Running a Node from Source

DDocker images make it very simple to run a BOBA node, but you can also create your own node using the source code. You might choose to do this if you need the node to work on a specific architecture or if you want to look closely at the node's code. This guide will show you how to build and run a node from scratch.

Software Dependencies

Dependency	Version	Version Check Command
git	^2	git --version
go	^1.21	go --version
node	^20	node --version
pnpm	^8	pnpm --version
foundry	^0.2.0	forge --version
make	^4	make --version

Build the Rollup Node

Clone the Boba Monorepo

git clone https://github.com/bobanetwork/boba.git
cd boba

Check out the required release branch

Release branches are created when new versions of the op-node are created. Read through the Releases page to determine the correct branch to check out.

git checkout <name of release branch>

Install dependencies

Install the Node.js dependencies for the Boba Monorepo.

pnpm install

Build packages

Builde the Node.js packages for the Boba Monorepo.

pnpm build

Build op-node

Build the op-node.

make op-node

Build the Execution Engine (op-reth)

The recommended execution client is op-reth. The upstream op-reth includes Boba chains as built-in, so you can build directly from upstream.

git clone https://github.com/paradigmxyz/reth.git
cd reth
cargo build --bin op-reth --release

The binary will be at target/release/op-reth.

Download Snapshots

Download the database snapshot for your network from the snapshot downloads page. Always verify snapshots by comparing the sha256sum of the downloaded file to the sha256sum listed on that page.

sha256sum <filename>

Create a JWT Secret

op-reth and op-node communicate over the engine API authrpc. This communication is secured using a shared secret. You will need to generate a shared secret and provide it to both op-reth and op-node when you start them. In this case, the secret takes the form of a 32 byte hex string.

Run the following command to generate a random 32 byte hex string:

openssl rand -hex 32 > jwt.txt

Start op-reth

It's usually simpler to begin with op-reth before you start op-node. You can start op-reth even if op-node isn't running yet, but op-reth won't get any blocks until op-node starts.

Using the following command to start op-reth in a default configuration. The JSON-RPC API will become available on port 9545.

op-reth node \
  --chain=boba-sepolia \
  --datadir=./reth-data \
  --http \
  --http.addr=0.0.0.0 \
  --http.port=9545 \
  --http.corsdomain="*" \
  --http.api=eth,debug,net,web3 \
  --authrpc.addr=0.0.0.0 \
  --authrpc.port=8551 \
  --authrpc.jwtsecret=./jwt.txt \
  --rollup.sequencer-http=https://sepolia.boba.network \
  --rollup.disable-tx-pool-gossip

For mainnet, use --chain=boba and --rollup.sequencer-http=https://mainnet.boba.network.

Start op-node

Once you've started op-reth, you can start op-node. op-node will connect to op-reth and begin synchronizing the BOBA network. op-node will begin sending block payloads to op-reth when it derives enough blocks from Ethereum.

Set environment variables

Set the following environment variable:

export L1_RPC_URL=... # URL for the L1 node to sync from

Start op-node

Using the following command to start op-node in a default configuration. The JSON-RPC API will become available on port 8545.

./bin/op-node \
  --l1=$L1_RPC_URL \
  --l2=http://localhost:8551 \
  --l2.jwt-secret=./jwt.txt \
  --rollup.config=/path/to/boba-community/rollup-configs/boba-sepolia.json \
  --rpc.addr=0.0.0.0 \
  --rpc.port=8545

Synchronization

During the initial synchronization, you get log messages from op-node, and nothing else appears to happen.

INFO [08-04|16:36:07.150] Advancing bq origin                      origin=df76ff..48987e:8301316 originBehind=false

After a few minutes, op-node finds the right batch and then it starts synchronizing.

INFO [08-04|16:36:01.204] Found next batch                         epoch=44e203..fef9a5:8301309 batch_epoch=8301309                batch_timestamp=1,673,567,518
INFO [08-04|16:36:01.205] generated attributes in payload queue    txs=2  timestamp=1,673,567,518
INFO [08-04|16:36:01.265] inserted block                           hash=ee61ee..256300 number=4,069,725 state_root=a582ae..33a7c5 timestamp=1,673,567,518 parent=5b102e..13196c prev_randao=4758ca..11ff3a fee_recipient=0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000011 txs=2  update_safe=true