Run a node

The node binary is xdevs. Today you can run it as a single-node dev chain, or as a validator or full node in a multi-validator network you create yourself. There is no public network to join yet; see Network endpoints.

Get the binaries

Build from source (Rust stable, pinned by rust-toolchain.toml, plus a C toolchain; on Windows the x86_64-pc-windows-gnu toolchain with MinGW gcc):

git clone https://github.com/JACELL100/xdevs-chain.git
cd xdevs-chain
cargo build --release      # target/release/xdevs, xdevs-cli, xdevs-loadgen

Prebuilt Linux binaries: the release workflow builds xdevs and xdevs-cli for x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu and aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu, with SHA-256 checksums, whenever a v* tag is pushed. Check the GitHub Releases page.

Docker: CI publishes an image used by the localnet scripts (ghcr.io/jacell100/xdevs-chain:main); see Local multi-validator network.

Run modes

The mode follows from the genesis file and the config:

Genesis	Config	Mode	What it does
No validators	[dev] enabled = true (or --dev)	Dev	One node seals a block every tick from its mempool
No validators	dev disabled	RPC only	Serves the stored chain, produces nothing
With validators	[validator] enabled = true + consensus key	Validator	Proposes, re-executes and votes (Malachite BFT)
With validators	validator disabled	Full node	Verifies and commits decided blocks, never signs; syncs from peers

[dev] is ignored when the genesis has validators: such a chain only grows through consensus. Enabling [validator] with a genesis that has no validators is an error. If the consensus engine halts, xdevs run exits with an error instead of restarting in-process.

Commands

xdevs init --dev [--data-dir .xdevs] [--force]       # write dev genesis.json + config.toml
xdevs run --dev [--block-time 2s] [--http 127.0.0.1:8545] [--data-dir .xdevs]
xdevs run --config path/to/config.toml               # dev, validator or full node

xdevs node is an alias of xdevs run.

xdevs run flag	Meaning
--dev	Single-node dev chain (built-in dev genesis unless --genesis or the config says otherwise)
--config FILE	Path to config.toml (default: <data-dir>/config.toml if it exists)
--genesis FILE	Path to genesis.json (overrides the config)
--data-dir DIR	Node home; the database lives in <data-dir>/data (default .xdevs)
--block-time D	Dev block interval, e.g. 2s, 500ms, 1.5s
--http ADDR	JSON-RPC listen address (HTTP + WebSocket)
--fee-recipient ADDR	Receives the priority fees of produced or proposed blocks
--log FILTER	Log filter, e.g. info, debug, xdevs::producer=debug (RUST_LOG wins)

Storage and restarts

• Chain data is stored in redb with one atomic write per block. A restarted node resumes from the same head and state root, and re-verifies its head state root at startup (it refuses to start on a mismatch).
• Consensus state (Malachite WAL and the double-sign guard) lives in <data_dir>/consensus, apart from the chain database, so wiping one never resets the other.
• The state root is computed incrementally over trie nodes persisted in the database.
• State is queryable for the last 10,000 blocks by default ([chain] pruning); all blocks and receipts are kept (block pruning is not implemented yet).

Running as a service

The repository includes a systemd unit at deploy/systemd/xdevs.service. Keep JSON-RPC on 127.0.0.1 unless it sits behind a proxy with rate limiting; the planned public endpoints use Cloudflare in front of the node.

Load testing

xdevs-loadgen sends a configurable transaction mix and reports inclusion:

./target/release/xdevs-loadgen --rpc http://127.0.0.1:8545 --tps 100 --duration 60s \
    --senders 10 --mix transfer=80,erc20=20

Use --rpc with several comma-separated URLs to spread sends across nodes, --fund-from dev:0 to create and fund fresh senders, --report json --out report.json for machine-readable output, and --min-inclusion 0.95 to fail when too few transactions land. It reports what it measured on your hardware; xDEVS Chain doesn't publish TPS figures yet.

Validators on a public network

Joining a public network as a validator (registering stake in the Staking contract, rewards, slashing) is Phase 3. See Validators.