Skip to main content

Quickstart

You can get started with an Aztec development environment (A.K.A. Sandbox) in less than 5 minutes.

The Sandbox is an Aztec network running fully on your machine, and interacting with a development Ethereum node. You can develop and deploy on it just like on a testnet or mainnet.

Prerequisites​

You need two global dependencies in your machine:

Install the sandbox​

Run:

bash -i <(curl -s install.aztec.network)

This will install the following tools:

  • aztec - launches various infrastructure subsystems (full sandbox, sequencer, prover, pxe, etc) and provides utility commands to interact with the network
  • aztec-nargo - aztec's build of nargo, the noir compiler toolchain.
  • aztec-up - a tool to upgrade the aztec toolchain to the latest, or specific versions.

Once these have been installed, to start the sandbox, run:

aztec start --sandbox

Have fun​

Congratulations, you have just installed and run the Aztec Sandbox!

     /\        | |
    /  \    ___| |_ ___  ___
   / /\ \  |_  / __/ _ \/ __|
  / ____ \  / /| ||  __/ (__
 /_/___ \_\/___|\__\___|\___|

In the terminal, you will see some logs:

  1. Sandbox version
  2. Contract addresses of rollup contracts
  3. PXE (private execution environment) setup logs
  4. Initial accounts that are shipped with the sandbox and can be used in tests

Running Aztec PXE / Node / P2P-Bootstrap node​

If you wish to run components of the Aztec network stack separately, you can use the aztec start command with various options for enabling components.

aztec start --node [nodeOptions] --pxe [pxeOptions] --archiver [archiverOptions] --sequencer [sequencerOptions] --prover [proverOptions] ----p2p-bootstrap [p2pOptions]

Starting the aztec node alongside a PXE, sequencer or archiver, will attach the components to the node. Eg if you want to run a PXE separately to a node, you can read this guide.

Update the sandbox​

To update the sandbox, you can just run:

aztec-up

Install the Noir Language Support extension to get syntax highlighting, syntax error detection and go-to definitions for your Aztec contracts.

Once the extension is installed, check your nargo binary by hovering over Nargo in the status bar on the bottom right of the application window. Click to choose the path to aztec-nargo (or regular nargo, if you have that installed).

You can print the path of your aztec-nargo executable by running:

which aztec-nargo

To specify a custom nargo executable, go to the VSCode settings and search for "noir", or click extension settings on the noir-lang LSP plugin. Update the Noir: Nargo Path field to point to your desired aztec-nargo executable.

What's next?​

Now you have a development network running, so you're ready to start coding your first app with Aztec.nr and Aztec.js!

To follow the series of tutorials, start with the private voting contract here.

If you want to just keep learning, you can read about the high level architecture on the Core Components page and the lifecycle of a transaction.