Prover setup

Generating Keys

Before setting up your prover, you need to generate the required Ethereum private key for the prover publisher.

Prover Publisher Private Key

The prover publisher key is used to submit proofs to L1. This account needs ETH funding to pay for L1 gas.

Generate an Ethereum private key using Foundry's cast tool:

# Generate a new wallet with a 24-word mnemonic
cast wallet new-mnemonic --words 24

# This outputs a mnemonic phrase, a derived address, and private key
# Save these securely - you'll need the private key for PROVER_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY
# and the address for PROVER_ID

Important notes:

• Save both the private key and the derived address securely
• The private key will be used for PROVER_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY
• The derived Ethereum address will be used for PROVER_ID

Account Funding Required

The publisher account needs to be funded with ETH to post proofs to L1. Ensure the account holds sufficient ETH for gas costs during operation.

tip

If you don't have Foundry installed, follow the installation guide at getfoundry.sh.

Setup

The prover components are distributed across multiple machines for better performance and resource utilization. This setup runs multiple prover agents on separate high-performance machines, isolates the broker for better job queue management, and separates network-facing components (prover node) from compute-intensive components (agents).

Architecture

• Prover Node: Runs on a machine with network access and L1 connectivity
• Prover Broker: Can run on the same machine as the prover node or separately (must be accessible from prover agents)
• Prover Agents: Run on separate high-performance machines (32+ cores each, scalable with PROVER_AGENT_COUNT)

Network Requirements

Prover agents must communicate with the prover broker over the network. Ensure that:

• The broker machine's port 8080 is accessible from all agent machines
• Firewall rules allow traffic between agents and broker
• Network connectivity is stable and low-latency between components

Prover Node and Broker Setup

On the machine that will run the prover node and broker:

Step 1: Set Up Directory Structure

mkdir -p aztec-prover-node/prover-node-data aztec-prover-node/prover-broker-data
cd aztec-prover-node
touch .env

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Add to your .env file:

# Prover Node Configuration
DATA_DIRECTORY=./prover-node-data
P2P_IP=[your external IP address]
P2P_PORT=40400
ETHEREUM_HOSTS=[your L1 execution endpoint]
L1_CONSENSUS_HOST_URLS=[your L1 consensus endpoint]
LOG_LEVEL=info
PROVER_BROKER_HOST=http://prover-broker:8080
PROVER_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY=[your prover publisher private key, see prerequisites]
AZTEC_PORT=8080
AZTEC_ADMIN_PORT=8880

# Prover Broker Configuration
PROVER_BROKER_DATA_DIRECTORY=./prover-broker-data
PROVER_BROKER_PORT=8080

Step 3: Create Docker Compose File

Create docker-compose.yml:

name: aztec-prover-node
services:
  prover-node:
    image: aztecprotocol/aztec:4.2.0
    entrypoint: >-
      node
      --no-warnings
      /usr/src/yarn-project/aztec/dest/bin/index.js
      start
      --prover-node
      --archiver
      --network mainnet
    depends_on:
      prover-broker:
        condition: service_started
        required: true
    environment:
      DATA_DIRECTORY: /var/lib/data
      ETHEREUM_HOSTS: ${ETHEREUM_HOSTS}
      L1_CONSENSUS_HOST_URLS: ${L1_CONSENSUS_HOST_URLS}
      LOG_LEVEL: ${LOG_LEVEL}
      PROVER_BROKER_HOST: ${PROVER_BROKER_HOST}
      PROVER_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY: ${PROVER_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY}
      P2P_IP: ${P2P_IP}
      P2P_PORT: ${P2P_PORT}
      AZTEC_PORT: ${AZTEC_PORT}
      AZTEC_ADMIN_PORT: ${AZTEC_ADMIN_PORT}
    ports:
      - ${AZTEC_PORT}:${AZTEC_PORT}
      - ${P2P_PORT}:${P2P_PORT}
      - ${P2P_PORT}:${P2P_PORT}/udp
    volumes:
      - ${DATA_DIRECTORY}:/var/lib/data
    restart: unless-stopped

  prover-broker:
    image: aztecprotocol/aztec:4.2.0
    entrypoint: >-
      node
      --no-warnings
      /usr/src/yarn-project/aztec/dest/bin/index.js
      start
      --prover-broker
      --network mainnet
    environment:
      DATA_DIRECTORY: /var/lib/data
      ETHEREUM_HOSTS: ${ETHEREUM_HOSTS}
      P2P_IP: ${P2P_IP}
      LOG_LEVEL: ${LOG_LEVEL}
    ports:
      - ${PROVER_BROKER_PORT}:8080
    volumes:
      - ${PROVER_BROKER_DATA_DIRECTORY}:/var/lib/data
    restart: unless-stopped

Security: Admin Port Not Exposed

The admin port (8880) is intentionally not exposed to the host machine for security reasons. The admin API provides sensitive operations like configuration changes and database rollbacks that should never be accessible from outside the container.

If you need to access admin endpoints, use docker exec:

docker exec -it prover-node curl -X POST http://localhost:8880 \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"nodeAdmin_getConfig","params":[],"id":1}'

Important: The broker exposes port 8080 via ports: - ${PROVER_BROKER_PORT}:8080, making it accessible to external prover agents. Ensure this port is reachable from your agent machines.

This configuration includes only essential settings. The --network mainnet flag applies network-specific defaults—see the CLI reference for all available configuration options.

Step 4: Start Node and Broker

docker compose up -d

Prover Agent Setup

On each machine that will run prover agents:

Step 1: Set Up Directory

mkdir aztec-prover-agent
cd aztec-prover-agent
touch .env

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Add to your .env file:

PROVER_AGENT_COUNT=1
PROVER_AGENT_POLL_INTERVAL_MS=10000
PROVER_BROKER_HOST=http://[BROKER_MACHINE_IP]:8080
PROVER_ID=[address corresponding to PROVER_PUBLISHER_PRIVATE_KEY]

Replace [BROKER_MACHINE_IP] with the IP address of the machine running the prover broker.

Agent configuration tips:

• Set PROVER_AGENT_COUNT based on your machine's hardware (e.g., 64 cores/256 GB RAM = 2 agents, 96 cores/384 GB RAM = 3 agents, 128 cores/512 GB RAM = 4 agents)
• Test connectivity before starting: curl http://[BROKER_MACHINE_IP]:8080
• If the curl test fails, check your network configuration, firewall rules, and ensure the broker is running

Step 3: Create Docker Compose File

Create docker-compose.yml:

name: aztec-prover-agent
services:
  prover-agent:
    image: aztecprotocol/aztec:4.2.0
    entrypoint: >-
      node
      --no-warnings
      /usr/src/yarn-project/aztec/dest/bin/index.js
      start
      --prover-agent
      --network mainnet
    environment:
      PROVER_AGENT_COUNT: ${PROVER_AGENT_COUNT}
      PROVER_AGENT_POLL_INTERVAL_MS: ${PROVER_AGENT_POLL_INTERVAL_MS}
      PROVER_BROKER_HOST: ${PROVER_BROKER_HOST}
      PROVER_ID: ${PROVER_ID}
    restart: unless-stopped

Step 4: Start Agent

docker compose up -d

Scaling your prover capacity:

• Horizontal scaling: Add more agent machines by repeating the agent setup on additional high-performance machines
• Vertical scaling: Increase PROVER_AGENT_COUNT on existing machines (ensure adequate hardware)

All agents, regardless of which machine they're on, must be able to communicate with the broker at the configured PROVER_BROKER_HOST.