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How to configure your Arbitrum chain's node using the Arbitrum chain (Orbit) SDK

RaaS providers

It is highly recommended that you work with a Rollup-as-a-Service (RaaS) provider to deploy a production chain. You can find a list of RaaS providers here.

Once you have successfully deployed and initialized the Arbitrum chain core contracts, the next step is to configure and run an Arbitrum Nitro node for your chain. You configure a Nitro node using a JSON file describing all the parameters for the node, including settings for the batch poster, validator, and the chain itself. See the Overview for an introduction to creating and configuring an Arbitrum chain.

Before reading this guide, we recommend that you're familiar with the general process for creating new chains explained in the introduction and the first section of How to deploy an Arbitrum chain.

Structure of a Nitro node configuration JSON object​

When starting up the node, a Nitro node reads its configuration from a JSON object, usually provided in a file. This object has the following structure:

{
  "chain": {
    "info-json": "[{...}]",
    "name": "MyArbitrumChain",
  },
  "parent-chain": {
    "connection": {
      "url": "http://parentChainRpcUrl",
    },
  },
  "http": {
    "addr": "0.0.0.0",
    "port": 8449,
    "vhosts": "*",
    "corsdomain": "*",
    "api": ["eth", "net", "web3", "arb", "debug"],
  },
  "node": {
    // Node specific settings including sequencer, batch-poster and validator
  },
  "execution": {
    // Execution-client specific settings
  }
};

The following table briefly describes the type of parameters that can be configured in each root property:

PropertyDescription
chainInformation about the chain, including the chain ID, its name, and the chain config.
parent-chainInformation for accessing the parent chain.
httpConfiguration parameters for the HTTP server.
nodeNode settings, including sequencer, batch-poster and validator if enabled.
executionExecution settings, including archive mode and block production parameters.

Additional configuration for Arbitrum AnyTrust chains:​

For Arbitrum AnyTrust chains, the Nitro node configuration object has an additional segment under the node field to configure the AnyTrust specific properties:

{
  ...
  "node": {
    ...
    "sequencer-inbox-address": "0xSequencerInbox",
    "parent-chain-node-url": "http://parentChainRpcUrl",
    "rest-aggregator": {
      "enable": true,
      "urls": "http://localhost:9876",
    },
    "rpc-aggregator": {
      "enable": true,
      "assumed-honest": 3,
      "backends": "[...]",
    },
  }
  ...
};

You can find information about what these parameters configure in How to configure a DAC.

How to generate a node's configuration file using the Arbitrum chain (Orbit) SDK​

Let's look at what methods to use for generating a configuration file for the Nitro node of your Arbitrum chain, using the Arbitrum chain (Orbit) SDK.

Example script

The Arbitrum chain (Orbit) SDK includes an example script for generating a node configuration file. We recommend that you first understand the process described in this section and then check the prepare-node-config script.

1. Gather information from the deployed chain​

To generate the configuration file for your node, you'll need the following information:

  • Core contracts: you'll have to configure your node with all the core contracts created on deployment.
  • Chain config: the same configuration used when deploying the chain must be passed to the node.
  • Private keys of the accounts that will operate the chain, like the batch poster and the validator
  • Any extra configuration desired for the sequencer, batch poster and validator, like batch posting frequency or maximum block speed.

2. Generate the node configuration object​

The prepareNodeConfig method generates a JSON object with the configuration for the node. It sets the appropriate defaults for most parameters, allowing you to override any of these defaults.

Below is an example of how to use prepareNodeConfig to obtain the node configuration for an Arbitrum chain deployed on transaction txHash (Note: This transaction hash is not strictly required; it's only for obtaining the core contracts and chain config to use in the node):

import { createPublicClient, http } from 'viem';
import {
  createRollupPrepareTransaction,
  createRollupPrepareTransactionReceipt,
  ChainConfig,
  prepareNodeConfig,
} from '@arbitrum/orbit-sdk';

const parentChainPublicClient = createPublicClient({
  chain: parentChain,
  transport: http(),
});

// get the transaction
const tx = createRollupPrepareTransaction(
  await parentChainPublicClient.getTransaction({ hash: txHash }),
);

// get the transaction receipt
const txReceipt = createRollupPrepareTransactionReceipt(
  await parentChainPublicClient.getTransactionReceipt({ hash: txHash }),
);

// get the chain config and core contracts
const config = tx.getInputs()[0].config;
const chainConfig: ChainConfig = JSON.parse(config.chainConfig);
const coreContracts = txReceipt.getCoreContracts();

const nodeConfig = prepareNodeConfig({
  chainName: 'MyArbitrumChain',
  chainConfig,
  coreContracts,
  batchPosterPrivateKey,
  validatorPrivateKey,
  stakeToken: config.stakeToken,
  parentChainId: parentChain.id,
  parentChainRpcUrl: parentChain.rpcUrls.default.http[0],
});

Note that prepareNodeConfig will also generate the specific configuration for AnyTrust chains if it detects that the chain configuration includes the appropriate flag.

After generating the node configuration object, it can be saved to a file for later use by the Nitro node.

3. Next step​

You can now run the Nitro node for your Arbitrum chain with the node configuration generated. You can find instructions for running a node in How to run a full node.