path/to/state
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