Running a Development Node

How to run Orbinum on your own machine: a single dev node with instant seal, or a small local network with two validators.

Joining the live testnet

This page covers local development only. To run a node on the testnet, see Becoming a Validator for validators, or RPC and Archive Nodes for public endpoints.

Prerequisites

Make sure you've completed the Installation before continuing.

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What development mode gives you

	Development (--dev)	Local network (--chain local)
Consensus	Instant seal — a block per transaction	Aura between the nodes you start
Data	Temporary with --tmp	Temporary or persistent
Accounts	Alice, Bob and Charlie, pre-funded	Same
EVM chain ID	42	42

Neither talks to the testnet. Both give you a chain you fully control.

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Development Mode

Mode for local development with instant seal (produces blocks without consensus). Everything runs from the published Docker image — no compilation.

Image shorthand

The examples use ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest. Export it once to keep commands short: export ORB=ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest.

Basic Development Node

docker run --rm ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest --dev --tmp

Flags:

• --dev: Activates development chain spec with pre-funded accounts
• --tmp: Stores data in temporary directory (cleared on restart)

Features:

• Produces blocks instantly (doesn't wait for consensus)
• Clean chain state on each start
• Ideal for quick testing

Pre-funded Development Accounts

Account	Substrate Address	Initial Balance
Alice	5GrwvaEF...	1,000,000 ORB
Bob	5FHneW46...	1,000,000 ORB
Charlie	5FLSigC9...	1,000,000 ORB

With Persistent Data

To keep state between restarts, mount a host directory (or a named volume):

docker run --rm -v "$PWD/data:/data" ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest \
    --dev --base-path /data

Enable External RPC Access

To connect from Polkadot.js Apps or external wallets, publish the RPC port:

docker run --rm -p 9944:9944 ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest \
    --dev --tmp \
    --rpc-cors all \
    --rpc-methods Unsafe \
    --rpc-external

Development Only

--rpc-methods Unsafe enables dangerous methods, and -p 9944:9944 exposes the RPC port. Local development only — never on a public node.

With Ethereum RPC APIs

For EVM development (MetaMask, Hardhat, etc.):

docker run --rm -p 9944:9944 ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest \
    --dev --tmp \
    --rpc-cors all \
    --rpc-external \
    --ethapi=debug,trace,txpool

Available endpoints:

• Substrate RPC: ws://127.0.0.1:9944
• Ethereum RPC: http://127.0.0.1:9944 (JSON-RPC compatible)

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Local Multi-Node Testnet

To simulate a small network locally with the well-known --alice / --bob keys, run two containers on a shared Docker network:

docker network create orbinum-local

Node 1 (Alice — bootnode):

docker run --rm --name alice --network orbinum-local \
    -p 9944:9944 ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest \
    --chain local --alice --tmp \
    --port 30333 --rpc-port 9944

Copy the Local node identity from Alice's logs (format 12D3KooW...).

Node 2 (Bob):

docker run --rm --name bob --network orbinum-local \
    -p 9945:9944 ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest \
    --chain local --bob --tmp \
    --port 30333 --rpc-port 9944 \
    --bootnodes /dns/alice/tcp/30333/p2p/<ALICE_PEER_ID>

Replace <ALICE_PEER_ID> with the identity from Alice's logs. Both nodes discover each other over the orbinum-local network and finalize blocks together.

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Configuration Reference

Essential Flags

Flag	Description	Default
--chain	Chain specification	dev
--base-path	Data directory	Platform-specific
--port	P2P port	30333
--rpc-port	RPC port	9944
--ws-port	WebSocket port	9944
--validator	Enable validation	false
--pruning	State pruning mode	256 blocks
--name	Node name	Random

RPC Configuration

Flag	Description
--rpc-external	Listen on all interfaces
--rpc-cors	CORS origins (use all for dev)
--rpc-methods	Safe, Unsafe, or Auto
--rpc-max-connections	Max concurrent connections

Logging

# Increase verbosity
docker run --rm -e RUST_LOG=debug $ORB --dev --tmp

# Specific module logging
docker run --rm -e RUST_LOG=pallet_shielded_pool=trace $ORB --dev --tmp

# Log to file
docker run --rm $ORB --dev --tmp 2>&1 | tee node.log

$ORB is the image shorthand from Development Mode (export ORB=ghcr.io/orbinum/node:testnet-latest).

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Advanced Topics

Custom Chain Spec

To create a custom chain spec:

# Generate spec in JSON format
docker run --rm $ORB build-spec --chain local > custom-spec.json

# Convert to raw format
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/specs" $ORB \
    build-spec --chain /specs/custom-spec.json --raw > custom-spec-raw.json

# Use the spec
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/specs" $ORB --chain /specs/custom-spec-raw.json

Database Backend

Orbinum uses RocksDB by default. To change:

# Use ParityDB (experimental)
docker run --rm $ORB --dev --tmp --database paritydb

Next Steps

• Quick Start — perform your first transaction
• Becoming a Validator — join the testnet validator set
• RPC and Archive Nodes — run a public endpoint