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Running a Superchain node from source

Running a Superchain node from source

This tutorial explains how to run an OP Stack node from source code for full nodes and archive nodes. Running an OP Stack node from source code is a flexible alternative to using pre-built Docker images.

Building the source code

You'll need to build op-node and execution client (op-geth or Nethermind) from their respective source repositories before you can run a node. Make sure to follow the instructions on Building a Node from Source before continuing.

Hardware requirements

Hardware requirements for OP Mainnet nodes can vary depending on the type of node you plan to run. Archive nodes generally require significantly more resources than full nodes. Below are suggested minimum hardware requirements for each type of node.

  • 16GB RAM
  • Reasonably modern CPU

SSD capacity requirements

Given the growing size of the blockchain state, choosing the right SSD size is important. Below are the storage needs as of June 2025:

  • Full Node: The snapshot size for a full node is approximately 700GB, with the data directory's capacity increasing by about 100GB every six months.
  • Archive Node: The snapshot size for an archive node is approximately 14TB, with the data directory's capacity increasing by about 3.5TB every six months. A local SSD with a NVME interface is recommended for archive nodes

Based on these trends, node operators should plan for future storage needs and choose SSDs that can handle these increasing requirements.

Geth supports a "freezer" feature to store older chain data on HDDs, saving SSD space. Configure this for OP Mainnet using the --datadir.ancient flag. See Geth docs (opens in a new tab) and OP docs for details.

Superchain nodes

All nodes in the Superchain ecosystem can be run from op-node and an execution client (op-geth or Nethermind) if they're included in the Superchain Registry. You can specify the type of node you want to run by configuring the --network flag on op-node and the corresponding network flag on your execution client (--op-network for op-geth or -c for Nethermind).

Assess blob archiver

Assess if you need to configure a blob archiver service by reading the Configure a Blob Archiver documentation.

Create a JWT secret

The execution client and op-node communicate over the engine API authrpc. This communication is secured using a shared secret. You will need to generate a shared secret and provide it to both your execution client and op-node when you start them. In this case, the secret takes the form of a 32 byte hex string.

Run the following command to generate a random 32 byte hex string:

openssl rand -hex 32 > jwt.txt

Start the execution client

It's generally easier to start the execution client before starting op-node. You can still start the execution client without yet running op-node, but it will simply not receive any blocks until op-node is started.

Navigate to your `op-geth` directory

Find the directory where you built the op-geth binary.

Copy in the JWT secret

Copy the JWT secret you generated in a previous step into the op-geth directory.

cp /path/to/jwt.txt .

Set environment variables

Set the following environment variables:

export DATADIR_PATH=... # Path to the desired data directory for op-geth

Start `op-geth`

If you want to run an archive node, you will need to set --gcmode=archive. If you want to run an OP Mainnet archive node, please refer to the OP Mainnet archive nodes section.

Use the following command to start op-geth in a default configuration. The JSON-RPC API will become available on port 8545. Refer to the op-geth configuration documentation for more detailed information about available options.

./build/bin/geth \
  --http \
  --http.port=8545 \
  --http.addr=localhost \
  --authrpc.addr=localhost \
  --authrpc.jwtsecret=./jwt.txt \
  --verbosity=3 \
  --rollup.sequencerhttp=https://mainnet-sequencer.optimism.io/ \
  --op-network=op-sepolia \
  --datadir=$DATADIR_PATH

Start op-node

Once you've started your execution client, you can start op-node. op-node will connect to the execution client and begin synchronizing the OP Mainnet state. op-node will begin sending block payloads to the execution client when it derives enough blocks from Ethereum.

Navigate to your `op-node` directory

Find the directory where you built the op-node binary.

Copy in the JWT secret

Both the execution client and op-node need to use the same JWT secret. Copy the JWT secret you generated in a previous step into the op-node directory.

cp /path/to/jwt.txt .

Set environment variables

Set the following environment variables:

export L1_RPC_URL=...  # URL for the L1 node to sync from. If your L1 RPC is a local node, the most common URL is http://127.0.0.1:8545
export L1_RPC_KIND=... # RPC type (alchemy, quicknode, infura, parity, nethermind, debug_geth, erigon, basic, any)
export L1_BEACON_URL=... # URL address for the L1 Beacon-node HTTP endpoint to use. If your L1 Beacon is a local node, the most common URL is http://127.0.0.1:3500

Start `op-node`

Use the following command to start op-node in a default configuration. Refer to the op-node configuration documentation for more detailed information about available options.

