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Running neard with Docker

This guide explains how to run a NEAR node using the official nearprotocol/nearcore Docker image.

Prerequisites​

Pulling the Image​

note

The mainnet and testnet tags will take effect starting version 2.11.0.

The nearprotocol/nearcore image is published with network-specific tags:

TagDescription
release or mainnetLatest stable release for mainnet
pre-release or testnetLatest pre-release for testnet
<version> (e.g. 2.5.0)A specific version
<version>-<commit> (e.g. 2.5.0-abc1234)A specific version and commit
caution

The latest tag is not available. Always use a network-specific or version tag.

Pull the image for your target network:

# For mainnet
docker pull nearprotocol/nearcore:mainnet

# For testnet
docker pull nearprotocol/nearcore:testnet

Initializing the Node​

Create a directory to store chain data and initialize neard:

CHAIN_ID=mainnet  # or testnet
NODE_TYPE=validator  # or rpc

mkdir -p ~/.near
docker run --rm -v $HOME/.near:/root/.near nearprotocol/nearcore:$CHAIN_ID neard init --chain-id $CHAIN_ID --download-genesis --download-config $NODE_TYPE

This downloads the genesis and config files and sets up the data directory.

You can specify trusted boot nodes during initialization by passing the --boot-nodes flag. See the Epoch Sync guide for instructions on fetching the latest boot nodes for your network.

Running the Node​

Start neard with the data directory mounted and the RPC and P2P ports exposed:

docker run -d \
  --name neard \
  -v $HOME/.near:/root/.near \
  -p 3030:3030 \
  -p 24567:24567 \
  nearprotocol/nearcore:mainnet neard run

Replace mainnet with testnet if running a testnet node.

The two exposed ports are:

  • 3030 — the JSON-RPC port, used by clients and tools to query the node
  • 24567 — the P2P networking port, used to communicate with other nodes in the network

These values should match the rpc.addr and network.addr ports in your ~/.near/config.json. If you change them in the config, update the -p flags accordingly.

Managing the Container​

View logs​

docker logs -f neard

Stop the node​

docker stop neard

Restart the node​

docker start neard

Remove the container​

docker rm neard