Ethereum Node Quick Setup

🌐 Website & blog: eth2quickstart.com — quick start, supported clients, and the Ethereum client bake-off write-up. Presenting or sharing the blog and slide deck? See the Blog & Presentation Guide — deep-link sharing, speaker notes, print-to-PDF, and the live slide deck.

Set up a full Ethereum node (execution + consensus client, MEV, hardened OS) on a fresh Linux server with simple shell scripts containing community best practices. Checkpoint sync is preconfigured, so you save at least 2 days compared to the CoinCashew and Somersat guides — and you end up with your own uncensored, unmetered RPC node. Supports 7 execution × 6 consensus clients for servers, home solo stakers, and pool node operators.

Start here: Quickstart — one command on a fresh host.

⚠️ Security Notice: Don't blindly run scripts near sensitive data. Review scripts before execution.

Table of Contents

• Quickstart — one-liner bootstrap, command wrapper, step-by-step install, service unit names
• For External Agents — skill, MCP server, llms.txt
• Prerequisites · System Requirements
• Available Ethereum Clients · Client Selection Guide
• MEV Solutions
• Sync and Configure · Configuration Architecture · Network-Specific Setup
• RPC exposure: Nginx · Caddy
• Security Features · Troubleshooting

Prerequisites

1. Server Setup: Cloud VPS with SSH key or local server

   • Recommended specs: 2-4+ TB SSD/NVMe, 16-64+ GB RAM, 4-8+ cores, Ubuntu 20+
   • Bare metal VPS preferred (cloud instances may not finish syncing)
   • SSH setup: Configure SSH keys and server access
   • Referral link: $20 free in cloud credits https://hetzner.cloud/?ref=d4Hoyi2u3pwn

2. System Configuration:

   • Set swraid 1 & swraidlevel 0 for full disk access
   • Note: SSH fingerprint changes after setup - remove from known_hosts

Quickstart

One-Liner Bootstrap (Recommended for fresh hosts)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chimera-defi/eth2-quickstart/master/install.sh | sudo bash

• The bootstrap installer now auto-falls back to non-interactive defaults when run via a pipe.
• Force non-interactive explicitly:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chimera-defi/eth2-quickstart/master/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --non-interactive

• Force interactive TUI explicitly (requires a usable TTY):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chimera-defi/eth2-quickstart/master/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --interactive

Unified Command Wrapper (Human + Agent Friendly)

Use one stable entrypoint for common workflows:

./scripts/eth2qs.sh help
./scripts/eth2qs.sh configure --non-interactive
./scripts/eth2qs.sh client-options --json
./scripts/eth2qs.sh phase1
./scripts/eth2qs.sh phase2
./scripts/eth2qs.sh monad-install
./scripts/eth2qs.sh doctor --json
./scripts/eth2qs.sh debug --json --service cl
./scripts/eth2qs.sh stats --json
./scripts/eth2qs.sh update-check --json
./scripts/eth2qs.sh monitor export --json
./scripts/eth2qs.sh repair
./scripts/eth2qs.sh restart --smart

# Validator management (full guide: docs/VALIDATOR_MANAGEMENT.md)
./scripts/eth2qs.sh validators --json --withdrawal-type 0x01 --min-balance 32
./scripts/eth2qs.sh validator-deploy --num-validators 1 --withdrawal-type 0x02 --withdrawal-address 0xYourAddr
./scripts/eth2qs.sh validator-exit
./scripts/eth2qs.sh validator-withdrawal-changes          # 0x00 -> 0x01 (BLS-to-execution)
./scripts/eth2qs.sh validator-manage --consolidate        # EIP-7251 (incl. 0x01 -> 0x02 compounding)
./scripts/eth2qs.sh validator-manage --eip7002-exit       # EIP-7002 EL-triggered exit/withdrawal

For agent integrations, the published skill source lives at skills/eth2-quickstart/ and is intended to be used inside an eth2-quickstart checkout. The skill entrypoint is skills/eth2-quickstart/SKILL.md and includes operator, sizing, safety, and improvement references for agent users.

For External Agents

The skill is repo-aware: install it, then use it from inside an eth2-quickstart checkout.

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/chimera-defi/eth2-quickstart.git
cd eth2-quickstart

# registry install (ClawHub) — not yet published, this does not work today
# clawhub install eth2-quickstart

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