How to run a Polygon node

Quick Start: Running a Polygon Node with Erigon

Information: The final release series of Erigon that officially supports Polygon is 3.1.*. For the software supported by Polygon, please refer to the link: https://github.com/0xPolygon/erigon/releases.

1. Prerequisites Check

1. Confirm your machine meets the necessary Hardware Requirements based on your desired sync mode.

2. Install Docker:

   • For Linux, install Docker Engine.

   • For macOS or Windows, install Docker Desktop.

2. Configure and Launch Erigon

Follow these steps to configure and launch the All-in-One Client with the Heimdall endpoint.

A. Create the Configuration File

Create a new file named docker-compose.yml in a directory where you want to manage your Erigon setup, and paste the following content into it:

services:
  erigon:
    image: erigontech/erigon:v3.2.2
    container_name: erigon-node
    restart: always
    command:
      # --- Basic Configuration ---
      - --chain=bor-mainnet
      - --bor.heimdall=https://heimdall-api.polygon.technology
      - --http.addr="0.0.0.0"
      - --http.api=eth,web3,net,debug,trace,txpool
      # --- Performance Tweaks ---
      - --torrent.download.rate=512mb
      # --- Sync Mode (Optional) ---
      # To change Sync Mode, uncomment the line below:
      # - --prune.mode=archive
      # or
      # - --prune.mode=minimal
    ports:
      - "8545:8545" # Exposes the RPC port (needed for wallets/dApps)
    volumes:
      # *** IMPORTANT: CHANGE THIS PATH! ***
      # Replace the path below with an actual directory on your machine 
      # where you want the blockchain data stored (e.g., /mnt/ssd/erigon-data)
      - /path/to/erigon/data:/var/lib/erigon

⚠️ Action Required: You must change the volume path! Replace /path/to/erigon/data with a valid, empty directory on your machine where you want Erigon to store its files.

B. Launch the Node and Monitor Progress

Open your terminal in the directory where you saved docker-compose.yml. To start the node and immediately see the sync process type:

docker compose up

Now you can relax and watch your Erigon Polygon node sync!

Flag explanation

• --chain=bor-mainnet and --bor.heimdall=https://heimdall-api.polygon.technologyspecifies specify respectively the Polygon mainnet and the API endpoint for the Heimdall network

  • to use Amoy tesnet replace with flags --chain=amoy --bor.heimdall=https://heimdall-api-amoy.polygon.technology

• Add --prune.mode=minimal to run minimal Sync Mode or --prune.mode=archive to run an archive node

• --http.addr="0.0.0.0" --http.api=eth,web3,net,debug,trace,txpool to use RPC and e.g. be able to connect your web3 wallet;

• --torrent.download.rate=512mb to increase download speed. While the default downloading speed is 128mb, with this flag Erigon will use as much download speed as it can, up to a maximum of 512 megabytes per second. This means it will try to download data as quickly as possible, but it won't exceed the 512 MB/s limit you've set.

Press Ctrl+C in your terminal to stop Erigon.

Additional flags can be added to configure Erigon with several options.