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Snapshots / fast sync

Catalyst supports snapshot-based bootstrapping for faster sync on new machines.

Canonical references:

  • Sync guide: catalyst-node-rust/docs/sync-guide.md
  • RPC surface: catalyst_getSnapshotInfo, catalyst_getSyncInfo in catalyst-node-rust/crates/catalyst-rpc/src/lib.rs

You will need​

  • An RPC node that publishes snapshot metadata (operator feature)
  • Disk space for the snapshot archive + extracted DB

Steps​

Operator: publish a snapshot​

  1. Create a snapshot directory:
./target/release/catalyst-cli db-backup \
  --data-dir /var/lib/catalyst/node/data \
  --out-dir "/var/lib/catalyst/node/snapshots/snap.$(date +%s)"
  1. Serve the archive (simple sidecar) and publish metadata (see catalyst-cli snapshot-* commands).

User: sync from snapshot​

./target/release/catalyst-cli sync-from-snapshot \
  --rpc-url http://<RPC_HOST>:8545 \
  --data-dir /var/lib/catalyst/node/data

Verify​

curl -sS -X POST http://<RPC_HOST>:8545 \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"catalyst_getSnapshotInfo","params":[]}' | jq

Troubleshooting​

  • If snapshot verification fails, confirm chain_id, network_id, and genesis_hash match using catalyst_getSyncInfo.