Learn the OP Stack

This track is a guided path through the OP Stack documentation for readers who want to learn the stack from the beginning. It sequences existing pages into thirteen ordered stops: blocks of concept pages punctuated by three hands-on projects, so you consolidate each idea by using it before moving on. Scope: this track takes you from newcomer to comfortable. When you finish, you will have deployed a test chain, followed a transaction from submission to Ethereum, moved assets in both directions between layers, and run a node, and you will know where each deeper layer of material lives. Depth stays out of the track on purpose: exhaustive detail lives in the reference sections and the OP Stack specifications, and the track exits to them rather than repeating them.

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How the track works

• Every stop is an existing page. A framing note at the top of each stop tells you where you are in the track and links the next stop, so you can walk the whole path without returning here.
• Do the stops in order. Later stops assume the vocabulary and the working setup of earlier ones.
• The three projects are the point, not a break: each one turns the concepts before it into something running on your machine.

The track’s design rationale, ownership, and change history live in the track syllabus.

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Part 1: Foundations

• Stop 1. The OP Stack: what the stack is and what you can build with it.
• Stop 2. Design philosophy & principles: the four pillars that explain why the stack is built the way it is.
• Stop 3. Differences from Ethereum: what “EVM equivalent” means in practice and the small set of behaviors that differ.
• Stop 4. OP Stack components: the conceptual layers of the stack and the software modules that fill them.

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Project 1: Deploy your own chain

• Stop 5. Creating your own L2 rollup testnet: deploy a rollup testnet with op-deployer and start each component yourself. A multi-part series; work through every part before continuing.

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Part 2: Transactions and bridging

• Stop 6. Transaction flow: how a transaction moves through the components you just ran, from submission to finality on Ethereum.
• Stop 7. Transaction fees on OP Mainnet: the fee components of an OP Stack transaction and what determines each one.
• Stop 8. Deposit flow: how a transaction triggered on L1 becomes an L2 transaction.
• Stop 9. Withdrawal flow: the initiate, prove, and finalize steps that move a transaction from L2 back to L1.

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Project 2: Bridge in both directions

• Stop 10. Submitting transactions from L1: walk a deposit and a withdrawal end to end from code, using Viem.

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Part 3: Security and the Superchain

• Stop 11. Fault proofs explainer: how anyone can permissionlessly propose and challenge the state proposals that withdrawals depend on.
• Stop 12. OP Stack interoperability explainer: how the OP Stack is evolving so a network of chains can feel like a single blockchain.

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Capstone: Run a node

• Stop 13. Running a node with Docker: run an OP Stack node with the official Docker images and watch it sync a live network.

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After the track

The track ends where the deep material begins. Depending on what you want to do next:

• Operate or tune a chain: the use case guides sequence cross-layer operator journeys, and the Chain Operators tab holds the full guides and reference.
• Build applications: the App Developers tab covers bridging, interoperability, and transactions at working depth.
• Understand the protocol precisely: the derivation pipeline page goes one level deeper, and the OP Stack specifications are the normative definition of protocol behavior.

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Next steps

• Start the track at stop 1: The OP Stack.
• Maintainers: the track is governed by the track syllabus and swept on the cadence in the curation review policy.