Run a localnet with Docker

Context

This document provides instructions on how to run a localnet with multiple validator/non-validator nodes. This can be useful if you are developing applications to work on cheqd network, or in automated testing pipelines.

The techniques described here are used in CI/CD contexts, for example, in this repository itself in the test.yml Github workflow.

Pre-requisites

• A clone of the

• Either , or (the latter is mandatory if you've modified any code in the repository cline).

• Docker Engine and Docker Compose (same versions as described in )

Instructions

Our localnet setup instructions are designed to set up a local network with the following node types:

• 3x validator nodes

• 1x non-validator/observer node

• 1x seed node

The definition for this network is described in a , which can be modified as required for your specific use case. Since it's not possible to cover all possible localnet setups, the following instructions describe the steps necessary to execute a setup similar to that using in .

Generate localnet configuration (one-time)

Execute the to generate validator keys and node configuration for the node types above.

You may modify the output if you want a different mix of node types.

Import the generated keys (one-time)

Import the keys generated using the :

Bring up the localnet using Docker Compose

Modify the docker-compose.yml file if necessary, along with the per-container environment variables under the container-env folder.

Interacting with localnet

The default Docker localnet will configure a running network with a pre-built image or custom image.

Nodes

The five nodes and corresponding ports set up by the default Docker Compose setup will be:

1. Validator nodes

   1. validator-0

      1. P2P: 26656

You can tests connection to a node using browser: http://localhost:<rpc_port>. Example for the first node: http://localhost:26657.

Accounts

Key and corresponding accounts will be placed in the network config folder by the import-keys.sh script, which are used within the nodes configured above.

When connecting using CLI, provide the --home parameter to any CLI command to point to the specific home directory of the corresponding node: --home network-config/validator-x.

CLI commands

See to learn about the most common CLI commands.