Docker Builds

Docker builds compile base/base reproducibly without a host Rust toolchain. The repository ships several Dockerfiles under etc/docker/ for the client, builder, devnet, and websocket proxy.

Available Dockerfiles

File	Purpose
etc/docker/Dockerfile.client	Production client image containing base-reth-node
etc/docker/Dockerfile.builder	Builder image used as a base for multi-stage builds
etc/docker/Dockerfile.devnet	Devnet-specific image for local development networks
etc/docker/Dockerfile.websocket-proxy	Standalone websocket proxy image

Building the Client Image

From the repository root, build the production client image:

docker build -t base-reth-node -f etc/docker/Dockerfile.client .

This performs a multi-stage build: it compiles the Rust binary inside a builder container and copies the resulting binary into a minimal runtime image. The build context is the repository root, so all workspace crates are available to the compiler.

Depending on your hardware, the first build may take 15-30 minutes. Subsequent builds benefit from Docker layer caching.

Running the Container

Start the node with default settings:

docker run -it --rm base-reth-node

Pass CLI options after the image name, exactly as you would with the bare binary:

docker run -it --rm base-reth-node --help

Persisting Data

By default, a container’s filesystem is ephemeral. To persist chain data across restarts, mount a host directory to the node’s data directory:

docker run -it --rm \
  -v /path/to/data:/data \
  base-reth-node \
  --datadir /data

Exposing Ports

The node exposes several network ports. Map them to the host as needed:

docker run -it --rm \
  -v /path/to/data:/data \
  -p 8545:8545 \
  -p 8546:8546 \
  -p 30303:30303 \
  -p 30303:30303/udp \
  base-reth-node \
  --datadir /data \
  --http \
  --http.addr 0.0.0.0 \
  --ws \
  --ws.addr 0.0.0.0

Port	Protocol	Service
8545	TCP	HTTP JSON-RPC
8546	TCP	WebSocket JSON-RPC
30303	TCP + UDP	P2P discovery and communication

Running in the Background

Use -d instead of -it to run detached:

docker run -d --name base-node \
  -v /path/to/data:/data \
  -p 8545:8545 \
  base-reth-node \
  --datadir /data \
  --http --http.addr 0.0.0.0

# View logs
docker logs -f base-node

# Stop
docker stop base-node

Building Other Images

Build the websocket proxy image:

docker build -t base-websocket-proxy -f etc/docker/Dockerfile.websocket-proxy .

Build the devnet image (typically used by the docker-compose devnet stack rather than run directly):

docker build -t base-devnet -f etc/docker/Dockerfile.devnet .

Tips

• Layer caching: The Dockerfiles are structured so that dependency fetching is cached separately from source compilation. If you only change Rust source files, the dependency layers are reused.
• BuildKit: Enable BuildKit for faster builds: DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build ...
• Cross-compilation: If you need an amd64 image on an ARM host (or vice versa), use docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 ....

For running a full local devnet with Docker Compose, see Local Devnet. For production Docker deployments, see Node Operations: Docker.