How to run an Ethereum node

Prerequisites

• Check the hardware prerequisites;
• Check which type of node you want to run and the disk space required.

Install Erigon​

To set up Erigon quickly, we recommend the following:

• For Linux and MacOS users, use our pre-built binaries;
• For Windows users, build executable binaries natively.

Start Erigon​

To execute a Ethereum full node using pre-compiled binaries, use the following basic command:

erigon

Example of basic configuration​

The command above allows you to run your local Erigon node on the Ethereum mainnet with Caplin, the embedded Consesus Layer. Additionally, you can include several options, as shown in the following example:

erigon \
--datadir=<your_data_dir> \
--prune.mode=minimal \
--http.addr="0.0.0.0" \
--http.api=eth,web3,net,debug,trace,txpool \
--torrent.download.rate=512mb

Flags explanation

• --datadir=<your_data_dir> to store Erigon files in a non-default location. Default data directory is ./home/user/.local/share/erigon.
• Erigon is full node by default, use --prune.mode=archive to run a archive node or --prune.mode=minimal (EIP-4444). If you want to change type of node delete the --datadir folder content and restart Erigon with the appropriate flags.
• --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 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.
• Default chain is --chain=mainnet for Ethereum mainnet. Use the flag --chain=holesky for Holesky testnet, --chain=sepolia for Sepolia testnet or --chain=hoodi for Hoodi testnet.

To stop your Erigon node you can use the CTRL+C command.

When you get familiar with running Erigon from CLI you may also consider staking and/or run a Ethereum node with an external Consensus Layer.

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