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Deploy Hyperlane with Local Agents

tip

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.

Terminology​

The "local chain" is your new chain that you want to deploy Hyperlane onto.

A "remote chain" is a chain with an existing Hyperlane deployment that you want your local chain to send & receive messages to & from.

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 Warp Route to send token value, not just messages, across chains.

Getting Started​

1. Set up keys​

There are three keys you must set up and fund.

tip

To get started, you can simplify by using the same hexadecimal key for all three roles.

Key RoleDescriptionFunding Needs
Contract Deployer32 byte hexadecimal private keyFunded on all the chains on which we need to deploy contracts.
Validator Accounts

A list of validator addresses that will sign outbound messages from your local chain. Just one validator works to get started quickly.

A small amount so validators can announce the location of their signatures onchain with a one-time transaction

Relayer Accounts

The single relayer you will operate requires an account on each chain it will deliver messages to & from

The relayer must have a balance on all chains it's relaying between.

For instructions on how to generate keys, see the agent keys section. Your deployer key must be a hexadecimal key, while validator and relayer keys can be hexadecimal or AWS KMS.

If deploying on a local network using Foundry's Anvil, use the following command to fund your newly-generated account. It uses one of the pre-funded private keys to transfer 1 ETH to the address in the $YOUR_TARGET_ADDRESS environment variable.

cast send $YOUR_TARGET_ADDRESS \
--private-key 0xac0974bec39a17e36ba4a6b4d238ff944bacb478cbed5efcae784d7bf4f2ff80 \
--value $(cast tw 1)

2. Deploy contracts​

Once you have set up deployer, validator, and relayer keys it's time to use the Hyperlane CLI to deploy smart contracts to the local and remote chains.

On the local chain, we will deploy:

  • The core contracts, including a Mailbox that can be used to send and receive messages.

On all chains, we will deploy:

  • A Multisig ISM that can be used to verify inbound messages from the other local & remote chains.
  • An InterchainGasPaymaster, which can be used to pay our relayer for delivering interchain messages.
  • A TestRecipient, which we will send messages to, in order to test that everything is working correctly.

Setup​

First, install the Hyperlane CLI.

npm install -g @hyperlane-xyz/cli

Chains​

The deployment will require basic information about any chains it will be interacting with. If the target chains are not already in the Hyperlane Registry, you must specify chain metadata for them. See the CLI reference for details.

To see what chains are in the currently known, run the following command:

hyperlane registry list

To create a chain metadata config for any other chains, run the following command:

hyperlane registry init

Or you can define the config manually. See the ChainMetadata type for its schema. See chain-config.yaml for an example.

Core deployment with Multisig ISM​

Now the CLI will know how to interact with all your chains, but it will also need to know how to configure your Interchain Security Module (ISM).

To initialize a core config with multisig ISM config, you can define it manually using JSON or YAML (see example config here), or create it with the following command:

hyperlane core init --advanced

When asked about the ISM type, choose messageIdMultisigIsm. In the context of this guide, we will be using a 1/1 multisig, so choose a threshold of 1 and enter the address of your key.

When asked about the default hook type and required hook type, choose merkleTreeHook.

Dry Run a Core Deployment​

note

In order to execute a dry-run, you will need an Anvil node running in a separate terminal instance. To spin up an Anvil node, run anvil. For more on Anvil and installation, checkout Foundry's Anvil docs.

Prior to executing a deployment, you can perform a dry-run via --dry-run <CHAIN_NAME> or -d <CHAIN_NAME> to ensure that the deployment will be successful as well as provide analytics on the gas costs of deployment. This will not trigger any real transactions but will simulate a deployment to display a list of required contracts and their respective gas costs.

In addition to validating your upcoming deployment, you can optionally provide the address of the EOA you intend to deploy with via --from-address or -f. This will ensure you have approximately enough funds to complete the deployment.

hyperlane core deploy --dry-run chain1 \ 
    --from-address $YOUR_DEPLOYER_ADDRESS \ # (optional) your account address to be impersonated via Anvil; defaults to the HYP_KEY env variable
    --registry \ # (optional) path to your primary registry; defaults to the Hyperlane github registry
    --overrides # (optional) path to a override registry; defaults to the local ./ path

Deploy​

We're now ready to use the core deploy command to deploy the Hyperlane contracts. To pay for transactions, the command will need the contract deployer key from step 1, which can be provided via the HYP_KEY env variable or as a command argument.

hyperlane core deploy

Verify​

Deployment contract artifacts will be written to the configured registries. By default, you'll find the new addresses in the local directory you ran the command from (e.g. ./chains/chain1/addresses.yaml).

Agent configs​

We are now ready to generate an agent config using our deployed contracts that will be used by the agents (Validator and Relayer) in the steps below.

hyperlane registry agent-config --chains chain1

Set the CONFIG_FILES enviroment variable to the path of the agent config generated.

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

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.

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.

danger

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
warning

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

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.
info

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>
...

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-v1.0.0

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-v1.0.0 \
  ./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.

4. Run a relayer​

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

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.
--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.
tip

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.

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-v1.0.0

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_validator_<your_chain_name>

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-v1.0.0 \
  ./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.

5. Send test messages​

You can check everything is working correctly by sending a test message between pairs of chains. Initiate the message with the CLI.

hyperlane send message --key $PRIVATE_KEY

The send message command will inform you when the message is dispatched. After a short wait, a confirmation of delivery will be displayed. If the message delivery times out, it is likely that there's an issue with the Validator or Relayer setup in the steps above. To troubleshoot start by looking at the origin chain relayer logs. If you need further help, reach out on Discord.

6. (Optional) Deploy a Warp Route​

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