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Run a computor

Our goal​

Participating in SUAVE requires running what we call a "SUAVE computor", which is the main actor in the SUAVE protocol, and which contains a few different pieces. The two most important ones are:

  1. The "MEVM", which enables confidential computation.

  2. "SUAVE-enabled geth", which ensures all computors in SUAVE maintain consensus about contracts deployed to SUAVE and a few other critical items.

This guide will show you how to start a SUAVE computor.

Docker​

What you need​

  1. Install and start Docker. You can find general directions here.
    1. If you're running Ubuntu or Debian, we recommend this specific guide.
  2. Make sure you have docker-compose installed too. The should just happen when you install Docker.
    1. Check with docker-compose version (Docker Engine) or docker compose version (Docker Desktop).
  3. We do not have high RAM, disk, or bandwidth requirements. This section should work on most consumer laptops.

What to do​

  1. Clone suave-geth:
git clone https://github.com/flashbots/suave-geth.git
  1. Get to the right place in the repo:
cd suave-geth/
  1. Run SUAVE (depending on your docker setup, you may need to run this as sudo):
make devnet-up

Optional testing​

  1. If you'd like to test your node by deploying a contract and sending it some transactions, you can do so by running:
go run suave/devenv/cmd/main.go

You should see something like the below printed to your terminal (addresses, txns, and ids will differ):

suave-geth$ go run suave/devenv/cmd/main.go
Step 0: Create and fund test accounts
- Funded test account: 0x66d5a8D6B34329c0639071275b3d78D29e11EbC6 (100000000)
Step 1: Deploy mev-share contract
- Mev share contract deployed: 0x8f21Fdd6B4f4CacD33151777A46c122797c8BF17
Step 2: Send bid
- Bid sent at txn: 0xb49debcdead2b306d6ab6282b88fdad7c8d6a33d87df34b79f56d141eae7c08a
- Bid id: 30bbc65298f24e67aaf5c95bf5f0686c
Step 3: Send backrun
- Backrun sent at txn: 0xcf7880e61e94aaab48c60655c321716ecab6edab752586448b0412e93a969889
- Backrun bid id: db98b83d02694fc2b13c042ad22c233

What just happened​

Both the MEVM and the SUAVE-enabled geth node are now running in separate containers, which means your local SUAVE dev environment is ready to go. If you followed through with Step 4 above, you've also deployed a contract in your local environment and sent some transactions to it.

  1. Learn more about the contract you deployed in our how to write a contract guide.
  2. Understand the architecture of SUAVE computors in greater detail.
  3. Dig deeper into the specifics of the MEVM and the APIs available.
  4. Read more about confidential data storage.
  5. Browse a full list of SUAVE precompiles.
  6. If you'd like to examine the Go code responsible for deploying contracts and sending transactions, you can do so here.

Common problems​

1. Docker not running
Make sure that Docker is running before trying docker-compose up -d. On most Linux machines, you can do this with:
sudo systemctl start docker

Or just check the current status with:
sudo systemctl status docker

Build it yourself​

The docker-compose version above sets up SUAVE using simple defaults. If you'd like to run the binaries yourself and customise what is happening, read on.

What you need​

  1. Install go.

What to do​

  1. Clone the repo and build SUAVE:
git clone https://github.com/flashbots/suave-geth.git
cd suave-geth
make suave
  1. Run the MEVM first:
./build/bin/suave --dev --dev.gaslimit 30000000 --datadir suave --http --ws \
--allow-insecure-unlock --unlock "0xb5feafbdd752ad52afb7e1bd2e40432a485bbb7f" \
--keystore ./suave/devenv/suave-ex-node/keystore/
  1. Press Enter when prompted for a password
  2. In a new terminal, run SUAVE-enabled geth:
./build/bin/suave --dev --dev.gaslimit 30000000 --http --http.port 8555 --ws --ws.port 8556 --authrpc.port 8561

What to do next​

You can now run any SUAVE command you like. Start by generating a new account (in another terminal):

./build/bin/suave --suave account new

If the --datadir flag is not set, a geth client stores data in the $HOME/.ethereum directory. Depending on the chain you use, it creates a subdirectory. For example, if you run Sepolia, geth creates $HOME/.ethereum/sepolia/. So, if you use the --suave flag, your data ends up in $HOME/.ethereum/suave/....

Consult the help page for anything else you need to do:

./build/bin/suave --suave help