Run a Localnet with Validator
Running a local testnet with the Aptos CLI is simpler and more fully featured. Learn how by following this guide: Run a Local Development Network with the CLI.
You can run a local testnet of the Aptos blockchain. This local testnet will not be connected to the Aptos devnet. It will run on your local machine, independent of other Aptos networks. You can use this local testnet for testing and development purposes.
You can run a local testnet using the Aptos-core source code. This approach is useful for testing modifications to the Aptos-core codebase or to the Aptos Framework.
The rest of this document describes:
- How to start your local testnet with a single validator node, and
- How to start a Faucet service and attach it to your local testnet.
Using the Aptos-core source code
-
Follow steps in Building Aptos From Source
-
With your development environment ready, now you can start your testnet network. Before you proceed, make a note of the following:
ヒント- When you run the below command to start the local testnet, your terminal will enter into an interactive mode, with a message
Aptos is running, press ctrl-c to exit
. Hence, you will need to open another shell terminal for the subsequent steps described in this section. - After the below command runs, copy the
Test dir
information from the terminal output for the next step.
To start your testnet locally, run the following command:
CARGO_NET_GIT_FETCH_WITH_CLI=true cargo run -p aptos-node -- --test
See below for an example of the partial output. Make a note of the
Test dir
from the output....
...
...
Completed generating configuration:
Log file: "/private/var/folders/gn/m74t8ylx55z935q8wx035qn80000gn/T/b3adc18c144bfcc78a1541953893bc1c/validator.log"
Test dir: "/private/var/folders/gn/m74t8ylx55z935q8wx035qn80000gn/T/b3adc18c144bfcc78a1541953893bc1c/0/node.yaml"
Aptos root key path: "/private/var/folders/gn/m74t8ylx55z935q8wx035qn80000gn/T/b3adc18c144bfcc78a1541953893bc1c/mint.key"
Waypoint: 0:47e676b5fe38ebe2aec6053db7b3daa0b805693d6422e3475e46e89499464ecf
ChainId: TESTING
REST API endpoint: 0.0.0.0:8080
Fullnode network: /ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/7180
Aptos is running, press ctrl-c to exit - When you run the below command to start the local testnet, your terminal will enter into an interactive mode, with a message
NOTE: The above command starts a local testnet with a single validator node. The command runs aptos-node
from a genesis-only ledger state. If you want to reuse the ledger state produced by a previous run of aptos-node
, then use:
cargo run -p aptos-node -- --test --config <config-path>
Attaching a Faucet to your testnet
Faucets are stateless services that can be run in parallel with the testnet. A Faucet is a way to create Aptos test coins with no real-world value. You can use the Faucet by sending a request to create coins and transfer them into a given account on your behalf.
- Make sure that you started your local testnet as described in Step 5 above.
- Open a new shell terminal.
- Copy the Aptos root key path from your terminal where you started the testnet, and use it to replace the
mint-key-file-path
in the below command. - Run the following command to start a Faucet:
cargo run --package aptos-faucet-service -- run-simple --key-file-path "/tmp/694173aa3bbe019499bbd5cf3fe0e2fc/mint.key" --node-url http://127.0.0.1:8080 --chain-id TESTING
This will start a Faucet running locally without any restrictions to tokens that can be claimed and minted. This Faucet service will be as accessible as the testnet you started above.
Integracting with the localnet
After starting your localnet, you will see the following:
Entering test mode, this should never be used in production!
Completed generating configuration:
Log file: "/tmp/694173aa3bbe019499bbd5cf3fe0e2fc/validator.log"
Test dir: "/tmp/694173aa3bbe019499bbd5cf3fe0e2fc/0/node.yaml"
Aptos root key path: "/tmp/694173aa3bbe019499bbd5cf3fe0e2fc/mint.key"
Waypoint: 0:197bc8b76761622c2d2054d8bf93c1802fa0eb4bc55f0f3d4442878fdecc297f
ChainId: TESTING
REST API endpoint: 0.0.0.0:8080
Fullnode network: /ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/7180
Aptos is running, press ctrl-c to exit
Use the Aptos CLI tool to interact with your local testnet. The above output contains information you will use for starting the Aptos CLI tool:
Aptos root key path
: The root key (also known as the mint or faucet key) controls the account that can mint tokens. Available in the docker compose folder underaptos_root_key
.Waypoint
: A verifiable checkpoint of the blockchain (available in the docker compose folder under waypoint.txt)REST endpoint
: The endpoint for the REST service, e.g.,http://127.0.0.1:8080
.ChainId
: The chain ID uniquely distinguishes this network from other blockchain networks.
Next steps
At this point, you will have a special root account at 0x1
that can perform the mint operation. Follow up with:
- Your first transaction to learn how to submit transactions.
- Your first Move module to learn how to create Move modules.
- Interacting with the Aptos Blockchain to learn how to mint coins.