⚠️

The op-node RPC should not be exposed publicly. If left exposed, it could accidentally expose admin controls to the public internet.

Sync mode is set to --syncmode=execution-layer to enable snap sync for both op-geth and Nethermind, removing the need to initialize the node with a data directory.

./bin/op-node \
  --l1=$L1_RPC_URL \
  --l1.rpckind=$L1_RPC_KIND \
  --l1.beacon=$L1_BEACON_URL \
  --l2=ws://localhost:8551 \
  --l2.jwt-secret=./jwt.txt \
  --network=op-sepolia \
  --syncmode=execution-layer \
  --l2.enginekind=geth
💡

Some L1 nodes, like Erigon, do not support the eth_getProof RPC method that the op-node uses to load L1 data for certain processing steps. If you are using an L1 node that does not support eth_getProof, you will need to include the --l1.trustrpc flag when starting op-node. Note that this flag will cause op-node to trust the L1 node to provide correct data as it will no longer be able to independently verify the data it receives.

Synchronization verification

Once you've started your execution client and op-node you should see them begin to communicate with each other and synchronize the OP Mainnet chain.

Snap sync (default)

Initial synchronization can take several hours to complete. You will see these op-node logs at the start of snap sync:

INFO [03-06|10:56:55.602] Starting EL sync
INFO [03-06|10:56:55.615] Sync progress                            reason="unsafe payload from sequencer while in EL sync" l2_finalized=000000..000000:0 l2_safe=000000..000000:0 l2_pending_safe=000000..000000:0 l2_unsafe=4284ab..7e7e84:117076319 l2_time=1,709,751,415 l1_derived=000000..000000:0
INFO [03-06|10:56:57.567] Optimistically inserting unsafe L2 execution payload to drive EL sync id=4ac160..df4d12:117076320

Starting EL sync is shown once and the sync progress / inserting logs should be repeated until done.

op-node will log the following when done:

lvl=info msg="Finished EL sync" sync_duration=23h25m0.370558429s finalized_block=0x4f69e83ff1407f2e2882f2526ee8a154ac326590799889cede3af04a7742f18d:116817417

There are two stages on op-geth for snap sync:

Downloading the headers

op-geth log something like this as it is downloading the headers:

lvl=info msg="Syncing beacon headers" downloaded=116775778 left=1162878 eta=53.182s

Sync progress

For the second stage, op-geth will log the following:

lvl=info msg="Syncing: state download in progress" synced=99.75% state="191.33 GiB" accounts=124,983,[email protected] slots=806,829,[email protected] [email protected] eta=-2m7.602s
msg="Syncing: chain download in progress" synced=100.00% chain="176.01 GiB" headers=116,817,[email protected] bodies=116,817,[email protected] receipts=116,817,[email protected] eta=77.430ms

All the while, op-geth will also log the forkchoice update:

Forkchoice requested sync to new head  number=117,076,468 hash=e3884c..bf4e2b

Full sync

For OP Mainnet you will need access to the migrated database to run a full node with full sync. You can migrate your own data directory (opens in a new tab) or follow the options available for archive nodes.

Initial full synchronization can take several days or weeks to complete. During this time, you will initially observe op-node deriving blocks from Ethereum without sending these blocks to your execution client.

Both execution clients will receive blocks from op-node as it requests them from Ethereum one-by-one and determines the corresponding OP Mainnet blocks that were published. You should see logs like the following from op-node:

INFO [06-26|13:31:20.389] Advancing bq origin                      origin=17171d..1bc69b:8300332 originBehind=false

Once the initial sync is complete, you'll see sync progress logs:

INFO [06-26|14:00:59.460] Sync progress                            reason="processed safe block derived from L1" l2_finalized=ef93e6..e0f367:4067805 l2_safe=7fe3f6..900127:4068014 l2_unsafe=7fe3f6..900127:4068014 l2_time=1,673,564,096 l1_derived=6079cd..be4231:8301091
INFO [06-26|14:00:59.460] Found next batch                         epoch=8e8a03..11a6de:8301087 batch_epoch=8301087 batch_timestamp=1,673,564,098
INFO [06-26|14:00:59.461] generated attributes in payload queue    txs=1  timestamp=1,673,564,098
INFO [06-26|14:00:59.463] inserted block                           hash=e80dc4..72a759 number=4,068,015 state_root=660ced..043025 timestamp=1,673,564,098 parent=7fe3f6..900127 prev_randao=78e43d..36f07a fee_recipient=0x4200000000000000000000000000000000000011 txs=1  update_safe=true

