README
¶
CometBFT
Byzantine-Fault Tolerant State Machine Replication. Or Blockchain, for short.
| Branch | Tests | Linting |
|---|---|---|
| main |  |
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| v0.38.x |  |
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| v0.37.x |  |
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| v0.34.x |  |
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CometBFT is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) middleware that takes a state transition machine - written in any programming language - and securely replicates it on many machines.
It is a fork of Tendermint Core and implements the Tendermint consensus algorithm.
For protocol details, refer to the CometBFT Specification.
For detailed analysis of the consensus protocol, including safety and liveness proofs, read our paper, "The latest gossip on BFT consensus".
Documentation
Complete documentation can be found on the website.
Releases
Please do not depend on main as your production branch. Use
releases instead.
We haven't released v1.0 yet since we are making breaking changes to the protocol and the APIs. See below for more details about versioning.
In any case, if you intend to run CometBFT in production, we're happy to help.
To contact us, you can also join the chat.
More on how releases are conducted can be found here.
Security
To report a security vulnerability, see our bug bounty program. For examples of the kinds of bugs we're looking for, see our security policy.
Minimum requirements
| CometBFT version | Requirement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| main | Go version | Go 1.20 or higher |
| v0.38.x | Go version | Go 1.20 or higher |
| v0.37.x | Go version | Go 1.20 or higher |
| v0.34.x | Go version | Go 1.19 or higher |
Install
See the install guide.
Quick Start
Contributing
Please abide by the Code of Conduct in all interactions.
Before contributing to the project, please take a look at the contributing guidelines and the style guide. You may also find it helpful to read the specifications, and familiarize yourself with our Architectural Decision Records (ADRs) and Request For Comments (RFCs).
Versioning
Semantic Versioning
CometBFT uses Semantic Versioning to determine when and how the version changes. According to SemVer, anything in the public API can change at any time before version 1.0.0
To provide some stability to users of 0.X.X versions of CometBFT, the MINOR version is used to signal breaking changes across CometBFT's API. This API includes all publicly exposed types, functions, and methods in non-internal Go packages as well as the types and methods accessible via the CometBFT RPC interface.
Breaking changes to these public APIs will be documented in the CHANGELOG.
Upgrades
In an effort to avoid accumulating technical debt prior to 1.0.0, we do not guarantee that breaking changes (i.e. bumps in the MINOR version) will work with existing CometBFT blockchains. In these cases you will have to start a new blockchain, or write something custom to get the old data into the new chain. However, any bump in the PATCH version should be compatible with existing blockchain histories.
For more information on upgrading, see UPGRADING.md.
Supported Versions
Because we are a small core team, we have limited capacity to ship patch updates, including security updates. Consequently, we strongly recommend keeping CometBFT up-to-date. Upgrading instructions can be found in UPGRADING.md.
Currently supported versions include:
- v0.38.x: CometBFT v0.38 introduces ABCI 2.0, which implements the entirety of ABCI++
- v0.37.x: CometBFT v0.37 introduces ABCI 1.0, which is the first major step towards the full ABCI++ implementation in ABCI 2.0
- v0.34.x: The CometBFT v0.34 series is compatible with the Tendermint Core v0.34 series
Resources
Libraries
- Cosmos SDK; A framework for building applications in Golang
- Tendermint in Rust
- ABCI Tower
Applications
Research
Below are links to the original Tendermint consensus algorithm and relevant whitepapers which CometBFT will continue to build on.
- The latest gossip on BFT consensus
- Master's Thesis on Tendermint
- Original Whitepaper: "Tendermint: Consensus Without Mining"
Join us
CometBFT is currently maintained by Informal Systems. If you'd like to work full-time on CometBFT, we're hiring!
Funding for CometBFT development comes primarily from the Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit. Informal Systems also maintains cometbft.com.
Directories
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| Path | Synopsis |
|---|---|
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abci
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server
Package server is used to start a new ABCI server.
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Package server is used to start a new ABCI server. |
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cmd
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merkle
Package merkle computes a deterministic minimal height Merkle tree hash.
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Package merkle computes a deterministic minimal height Merkle tree hash. |
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xchacha20poly1305
Package xchacha20poly1305 creates an AEAD using hchacha, chacha, and poly1305 This allows for randomized nonces to be used in conjunction with chacha.
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Package xchacha20poly1305 creates an AEAD using hchacha, chacha, and poly1305 This allows for randomized nonces to be used in conjunction with chacha. |
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Package evidence handles all evidence storage and gossiping from detection to block proposal.
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Package evidence handles all evidence storage and gossiping from detection to block proposal. |
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Package inspect provides a tool for investigating the state of a failed CometBFT node.
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Package inspect provides a tool for investigating the state of a failed CometBFT node. |
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internal
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test
Package factory provides generation code for common structs in CometBFT.
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Package factory provides generation code for common structs in CometBFT. |
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libs
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events
Package events - Pub-Sub in go with event caching
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Package events - Pub-Sub in go with event caching |
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flowrate
Package flowrate provides the tools for monitoring and limiting the flow rate of an arbitrary data stream.
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Package flowrate provides the tools for monitoring and limiting the flow rate of an arbitrary data stream. |
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json
Package json provides functions for marshaling and unmarshaling JSON in a format that is backwards-compatible with Amino JSON encoding.
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Package json provides functions for marshaling and unmarshaling JSON in a format that is backwards-compatible with Amino JSON encoding. |
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pubsub
Package pubsub implements a pub-sub model with a single publisher (Server) and multiple subscribers (clients).
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Package pubsub implements a pub-sub model with a single publisher (Server) and multiple subscribers (clients). |
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pubsub/query
Package query implements the custom query format used to filter event subscriptions in CometBFT.
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Package query implements the custom query format used to filter event subscriptions in CometBFT. |
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pubsub/query/syntax
Package syntax defines a scanner and parser for the CometBFT event filter query language.
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Package syntax defines a scanner and parser for the CometBFT event filter query language. |
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package light provides a light client implementation.
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package light provides a light client implementation. |
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TODO: Better handle abci client errors.
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TODO: Better handle abci client errors. |
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Package node is the main entry point, where the Node struct, which represents a full node, is defined.
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Package node is the main entry point, where the Node struct, which represents a full node, is defined. |
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Package privval provides different implementations of the types.PrivValidator.
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Package privval provides different implementations of the types.PrivValidator. |
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proto
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rpc
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core
Package core defines the CometBFT RPC endpoints.
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Package core defines the CometBFT RPC endpoints. |
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jsonrpc
HTTP RPC server supporting calls via uri params, jsonrpc over HTTP, and jsonrpc over websockets
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HTTP RPC server supporting calls via uri params, jsonrpc over HTTP, and jsonrpc over websockets |
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jsonrpc/server
Commons for HTTP handling
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Commons for HTTP handling |
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scripts
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metricsgen
metricsgen is a code generation tool for creating constructors for CometBFT metrics types.
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metricsgen is a code generation tool for creating constructors for CometBFT metrics types. |
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metricsgen/metricsdiff
metricsdiff is a tool for generating a diff between two different files containing prometheus metrics.
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metricsdiff is a tool for generating a diff between two different files containing prometheus metrics. |
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indexer/sink/psql
Package psql implements an event sink backed by a PostgreSQL database.
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Package psql implements an event sink backed by a PostgreSQL database. |
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test
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