# nwaku-compose

Ready‑to‑use **docker‑compose** stack for running your own [nwaku](https://github.com/waku-org/nwaku) full node:

* RLN‑enabled nwaku node (relay + store protocols)
* Simple web UI to publish and receive messages
* Grafana dashboard for metrics
* Requires **Docker Compose** and **Git**

## 📝 Prerequisites

* **Linea Sepolia RPC endpoint** — grab one for free on [Infura](https://www.infura.io)
* **Linea Sepolia wallet** with at least **0.01 ETH**  
  * Need test ETH? Use the [Linea Sepolia faucet](https://www.infura.io/faucet/sepolia)  
  * Already have ETH on Sepolia? Bridge it to Linea via the [official bridge](https://bridge.linea.build/native-bridge)

### 🚀 Starting your node — pick one of three paths

| # | Path | Quick-start command | What happens | 
|---|------|--------------------|--------------|
| **1** | **setup_wizard** | Fastest one-command bootstrap | Generates `.env`, registers RLN, and spins up the whole stack automatically |
| **2** | **script** | Power user / CI | setup a .env file manually, run ./register_rln.sh, and then start the node.|

<details>
<summary>⚙️ option 1 :- SETUP-WIZARD [ experimental ]</summary>

Run the wizard script.
Once the script is done, the node will be started for you, so there is nothing else to do.

The script is experimental, feedback and pull requests are welcome.

```
./setup_wizard.sh
```

</details>

<details>
<summary>🧪 option 2 :- SCRIPT [ manual ] [ recommended ] </summary>

```
cp .env.example .env  
```
Edit the .env file and fill in all required parameters 

This command will register your membership and store it in `keystore/keystore.json`:
```
./register_rln.sh
```

### 💽 2. Select DB Parameters

Waku runs a PostgreSQL Database to store messages from the network and serve them to other peers.
To prevent the database to grow indefinitely, you need to select how much disk space to allocate.
You can either run a script that will estimate and set a good value:

```
./set_storage_retention.sh
```

Or select your own value. For example, `50GB`:

```shell
echo "STORAGE_SIZE=50GB" >> .env
```

Depending on your machine's memory, it may be worth allocating more memory to the Postgres container to ensure heavy queries are served:

```shell
./set_postgres_shm.sh
```

Or select your own value manually, for example, `4g`:

```shell
echo "POSTGRES_SHM=4g" >> .env
```

### 🖥️ 3. Start your node

Start all processes: nwaku node, database and grafana for metrics. Your [RLN](https://rate-limiting-nullifier.github.io/rln-docs/what_is_rln.html) membership is loaded into nwaku under the hood.
```console
docker-compose up -d
```
⚠️ The node might take a few minutes the very first time it runs because it needs to build locally the RLN community membership tree.

###🏄🏼‍♂️ 4. Interact with your nwaku node

* See [localhost:3000](http://localhost:3000/d/yns_4vFVk/nwaku-monitoring) for node metrics.
* See [localhost:4000](http://localhost:4000) for a nice frontend to chat with other users.

**📬 4. Use the REST API**

Your nwaku node exposes a [REST API](https://waku-org.github.io/waku-rest-api/) to interact with it.

```
# get nwaku version
curl http://127.0.0.1:8645/debug/v1/version
# get nwaku info
curl http://127.0.0.1:8645/debug/v1/info
```

**Publish a message to a `contentTopic`**. Everyone subscribed to it will receive it. Note that `payload` is base64 encoded.

```
curl -X POST "http://127.0.0.1:8645/relay/v1/auto/messages" \
 -H "content-type: application/json" \
 -d '{"payload":"'$(echo -n "Hello Waku Network - from Anonymous User" | base64)'","contentTopic":"/my-app/2/chatroom-1/proto"}'
```

**Get messages sent to a `contentTopic`**. Note that any store node in the network is used to reply.
```
curl -X GET "http://127.0.0.1:8645/store/v1/messages?contentTopics=%2Fmy-app%2F2%2Fchatroom-1%2Fproto&pageSize=50&ascending=true" \
 -H "accept: application/json"
```

For advanced documentation, refer to [ADVANCED.md](https://github.com/waku-org/nwaku-compose/blob/master/ADVANCED.md).

</details>


### 📌 Note
RLN membership is your access key to The Waku Network. It is registered on-chain, enabling your nwaku node to send messages in a decentralized and privacy-preserving way while adhering to rate limits. Messages exceeding the rate limit will not be relayed by other peers.

If you’re upgrading from a version earlier than v0.36.0, we recommend starting from a fresh clone.

docker-compose automatically reads the .env file from the filesystem. A .env.example is provided as a template — copy it and update the values as needed:

```
cp .env.example .env
${EDITOR} .env
```

Make sure to **NOT** place any secrets into `.env.example`, as they might be unintentionally published in the Git repository.

if you just want to relay traffic (not publish), you don't need to perform the registration.



-----
## How to update to latest version

We regularly announce new available versions in our [Discord](https://discord.waku.org/) server.

### From `v0.29` or older

You will need to delete both the `keystore` and `rln_tree` folders, and register your membership again before using the new version by running the following commands:

1. `cd nwaku-compose` ( go into the root's repository folder )
2. `docker-compose down`
3. `sudo rm -r keystore rln_tree`
4. `git pull origin master`
5. `./register_rln.sh`
6. `docker-compose up -d`

### From `v0.30` or newer

Updating the node is as simple as running the following:
1. `cd nwaku-compose` ( go into the root's repository folder )
2. `docker-compose down`
3. `git pull origin master`
4. `docker-compose up -d`

### Set size

To improve storage on the network, you can increase the allocated space for the database.
To do so, you can simply run:

```
./set_storage_retention.sh
```

### Check

Once done, check your node is healthy: 

```
./chkhealth.sh 
```

All good:
```
02:15:51 - node health status is:

{
  "nodeHealth": "Ready",
  "protocolsHealth": [
    {
      "Rln Relay": "Ready"
    }
  ]
}
```

If the `./chkhealth.sh` script is hanging or returns the following, wait a few minutes and run it again:
```
02:17:57 - node health status is:

{
  "nodeHealth": "Initializing",
  "protocolsHealth": []
}
```

### Clean-up

Docker artefact can take some precious disk space, run the following commands to free space **while your node is running**.

**Only do this if this machine is solely used for Waku and you have no other docker services**.

**I repeat, this will clean other docker services and images not running, only do this if this machine is only used for Waku**.

```
# Be sure that your containers **are running**
sudo docker-compose up -d

# Clean docker system files
sudo docker system prune -a

# Delete docker images
sudo docker image prune -a

# Delete docker containers
sudo docker container prune

# Delete docker volumes
sudo docker volume prune
```

#### journal

If your `/var/log` gets quite large:

```
journalctl --disk-usage
> Archived and active journals take up 1.5G in the file system.
```

You can cap the size in ` /etc/systemd/journald.conf` with

```
SystemMaxUse=50M
```

then restart to apply

```
systemctl restart systemd-journald
```

and verify
```
journalctl --disk-usage
> Archived and active journals take up 55.8M in the file system.
```

-----

# FAQ
[see](FAQ.md)