Erigon
Erigon is an implementation of Ethereum (execution layer with embeddable consensus layer), on the efficiency
frontier.
Download
| Documentation
| Blog
This README is for people working on the repository. Everything about operating a node — install methods,
flags, pruning modes, ports, monitoring, staking — is on the documentation site.
Documentation
The Erigon documentation answers most questions. Useful starting points:
- Installation — binaries, Docker, Linux/macOS, Windows, ARM
- Hardware requirements — disk, RAM, CPU, bandwidth
- Pruning modes —
archive, full, blocks, minimal
- CLI reference — every flag, config files, env vars
- Default ports and Security
- Interacting with Erigon — JSON-RPC, GraphQL, gRPC namespaces
- Creating a dashboard — Prometheus and Grafana
- Upgrading — versions and snapshot formats
In-depth links are marked by the microscope sign (🔬)
Usage
Erigon3 changes from Erigon2
- Initial sync doesn't re-exec from 0: downloading 99% LatestState and History
- Per-Transaction granularity of history (Erigon2 had per-block). Means:
- Can execute 1 historical transaction - without executing it's block
- If account X change V1->V2->V1 within 1 block (different transactions):
debug_getModifiedAccountsByNumber return
it
- Erigon3 doesn't store Logs (aka Receipts) - it always re-executing historical txn (but it's cheaper)
- Validator mode: added.
--internalcl is enabled by default. to disable use --externalcl.
- Store most of data in immutable files (segments/snapshots):
- can symlink/mount latest state to fast drive and history to cheap drive
chaindata is tens of gb (22gb on an archive mainnet node). It's ok to rm -rf chaindata. (to prevent grow: recommend --batchSize <= 1G)
--prune flags changed: see --prune.mode (default: full, archive: archive, EIP-4444: minimal)- Other changes:
- ExecutionStage included many E2 stages: stage_hash_state, stage_trie, log_index, history_index, trace_index
- Restart doesn't loose much partial progress:
--sync.loop.block.limit=5_000 enabled by default
Logging
Log flags, log levels and log files: Logs and the
CLI reference.
Torrent client logging
The torrent client in the Downloader keeps its own file, logs/torrent.log. It is written at whichever is more
verbose of --torrent.verbosity and WARN, so warnings and errors always reach it even at the default verbosity.
Messages at --torrent.verbosity or above are additionally forwarded to Erigon's own file and console loggers, which
emit them only if --log.dir.verbosity and --verbosity are themselves verbose enough.
Block Production (PoS Validator)
Block production is fully supported for Ethereum & Gnosis Chain.
Beacon Chain (Consensus Layer)
Erigon can be used as an Execution Layer for external Consensus Layer clients. See
JWT secret and
Ethereum with an external CL.
Caplin
Caplin is Erigon's embedded Consensus Layer, enabled by default. Flags, archival modes and Beacon API configuration:
Caplin and Caplin for staking.
Why a new Consensus Layer rather than the Engine API: the Engine API delivers blocks one at a time, which does not suit
Erigon's bulk model — Erigon is built to handle many blocks simultaneously and to sort and process data in batches.
Owning the consensus layer lets Erigon drive block handling on its own terms instead of being paced by the Engine API.
Dev Chain
🔬 Detailed explanation is DEV_CHAIN.
For developers
Building
Toolchain: Go >= 1.26, GCC 11+ or Clang 13+, 64-bit architecture. On Linux, kernel > v4.
On x86-64 the build targets the x86-64-v2 baseline (requires SSE4.2, POPCNT). Intel Nehalem (2008) and AMD
Bulldozer (2011) or newer qualify; older hardware is not supported.
git clone https://github.com/erigontech/erigon.git
cd erigon
make erigon
Binaries land in ./build/bin. Use -j<n> to parallelise the build. Packaged binaries, Docker images and the
per-platform install steps are on the
installation page; to build a specific release rather than main,
check out its tag.
On Windows, build natively (Chocolatey, MinGW, and the MinGW anti-virus false-positive workaround) or under WSL2:
Native compilation and
WSL.
Executables
make erigon builds the node; make all builds the full suite into ./build/bin. make help lists every target.
| Command | Description |
|---|
erigon | The node: execution layer with the embedded consensus layer (Caplin) |
rpcdaemon | JSON-RPC server; runs in-process or standalone against a local or remote Erigon |
sentry | The p2p layer as an independent process |
txpool | The transaction pool as an independent process |
downloader | Snapshot downloader, and verification of webseed metainfos against the preverified set |
integration | Sync-stage and datadir maintenance tool — see cmd/integration/Readme.md |
evm | Standalone EVM for running bytecode, disassembling and full trace logs |
mcp | Standalone MCP server for Erigon |
caplin, capcli, snapshots, rpctest and pics are also built by make all.
Testing
make test-short # fast unit tests
make test-all # full test suite
make test-fixtures-cl # consensus-spec fixtures (also: test-fixtures-eest, test-fixtures-zkevm)
make lint # run before opening or updating a PR
docs/TESTING.md covers the release-time incremental-sync verification, which is a separate
exercise from the test suite above.
Use as library
# please use git branch name (or commit hash). don't use git tags
go get github.com/erigontech/erigon@main
go mod tidy
Repository docs
JSON-RPC daemon
Most of Erigon's components (txpool, rpcdaemon, snapshots downloader, sentry, ...) can run inside Erigon or as
independent processes. Deployment modes, flags and remote (Remote DB) setup:
RPC Daemon and
cmd/rpcdaemon/README.md.
Default Ports and Firewalls
Every default port, the flags that change them, and firewalling guidance:
Default ports and
Security.
Hetzner expecting strict firewall rules
Ports to open and the reserved IPv4 ranges to block:
Hetzner firewall note.
Run as a separate user - systemd example
Running erigon from build/bin as a separate user requires the binaries to be installed using make DIST=<path> install. You could use $HOME/erigon
or /opt/erigon as the installation path, for example:
make DIST=/opt/erigon install
Grab diagnostic for bug report
- Get stack trace:
kill -SIGUSR1 <pid>, get trace and stop: kill -6 <pid>
- Get CPU profiling: add
--pprof flag and run
go tool pprof -png http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/profile\?seconds\=20 > cpu.png
- Get RAM profiling: add
--pprof flag and run
go tool pprof -inuse_space -png http://127.0.0.1:6060/debug/pprof/heap > mem.png
Run local devnet
🔬 Detailed explanation is here.
How to change db pagesize
post
Getting in touch
Reporting security issues/concerns
Report vulnerabilities privately via
Security → Report a vulnerability.
Please don't open a public issue for one — see SECURITY.md.
Getting help
License
Erigon is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0.
