Dev Chain

How to run a local Erigon development chain for testing and development.

A dev chain is a local, private network useful for smart contract development, testing RPC calls, and experimenting with Erigon configuration without connecting to a public network.

Quick Start

./erigon \
  --datadir=dev \
  --chain=dev \
  --mine \
  --http.api=eth,erigon,web3,net,debug,trace,txpool,parity,admin \
  --http.corsdomain="*"

Key flags:

Flag	Purpose
--chain=dev	Run a local dev chain
--datadir=dev	Store chain data in the dev/ folder
--mine	Enable block production
--dev.period <seconds>	Block interval in seconds. Must be > 0 to mine empty blocks (default: 0, mines only when there are transactions)
--miner.etherbase <address>	Coinbase address that receives block rewards. Defaults to a pre-funded dev account if not set.
--miner.gaslimit <value>	Gas limit target for mined blocks (default: 30000000).
--miner.extradata <hex>	Extra data field appended to mined blocks (up to 32 bytes).

Running Multiple Nodes

To connect two local nodes, save the enode:// address printed at startup of node 1 and pass it to node 2 via --staticpeers.

# Node 1
./erigon --datadir=dev1 --chain=dev --mine --port=30303

# Node 2 (uses node 1's enode as static peer)
./erigon --datadir=dev2 --chain=dev --port=30304 \
  --staticpeers="enode://<NODE1_PUBKEY>@127.0.0.1:30303"

Full Tutorial

For a complete step-by-step walkthrough including RPC daemon setup and multi-node configuration, see DEV_CHAIN.md in the repository.