Node Operators

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What is a Celo L2 node?

• Rollup node (op-node) — derives L2 blocks from L1 data, analogous to a consensus client.
• Execution client — executes those blocks and exposes the standard Ethereum JSON-RPC API.
• Legacy L1 (optional) — serves stateful queries for blocks and transactions from before the L2 transition.

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Node types

• Minimal node — follows the chain on the smallest disk footprint, pruning aggressively. It validates every block and serves latest-state queries, but little historical RPC.
• Full node — follows the chain and serves recent state. Starts from an empty datadir — bootstrap it from a published snapshot (or sync from genesis on Celo Sepolia), with no migrated L1 datadir required. This is the right choice for most operators.
• Archive node — additionally preserves all historical state, at the cost of terabytes of storage. See Running an archive node.

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Execution client

• op-reth — Celo’s primary execution client, built on reth. The guides in this section use op-reth.
• op-geth — the previous execution client. Support ended on each network’s switch date; a node still running it can follow the wrong chain.

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Guides

• Run a node with Docker — the fastest way to get a full node syncing (also covers building from source).
• Run an archive node — preserve access to all historical state.
• Run a public RPC node — operate a public JSON-RPC endpoint (and optionally earn rewards).
• Monitoring & metrics — enable the Grafana/Prometheus stack and watch sync health.
• Upgrades & maintenance — upgrade clients, restart safely, and back up your data.
• Troubleshooting — fixes for common node issues.
• Configuration reference — the .env variables and key client flags.
• Network Config & Assets — bootnodes, container images, and downloadable artifacts.

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Getting help