You should then also begin to see logs from your execution client:

INFO [06-26|14:02:12.974] Imported new potential chain segment     number=4,068,194 hash=a334a0..609a83 blocks=1         txs=1         mgas=0.000  elapsed=1.482ms     mgasps=0.000   age=5mo2w20h dirty=2.31MiB
INFO [06-26|14:02:12.976] Chain head was updated                   number=4,068,194 hash=a334a0..609a83 root=e80f5e..dd06f9 elapsed="188.373µs" age=5mo2w20h
INFO [06-26|14:02:12.982] Starting work on payload                 id=0x5542117d680dbd4e

OP Mainnet archive nodes

You only need an archive node if you need the historical state. Most node operators should default to full nodes.

Get the migrated data directory

OP Mainnet underwent a large database migration as part of the Bedrock Upgrade (opens in a new tab) in 2023. You will need access to the migrated OP Mainnet database to run an archive node. You can migrate your own data directory (opens in a new tab) or simply download database that has already been migrated. In this section, you'll learn how to download and verify the pre-migrated database.

Download the Migrated Data Directory

Click the link below to find the latest publicly available database snapshots for OP Mainnet. Snapshots are available for multiple dates and snapshots get larger as they get closer to the current date. Snapshots are large files and may take some time to download. OP Mainnet Snapshots

Verify the Download

You should always verify the integrity of your downloads to ensure that they have not been corrupted. A corrupted database can include invalid data or may cause your node to fail. Verify the integrity of the download by checking the SHA256 checksum of the downloaded file.

sha256sum <filename>

For instance, if you've downloaded the very first database snapshot, you can verify the download by running the following command:

sha256sum mainnet-bedrock.tar.zst

You should see the following output:

ec4baf47e309a14ffbd586dc85376833de640c0f2a8d7355cb8a9e64c38bfcd1  mainnet-bedrock.tar.zst

Your exact output will depend on the snapshot you've downloaded. Check the OP Mainnet Snapshots page for the correct checksum for the snapshot you've downloaded.

Extract the Data Directory

Once you've downloaded the database snapshot, you'll need to extract it to a directory on your machine. This will take some time to complete.

tar xvf <filename>

For instance, if you've downloaded the very first database snapshot, you can extract it by running the following command:

tar xvf mainnet-bedrock.tar.zst

Configure `op-geth` for archive mode

Set --syncmode=full and --gcmode=archive on op-geth.

Get the legacy Geth directory (optional)

Blocks and transactions included in OP Mainnet before the Bedrock Upgrade cannot be executed by modern OP Mainnet nodes. OP Mainnet nodes will serve these blocks and transactions but cannot run certain queries against them (e.g. eth_call). If you need to run stateful queries like eth_call against these older blocks and transactions, you will need to run a Legacy Geth node alongside your OP Mainnet node.

Running a Legacy Geth node is entirely optional and typically only useful for operators who want to run complete archive nodes of the OP Mainnet state. If you want to run a full node then you can safely skip this section.

Download the Legacy Geth Data Directory

Click the link below to download the latest publicly available database snapshot for Legacy Geth. This is a very large file (2.9TB), so expect the download to take some time to complete.

Legacy Geth Data Directory (2.9TB)

Verify the Download

You should always verify the integrity of your downloads to ensure that they have not been corrupted. A corrupted database can include invalid data or may cause your node to fail. Verify the integrity of the download by checking the SHA256 checksum of the downloaded file.

sha256sum mainnet-legacy-archival.tar.zst

You should see the following output:

4adedb61125b81b55f9bdccc2e85092050c65ef2253c86e2b79569732b772829  mainnet-legacy-archival.tar.zst

If you see a different output, then the download is corrupted and you should try downloading the file again.

Extract the Data Directory

Once you've downloaded the database snapshot, you'll need to extract it to a directory on your machine. This will take some time to complete.

tar xvf mainnet-legacy-archival.tar.zst

Start legacy Geth (optional)

If you've chosen to run a Legacy Geth node alongside your OP Mainnet node, you'll need to start it before you start your OP Mainnet node.

Navigate to your Legacy Geth directory

Find the directory where you built the l2geth binary.

Start l2geth

Run the following command to start l2geth:

USING_OVM=true \
  ETH1_SYNC_SERVICE_ENABLE=false \
  RPC_API=eth,rollup,net,web3,debug \
  RPC_ENABLE=true \
  RPC_PORT=8546 \
  ./build/bin/geth --datadir /path/to/l2geth-datadir

Next steps