This guide is for advanced users who may eventually intend to run Hyperlane agents in a production-like environment. It will cover the basics of how to manually configure and run agents but it is not a production setup guide.

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Overview

There are six steps in this guide:

  1. Set up keys that you will use to deploy contracts and run validators and relayers
  2. Deploy contracts to the local chain and to every remote chain with which the local chain will be able to send and receive messages
  3. Run a validator to provide the signatures needed for the Interchain Security Modules you deployed
  4. Run a relayer to send and receive messages between the chains you deployed contracts to
  5. Send a test message to confirm that your relayer is able to deliver messages to and from each pair of chains
  6. Deploy a Hyperlane Warp Route (HWR) to send token value, not just messages, across chains

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Getting Started

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1. Set up keys

Set up your keys for deploying contracts and running agents.

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2. Deploy contracts

Deploy Hyperlane contracts to your chains.

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3. Run a validator

Validators provide the security for messages sent from your chain to remote chains. They’re only required when using a Multisig ISM. Learn more about what validators do here.

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Setup directories

First, set the CONFIG_FILES environment variable to the path of the agent config generated in the deploy contracts step. For example:

export CONFIG_FILES=/full/path/to/configs/agent-config-{timestamp}.json

Next, create a local directory for your validator to write its signatures to. Remember the path, as you will need this when configuring your validator.

The validator signatures path will be written on-chain as part of the validator announcement transaction. Be careful not to reveal any security-sensitive or personal information!

# Pick an informative name specific to the chain you're validating
export VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR=/tmp/hyperlane-validator-signatures-<your_chain_name>

# Create the directory
mkdir -p $VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR

You will not be able to mount anything in /tmp when running the agent via Docker on Mac. To counter this, create a local tmp directory to mount instead.

# Create a local tmp directory that can be accessed by docker
mkdir tmp

# Pick an informative name specific to the chain you're validating
export VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR=tmp/hyperlane-validator-signatures-<your_chain_name>

# Create the directory
mkdir -p $VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR

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Configure

There are numerous parameters that validators can be configured with. For this guide, we are concerned with just a handful:

ParameterDescription
--dbPath for writing persistent data to disk.
--originChainNameName of the chain being validated (e.g. ethereum).
--checkpointSyncer.typeSet to localStorage for this guide.
--checkpointSyncer.pathPath to local directory where validator signatures will be written. Same path as $VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR.
--validator.keyYour validator’s hexadecimal private key.

Make sure the validator key corresponds to the address provided when setting up your MultisigIsmConfig. Otherwise, the Multisig ISM you deployed in the previous step will not be able to verify messages sent from your chain.

To learn more about all the parameters you can change, read the agent configuration reference.

Update agent config

Unless you are running Docker on Linux, you will also need to update the agent configuration for your network. This is because Docker does not support the host network mode on Mac, Windows or Windows Server.

To do this, navigate to the agent-configuration at $CONFIG_FILES and replace all instances of “localhost” or “127.0.0.1” in to host.docker.internal. For example:

...
"localnet1": {
  ...
  "rpcUrls": [
    {
      // "http": "http://localhost:8545"
      // "http": "http://127.0.0.1:8545"
      "http": "http://host.docker.internal:8545"
    }
  ],
  ...
},
...

Mounting directories

Running with Docker adds an extra layer of complexity because config files need to be accessible from within the Docker container, and validator signatures need to be accessible from outside of the container for the relayer to read. This is so the relayer can construct the metadata required for the message to be successfully validated by the Multisig ISM.

To solve this issue, you can mount directories on your file system into the container. In the arguments below, we:

  1. Set the $CONFIG_FILES environment variable to a fixed path within the container.
  2. Mount the agent config file to this fixed path and making it readonly.
  3. Mount the persistent data directory at a fixed path within the container.
  4. Mount the validator signatures directory to a fixed path within the container.
...
-e CONFIG_FILES=/config/agent-config.json \
--mount type=bind,source=$CONFIG_FILES,target=/config/agent-config.json,readonly \
--mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/hyperlane_db_validator_<your_chain_name>,target=/hyperlane_db \
--mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/$VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR,target=/tmp/validator-signatures \
...

Hardcoding these paths deduplicates the configuration between docker instances running validators for different origin chains. This makes it easier to pass the right arguments when running the container. See the example below, where the only items to be configured differently for different chains are the chain name and validator key.

...
./validator \
--db /hyperlane_db \
--originChainName <your_chain_name> \
--checkpointSyncer.type localStorage \
--checkpointSyncer.path /tmp/validator-signatures \
--validator.key <your_validator_key>
...

