How to run a local dev node

A local Arbitrum Nitro dev node can help you deploy and test smart contracts in a fully controlled environment. This how-to walks you through the process of deploying and running a full development environment on your local machine that includes a Nitro dev node, a dev-mode geth L1, and multiple instances with different roles.

Stylus support

If you want your local development environment to support Stylus, check out this guide.

Step 1. Install prerequisites

You'll need docker and docker compose to run your node. Follow the instructions in their site to install them.

Step 2. Clone the nitro-testnode repo

You'll need the release branch.

git clone -b release --recurse-submodules https://github.com/OffchainLabs/nitro-testnode.git && cd nitro-testnode

Step 3. Run your node

./test-node.bash --init

Step 4. Successive runs

To relaunch the node after the first installation, run the following command.

./test-node.bash

Clear local data

Note that running with the --init flag will clear all chain data and redeploy!

Token bridge

An L1-L2 token bridge can be deployed by using the parameter --tokenbridge. The list of contracts can be found by running docker compose run --entrypoint sh tokenbridge -c "cat network.json".

Running an L3 chain

An L3 chain can be deployed on top of the L2 chain, by using the parameter --l3node. Its deployment configuration can be found by running docker exec nitro-testnode-sequencer-1 cat /config/l3deployment.json.

When deploying an L3 chain, the following parameters are also available:

• --l3-fee-token: Uses a custom gas token for the L3 (symbol $APP), deployed on L2 at address 0x9b7c0fcc305ca36412f87fd6bd08c194909a7d4e
• --l3-token-bridge: Deploys an L2-L3 token bridge

Additional arguments

You can find a list of additional arguments to use with test-node.bash by using --help.

./test-node.bash --help

Helper scripts

The repository includes a set of helper scripts for basic actions like funding accounts or bridging funds. You can see a list of the available scripts by running:

./test-node.bash script --help

If you want to see information of a particular script, you can add the name of the script to the help command.

./test-node.bash script send-l1 --help

Here's an example of how to run the script that funds an address on L2. Replace 0x11223344556677889900 with the address you want to fund.

./test-node.bash script send-l2 --to address_0x11223344556677889900 --ethamount 5

Blockscout

Nitro comes with a local Blockscout block explorer. To access it, add the param --blockscout when running your node.

./test-node.bash --blockscout

The block explorer will be available at http://localhost:4000

Default endpoints and addresses

Node RPC endpoints are available at:

Node	Chain id	RPC endpoint
L1 geth devnet	1337	http://localhost:8545
L2 nitro devnet	412346	http://localhost:8547 and ws://localhost:8548
L3 nitro (if enabled)	333333	http://localhost:3347

The following accounts will be prefunded with Ether:

• L2 Nitro devnet: 0x683642c22feDE752415D4793832Ab75EFdF6223c with private key 0xe887f7d17d07cc7b8004053fb8826f6657084e88904bb61590e498ca04704cf2

• Both networks (L1 and L2): 0x3f1Eae7D46d88F08fc2F8ed27FCb2AB183EB2d0E with private key 0xb6b15c8cb491557369f3c7d2c287b053eb229daa9c22138887752191c9520659

You can fund other addresses by using the scripts send-l1 and send-l2 as explained here.

How to get the core contracts

For addresses of the deployed core protocol contracts, run

docker exec nitro-testnode-sequencer-1  cat /config/deployment.json

For the outbox address, run (replace "PUT_THE_ROLLUP_ADDRESS_HERE" with rollup address):

curl 'http://localhost:8545/' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":0,"method":"eth_call","params":[{"to":"PUT_THE_ROLLUP_ADDRESS_HERE","data":"0xce11e6ab"},"latest"]}'

---

Some default addresses can be found here:

"l2Network": {
    "chainID": 412346,
    "confirmPeriodBlocks": 20,
    "ethBridge": {
      "bridge": "0x2b360a9881f21c3d7aa0ea6ca0de2a3341d4ef3c",
      "inbox": "0xff4a24b22f94979e9ba5f3eb35838aa814bad6f1",
      "outbox": "0x49940929c7cA9b50Ff57a01d3a92817A414E6B9B",
      "rollup": "0x65a59d67da8e710ef9a01eca37f83f84aedec416",
      "sequencerInbox": "0xe7362d0787b51d8c72d504803e5b1d6dcda89540"
    },
    "explorerUrl": "",
    "isArbitrum": true,
    "isCustom": true,
    "name": "ArbLocal",
    "partnerChainID": 1337,
    "retryableLifetimeSeconds": 604800,
    "nitroGenesisBlock": 0,
    "depositTimeout": 900000,
    "tokenBridge": {
      "l1CustomGateway": "0x3DF948c956e14175f43670407d5796b95Bb219D8",
      "l1ERC20Gateway": "0x4A2bA922052bA54e29c5417bC979Daaf7D5Fe4f4",
      "l1GatewayRouter": "0x525c2aBA45F66987217323E8a05EA400C65D06DC",
      "l1MultiCall": "0xDB2D15a3EB70C347E0D2C2c7861cAFb946baAb48",
      "l1ProxyAdmin": "0xe1080224B632A93951A7CFA33EeEa9Fd81558b5e",
      "l1Weth": "0x408Da76E87511429485C32E4Ad647DD14823Fdc4",
      "l1WethGateway": "0xF5FfD11A55AFD39377411Ab9856474D2a7Cb697e",
      "l2CustomGateway": "0x525c2aBA45F66987217323E8a05EA400C65D06DC",
      "l2ERC20Gateway": "0xe1080224B632A93951A7CFA33EeEa9Fd81558b5e",
      "l2GatewayRouter": "0x1294b86822ff4976BfE136cB06CF43eC7FCF2574",
      "l2Multicall": "0xDB2D15a3EB70C347E0D2C2c7861cAFb946baAb48",
      "l2ProxyAdmin": "0xda52b25ddB0e3B9CC393b0690Ac62245Ac772527",
      "l2Weth": "0x408Da76E87511429485C32E4Ad647DD14823Fdc4",
      "l2WethGateway": "0x4A2bA922052bA54e29c5417bC979Daaf7D5Fe4f4"
    }
}