Docker DevNet

The Docker DevNet provides a self-contained, 4-validator Basalt network for local development and integration testing.

Prerequisites

• Docker
• Docker Compose (v2 or later)

Starting the DevNet

docker compose up -d

This starts four validator nodes (validator-0 through validator-3) with pre-configured keys and addresses.

Port Mapping

Each validator exposes its REST API on a unique host port:

Validator	REST Port	P2P Port
validator-0	localhost:5100	30300
validator-1	localhost:5101	30301
validator-2	localhost:5102	30302
validator-3	localhost:5103	30303

Verifying the Network

Health Check

curl http://localhost:5100/v1/health

View Logs

Follow the log output for a specific validator:

docker compose logs -f validator-0

Configuration Details

Setting	Value
Chain ID	31337
Validator keys	Deterministic (development only)
Docker network	basalt-devnet (bridge mode)
Storage	Per-validator persistent RocksDB volumes
Restart policy	unless-stopped

danger

The devnet uses deterministic validator addresses and private keys that are publicly known. Never use devnet keys in production.

Security Hardening

Even in development mode, the Docker containers apply the following security constraints:

• security_opt: no-new-privileges -- prevents privilege escalation inside the container
• cap_drop: ALL -- drops all Linux capabilities

Health Checks

Each container runs an internal health check:

curl -sf http://localhost:5000/v1/health

Health checks execute every 30 seconds with a 10-second timeout.

Dockerfile

The devnet uses a multi-stage Dockerfile:

Stage	Base Image	Purpose
Build	mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:9.0	Compile the Basalt node
Runtime	mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:9.0	Run the compiled binary

The runtime container runs as a non-root basalt user and exposes the following ports:

Port	Service
5000	REST API
5001	gRPC API
30303	P2P

Common Operations

Rebuild Without Cache

Force a clean rebuild of the Docker image and restart all validators:

docker compose build --no-cache && docker compose up -d

Stop and Clean Up

Stop all containers and remove persistent volumes:

docker compose down -v

This removes all blockchain data. The network will start from genesis on the next docker compose up.