Docs

Quickstart ​

This page gets the Lab running on your machine. First in mock mode, which needs no wallet and no network. Then, if you want, against the Dusk testnet.

Status: testnet only, not audited yet. Don't use keys or funds you care about.

There is also a hosted mock at knot.nocturne-standards.org. Same rule: mock, testnet only, not audited yet.

What you need ​

  • Git.
  • Rust 1.94 or newer. The workspace sets rust-version = "1.94".
  • For the testnet part only: rusk-wallet on your path with a funded testnet wallet (writes pay gas), and a clone of nocturne-deployments next to the Knot clone.

Part 1: run the Lab in mock mode ​

bash
git clone https://github.com/Nocturne-Standards/knot.git
cd knot
cargo run -p knot-tool -- init --name alice
DEMO_MODE=mock cargo run -p knot-tool -- serve --bind 127.0.0.1:8877

What happens:

  1. init creates a local keystore. It asks you to choose a password, twice. With --name alice it also creates a first identity. Run it again later and it only unlocks and prints a summary; it never wipes anything.
  2. serve needs DEMO_MODE set to mock or testnet. If it is missing, serve refuses to start.
  3. serve prints a link that looks like http://127.0.0.1:8877/?code=.... Open it once. The code is used up on first visit and sets a session cookie. The page never receives a secret key.

The Lab listens on your own machine only (port 8877). It refuses any other address.

In the Lab, press Start walkthrough. It creates three people (alice, bob, carol), then goes through five steps: cast the people, form a council, look it up, propose and give the first approval, then reach the threshold and finalize. In mock mode the signatures are real BLS signatures made on your machine. Only the chain part is skipped: nothing is sent anywhere.

The default proposal deadline is the current block plus the smaller of the contract's proposal_ttl and 100 blocks. The Lab shows that block and an approximate wait before it proposes.

A few Lab panels need the real chain and return "not implemented" in mock mode: Aggregate, Rotate, Unsafe UTF-8, and Party finder.

Part 2: try a group on testnet ​

The same binary talks to the testnet when you use the command line, or when you start serve with DEMO_MODE=testnet. Writes cost gas and go through rusk-wallet.

bash
export RUSK_WALLET_PWD=...        # your rusk-wallet password, testnet wallet
# Below, knot-tool means: cargo run -p knot-tool --

knot-tool identity new alice
knot-tool identity new bob
knot-tool identity new carol

knot-tool account create --member alice --member bob --member carol --threshold 2
knot-tool account query <id>

account create returns the id of your new group. Use that id, not a number you guessed: anyone can create a group at any time, so ids move. The commands find the contract ids in a testnet.json pin file. Put your clone of nocturne-deployments next to the Knot clone, or set NOCTURNE_DEPLOYMENTS to the path of a testnet.json.

To see a quorum check on chain:

bash
knot-tool quorum submit --account <id> --msg "hello" --signer alice --signer bob            # preview, nothing sent
knot-tool quorum submit --account <id> --msg "hello" --signer alice --signer bob --confirm  # signs and sends

This sends a plain text message and is only a demo. A real contract puts its own label, an action and a counter into the bytes. Integrate shows how, including knot-tool sign-digest.

Two limits on testnet to know about:

  • Proposing on the shared Proposals contract isn't possible yet. That contract has no group set up to propose, so a proposal is refused whichever tool you use. You can still create groups and check quorums for any group. A proposal's deadline must be after the current block and no more than the contract's proposal_ttl blocks away (1000 on the shared deployment). The Lab's default is the current block plus the smaller of that limit and 100 blocks.
  • Don't use a free read of the quorum check as your test. The query path can answer false for a secure signature that a real transaction accepts, because the node's query VM still uses the pre-hardfork verify policy. Send the transaction and read the account back.

Next ​

  • How it works: groups, proposals, delays.
  • Integrate: ask Knot from your own contract.
  • The full command list, the keystore details and the two-machine runbook are in the knot-tool README.
  • To pass proposal files between people, see Collector.