Toposware

Topos CLI

You have seen different components of the Topos Stack working together in the Playground. Besides delegating and managing different components via Compose files, you can use the Topos CLI to collectively start and run different components.

The Topos CLI has already been mentioned many times in this chapter. Now it is time for you to install and test it.

Install from the source

You will fetch and build the Topos CLI from the source. This may take some time; alternatively, you can download and run a released version directly. This section assumes that you work with version 0.0.3.

Make sure to install Rust Toolchain

The Topos CLI is written in Rust, so you will need to have a Rust Toolchain installed and ready. Alternatively, you can use a Rust Docker image to achieve the same.

When you are ready, use cargo to fetch and compile the CLI:

$ cargo install topos --git https://github.com/topos-protocol/topos --tag v0.0.3

You can check your installation with:

$ topos --help

This will show you all the available commands:

 
Topos CLI

Usage: topos [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

Commands:
  tce        Topos CLI subcommand for the TCE-related functionalities
  sequencer  Topos CLI subcommand for the Sequencer components
  network    Topos CLI subcommand for network-related functionalities (e.g., running the certificate spammer)
  setup      Topos CLI subcommand for the setup of various Topos-related components (e.g., installation of Polygon Edge binary)
  subnet     Topos CLI subcommand for the Polygon Edge-related functionalities
  node       Utility to manage your nodes in the Topos network
  doctor     
  help       Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -v, --verbose...   Defines the verbosity level
      --home <HOME>  Home directory for the configuration [env: TOPOS_HOME=] [default: /home/user/.config/topos]
  -h, --help         Print help

In order to test the functionality presented here, the Topos CLI will need to download and install the polygon-edge binary. Move to a new directory that will be your workspace for this exercise, then:

$ topos setup subnet
$ export TOPOS_POLYGON_EDGE_BIN_PATH=$(pwd)
$ export TOPOS_HOME=~/.config/topos/

By default, the Topos CLI downloads the most recent binary into the current directory. Note that you can find out the command's options with:

$ topos setup subnet --help
Note

You can use the --help flag for all the subcommands if you need further information. The CLI has built-in default parameters that will be used if no flag or environment parameter is provided. For example, you can use the --path <PATH> flag to set the directory for the Polygon Edge binary, or you can set the environment parameter TOPOS_SETUP_POLYGON_EDGE_DIR.

It makes sense to install the polygon-edge binary into a folder that is included in your $PATH because the CLI will need to run it. However, you still need to set the TOPOS_POLYGON_EDGE_BIN_PATH parameter in your shell (via export, or by adding it into your .bashrc or .zshrc) for the CLI to know where to find it.

Initialize your node

The Topos CLI offers subcommands in order to manage your nodes. If you want to start an Edge validator node, first you will need to generate an ECDSA and a BLS key for the validator. In addition, libp2p will need a key in order to be identified.

Create your first node, and name it val-alice:

$ topos node init --name val-alice

This will create some local folders for a validator node with the alias val_alice and the three following keys:

 
.config/topos/node/val-alice
├── config.toml
├── consensus
│   ├── validator-bls.key
│   └── validator.key
└── libp2p
    └── libp2p.key

The command also warned you that these keys, which should be secret, are in fact stored unencrypted on disk:

 
[WARNING: INSECURE LOCAL SECRETS - SHOULD NOT BE RUN IN PRODUCTION]

Another file that has been created is config.toml. You will use its content in the next step when you start a node, and it is worth looking at in more detail.

Config

The config.toml is the main configuration file. Have a look at the fields:

 
[base]
name = "val-alice"
role = "validator"
subnet-id = "topos"

[edge]
# Any flags to forward to Polygon Edge

[tce]
db-path = "~/.config/topos/node/val-alice/tce_rocksdb"
graphql-api-addr = "0.0.0.0:4030"
grpc-api-addr = "0.0.0.0:1340"
metrics-api-addr = "0.0.0.0:3000"

In the config.toml, some of the scopes are necessary (base and edge) while others are optional (tce):

  • base: Includes the general parameters for the node:
    • name: This string is the name of the node.
    • role: The role can be "validator" or "sequencer". It is set as "validator" as this is the default when running the init command.
    • subnet-id: This is the alias used for the subnet in which the node participates. Note that it will determine the location of the genesis.json file. In the example above, "topos" is used for the Topos Subnet.
  • edge: Includes parameters passed on to Polygon Edge. You can fetch parameters for this scope via polygon-edge server --help. Note that you have to pass the values as edge-flag = "value", regardless of whether it is a number or a string.
  • tce: This is optional in the sense that only validators participating on the Topos Subnet or a sequencer will need to provide it. It includes the parameters for the TCE component:
    • db-path: Specifies the directory for the TCE DB.
    • graphql-api-addr: Determines the GraphQL API.
    • grpc-api-addr: Sets the TCE gRPC API.
    • metrics-api-addr: The socket for the Prometheus API.

Initialize a sequencer

Generate a config for a sequencer node with the alias seq-bob:

$ topos node init --name seq-bob --role sequencer

In the newly created config.toml, you will find another scope called sequencer:

  • sequencer: Includes the parameters for the sequencer:
    • subnet-contract-address: ToposCore contract address deployed on the subnet.
    • subnet-jsonrpc-endpoint: The JSON-RPC endpoint exposed by the Edge Node.
    • tce-grpc-endpoint: The TCE gRPC endpoint.

Topos Subnet genesis file

In order to start a node locally for the Topos Subnet, you will need to fetch the genesis file:

$ wget -P $TOPOS_HOME/subnet/topos/ https://gist.githubusercontent.com/gruberb/19dbc24e9b2405e7562f63d4032450e6/raw/12499fdc40980209c7acd2146ee84c779dbe9e4d/genesis.json

Now you are ready to start a Topos Subnet node.

Launch your node

If you are running with Docker, first you need to create the network on which your two nodes will run:

$ docker network create net-topos-subnet

When launching a node with the node subcommand, you can specify which node configuration you want to use via the --name flag:

$ topos node up --name val-alice

This will fetch the config generated for the validator node and start a node with it. If the node runs, you can start a sequencer with the auto-generated config for seq-bob:

$ topos node up --name seq-bob
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