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Run

Now that you understand more about configuring validator arguments, pull the latest docker image:

docker pull --platform linux/amd64 gcr.io/abacus-labs-dev/hyperlane-agent:agents-v1.4.0

Before running, ensure that all directories you need to mount are present. This may involve creating hyperlane_db_validator_<your_chain_name> if it does not exist yet.

mkdir -p hyperlane_db_validator_<your_chain_name>

Finally, run the validator:

docker run \
  -it \
  -e CONFIG_FILES=/config/agent-config.json \
  --mount type=bind,source=$CONFIG_FILES,target=/config/agent-config.json,readonly \
  --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/hyperlane_db_validator_<your_chain_name>,target=/hyperlane_db \
  --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/$VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR,target=/tmp/validator-signatures \
  gcr.io/abacus-labs-dev/hyperlane-agent:agents-v1.4.0 \
  ./validator \
  --db /hyperlane_db \
  --originChainName <your_chain_name> \
  --checkpointSyncer.type localStorage \
  --checkpointSyncer.path /tmp/validator-signatures \
  --validator.key <your_validator_key>

For further information, check out the Validators guide. To learn about running multiple validators, see this section.

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4. Run a relayer

  • Single Relayer Recommendation: A single relayer is generally sufficient and can handle message delivery across 100+ chains efficiently. You don’t need to run separate relayers for each network - this approach actually increases operational complexity without providing performance benefits.
  • Trusted Relayer ISM Key Management: If you’re using a trusted relayer ISM (which is not recommended for production), avoid using the same relayer key across multiple relayer instances as this can cause nonce conflicts and transaction failures. Either run a single relayer or use different keys for each relayer.
  • For production deployments, use a multisig ISM instead of trusted relayer ISM.

Relayers deliver interchain messages sent between the local and remote chains. Learn more about what relayers do here.

You should already have set the CONFIG_FILES environment variable to the path of the agent config generated in the agent configs step. If not, do so now.

export CONFIG_FILES=/full/path/to/configs/agent-config.json

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Configure

There are numerous parameters that relayers can be configured with. For this guide, we are concerned with just a handful:

ParameterDescription
--dbPath for writing persistent data to disk.
--relayChainsComma separated names of the chains to relay between. E.g. ethereum,polygon,avalanche.
--allowLocalCheckpointSyncersAllows the relayer to look for validator signatures on the local filesystem.
--defaultSigner.keyA hexadecimal private key used to sign transactions for all chains.
--metrics-portOptional. The port to expose prometheus metrics on, defaults to 9090.

Your set of relay chains should include both the origin chain and the destination chain.

To learn more about all the parameters you can change, read the agent configuration reference.

Mounting directories

For the relayer, we provide almost the same arguments to Docker as the validator:

  1. Set the $CONFIG_FILES environment variable to a fixed path within the container.
  2. Mount the agent config file to this fixed path and making it readonly.
  3. Mount the persistent data directory at a fixed path within the container.
  4. Mount the validator signatures directory to a fixed path within the container and making it readonly.
...
-e CONFIG_FILES=/config/agent-config.json \
--mount type=bind,source=$CONFIG_FILES,target=/config/agent-config.json,readonly \
--mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/hyperlane_db_relayer,target=/hyperlane_db \
--mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/$VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR,target=/tmp/validator-signatures,readonly \
...

Hardcoding these paths deduplicates the configuration between docker instances running relayers for different sets of chains. This makes it easier to pass the right arguments when running the container. See the example below, where the only items to be configured differently for different chains are the list of chains to relay between and the relayer key.

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Run

If you haven’t already pulled the Docker image, do this now by running:

docker pull --platform linux/amd64 gcr.io/abacus-labs-dev/hyperlane-agent:agents-v1.4.0

Before running, ensure that all directories you need to mount are present. This may involve creating hyperlane_db_relayer if it does not exist yet.

mkdir -p hyperlane_db_relayer

Finally, run the relayer:

docker run \
  -it \
  -e CONFIG_FILES=/config/agent-config.json \
  --mount type=bind,source=$CONFIG_FILES,target=/config/agent-config.json,readonly \
  --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/hyperlane_db_relayer,target=/hyperlane_db \
  --mount type=bind,source="$(pwd)"/$VALIDATOR_SIGNATURES_DIR,target=/tmp/validator-signatures,readonly \
  gcr.io/abacus-labs-dev/hyperlane-agent:agents-v1.4.0 \
  ./relayer \
  --db /hyperlane_db \
  --relayChains <chain_1_name>,<chain_2_name> \
  --allowLocalCheckpointSyncers true \
  --defaultSigner.key <your_relayer_key> \

For further information, check out the Relayer guide.

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5. Send test messages

Send test messages to verify your setup is working correctly.

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6. (Optional) Deploy a Hyperlane Warp Route

To connect tokens using your new Hyperlane deployment, see the Hyperlane Warp Route deployment guide.