Antnode / rpc ux feedback

Features
1

I’ve used node-launchpad in the past but found I wanted to know more details and be in more control, so have been playing with antnode and antnode_rpc_client.

This is the version I’m currently using:

$  ./antnode --version
Autonomi Node v0.3.7-rc.2
Network version: ant/1.0/1
Package version: 2025.1.2.5
Git info: rc-2025.1.2-hotfix1 / 942c365 / 2025-02-24

Some observations that would help this be a smoother experience:

antnode

I want to use --network-contacts-url flag but don’t know a url to use here. Having a valid url in the help docs or in the website docs would be great.

I had to go onto the forum and search for ‘peer’ and hope someone had posted some useful info. I found a peer in a recent log just by chance but I don’t know if it’s a mainnet peer or if it’s still alive. (As an aside, can someone post their peer information here for mainnet so I can use it in the --peer flag?)

I also tried to find how node-launchpad does peer discovery but couldn’t get to the bottom of where that first peer is discovered. If anyone knows how the first peer is discovered please do post and satisfy a curiosity of mine :slight_smile:

antnode_rpc_client

info could have a lot more useful information

  • show the number of records stored instead of ls path/to/node/record_store
  • show the location of records being stored (ie let user know where to delete them)
  • show the reward address (and amount if possible)
  • show the value of any flags that aren’t default, and ideally show the value of all config/flag options (even if they’re the default). This lets me know exactly how the node was started.
  • show the full peer id so it can be shared with others who want to use it in the --peer flag.
  • show any warnings or things to address that might indicate the node is needing attention (eg connectivity issues, storage is full, etc)

netinfo

  • show full peer id so it can be used as a --peer value. Show the list in a way that can be easily copied/pasted for --peer or --network-contacts-url format
  • tell the number of peers instead of just the list
  • the log file has an estimate of network size, it would be nice to see that here too
5 Likes
2

For main net antctl gets a peer list automatically and not sure that flag will work for mainnet. You should not need --peer for mainnet. More for other networks

Here is the bootstrap node list for one of my computers. This is now used in place of central connect peers
bootstrap_cache_1_1.0.zip (99.0 KB)

The RPC functionality is being phased out in favour of /metrics

3 Likes
3

From where?

I ran antnode without --peer or --network-contacts-url flag and it worked, so this was a (pleasant) surprise to me!

4

David mentioned it somewhere in his recent posts but seemed to be saying some hard coded peers and then it builds the bootstrap nodes json file from there as it discovers more nodes.

But that seemed odd to have some hard coded peers. That might be run by Maidsafe node and the foundation in the future. Not sure though

Have not needed the peers or contacts list though for a long time now. It was hardcoded contracts list URL for quite a long time

4 Likes
5

We have some nodes we run, not many, but all nodes now have a bootstrap_cache.json list local to their machine. So any node or client starting on your machine uses that local file.

–peers still works for friends to pass peers to each other to kick start them on the network.

Our nodes also have a web server running and simply publish their boostrap list as well. The url’s you see are the ip address of those nodes and folk can use them to bootstrap initially. So a convenience.

If we are ever hacked or taken out then folk would need to do what we did with the web server or pass bootstrap cache files around or pass a peer itself to bootstrap from.

We are about to update the process a wee bit, but it won’t change the functionality.

This is one area we need to improve our comms on and really let folk know how to bootstrap each other from as well. That part should be a really simple thing to do (it’s a basic file share) as that takes away any need for any maidsafe machines to be running, which is just more robust. So the maidsafe machines should be a real help for simplicity but passing peers between friends or known people should also be encouraged.

10 Likes