Welcome to the Tezos Developer Documentation!

The Project

Tezos is a distributed consensus platform with meta-consensus capability. Tezos not only comes to consensus about the state of its ledger, like Bitcoin or Ethereum. It also attempts to come to consensus about how the protocol and the nodes should adapt and upgrade.

• Developer documentation is available online at https://tezos.gitlab.io/ and is automatically generated from the master branch.

• The website https://tezos.com/ contains more information about the project.

• All development happens on GitLab at https://gitlab.com/tezos/tezos

The source code of Tezos is placed under the MIT Open Source License.

Latest Release

The current version of Tezos is Version 7.5.

The Community

• The website of the Tezos Foundation.

• Tezos sub-reddit is an important meeting point of the community.

• Several community-built block explorers are available:

  • https://tzstats.com

  • https://tezos.id

  • https://tezblock.io

  • https://teztracker.everstake.one

  • https://tzkt.io (Baking focused Explorer)

  • https://arronax.io

  • https://mininax.io

  • https://baking-bad.org (Reward Tracker)

  • https://better-call.dev (Smart-contract Explorer)

• A few community-run websites collect useful Tezos links:

  • https://www.tezos.help

  • https://tezos.rocks

• More resources can be found in the Technical Support page.

The Networks

Mainnet

The Tezos network is the current incarnation of the Tezos blockchain. It runs with real tez that have been allocated to the donors of July 2017 ICO (see Activate fundraiser account - Mainnet).

The Tezos network has been live and open since June 30th 2018.

All the instructions in this documentation are valid for Mainnet however we strongly encourage users to first try all the introduction tutorials on some test network to familiarize themselves without risks.

Test Networks

There are several test networks for the Tezos blockchain with a faucet to obtain free tez (see Get Free Tez). It is the reference network for developers wanting to test their software before going to beta and for users who want to familiarize themselves with Tezos before using their real tez.

See the list of test networks in test network.

Getting started

The best place to start exploring the project is following the How Tos in the introduction.

Introduction tutorials:

• How to get Tezos
  • Docker images
  • Get static binaries
  • Ubuntu Launchpad PPA with Tezos packages
  • Fedora Copr repository with Tezos packages
  • Build from sources
  • Get the sources
  • Install Tezos dependencies
  • Compile
• How to use Tezos
  • The Binaries
  • Read The Friendly Manual
  • Node
  • Client
• How to run Tezos
  • Delegating your coins
  • Running a delegate
• Test Networks
  • Get Free Funds
  • Delphinet
  • Edonet
  • Future Networks
• Old Networks
  • Dalphanet
  • Carthagenet
  • Babylonnet
  • Alphanet
  • Zeronet
• Technical Support

User documentation:

• Key Management
  • Ledger support
  • Signer
  • Activate fundraiser account - Mainnet
• Sandboxed mode
  • Run a sandboxed node
  • Use the sandboxed client
  • Tune protocol Alpha parameters
  • Preserve data
• Mockup mode
  • Run a mockup client with persistent state
  • Run a mockup client without persistent state
  • Tune mockup parameters
  • Setting protocol constants for the mockup mode
• History modes
  • History modes in a nutshell
  • Setting up a node in full mode
  • Setting up a node in rolling mode
  • Setting up a node in archive mode
  • Switching between node’s modes
• Snapshots
  • Importing a snapshot
  • Exporting a snapshot
• Various
  • Private node
  • Configuration options for the node
  • Environment for writing Michelson contracts
  • Debugging
  • Admin Client
  • Tezos binaries: signals and exit codes
• Multinetwork Node
  • Built-In Networks
  • Custom Networks
  • Genesis Parameters
  • Alias Versus Explicit Configuration
  • Development

Shell doc:

• Tezos Software Architecture
  • The Big Picture
  • Software Architecture and Packages Relationship
• The validation subsystem
  • Validator
  • Prevalidator
  • Distributed DB
• Synchronisation heuristic
  • Synchronisation heuristic status
  • Bootstrapped
  • Basic description of the heuristic
  • Acceptable values for parameters
  • Formal description of the heuristic
  • If the heuristic fails
• The peer-to-peer layer
  • General operation
  • Welcome worker
  • Maintenance worker
• P2P message format
  • Block header (shell)
  • fitness.elem
  • Operation (shell)
  • Block_header (alpha-specific)
  • Operation (alpha-specific)
  • alpha.scripted.contracts
  • alpha.contract_id (22 bytes, 8-bit tag)
  • alpha.entrypoint (Determined from data, 8-bit tag)
  • X_0
  • N.t
  • public_key (Determined from data, 8-bit tag)
  • public_key_hash (21 bytes, 8-bit tag)
  • fitness.elem
  • alpha.block_header.alpha.full_header
  • alpha.inlined.endorsement.contents (5 bytes, 8-bit tag)
  • alpha.inlined.endorsement
  • alpha.operation.alpha.contents (Determined from data, 8-bit tag)
• RPCs - Index
  • Shell
• RPCs - Full description
  • Shell

007 Delphi doc:

• Micheline
  • Syntax
  • Serialization
  • Other tools and resources
• Michelson: the language of Smart Contracts in Tezos
  • Semantics of smart contracts and transactions
  • Language semantics
  • Introduction to the type system and notations
  • Core data types and notations
  • Core instructions
  • Operations
  • Domain specific data types
  • Domain specific operations
  • Macros
  • Concrete syntax
  • Annotations
  • Entrypoints
  • JSON syntax
  • Examples
  • Full grammar
  • Reference implementation
• Proof-of-stake in Tezos
  • Brief Overview
  • Blocks
  • Cycles
  • Delegation
  • Accusations
• The Voting Process
  • Periods
  • Super-majority and Quorum
  • Operations
  • Client Commands
• Glossary
  • Tezos
  • Protocol Alpha
• Command Line Interface
  • Client manual
  • Admin-client manual
  • Signer manual
  • Baker manual
  • Endorser manual
  • Accuser manual
• RPCs - Index
  • Protocol 007 Delphi
• RPCs - Full description
  • Protocol 007 Delphi

008 Edo doc:

• Micheline
  • Syntax
  • Serialization
  • Other tools and resources
• Michelson: the language of Smart Contracts in Tezos
  • Semantics of smart contracts and transactions
  • Language semantics
  • Introduction to the type system and notations
  • Core data types and notations
  • Core instructions
  • Operations
  • Domain specific data types
  • Domain specific operations
  • Macros
  • Concrete syntax
  • Annotations
  • Entrypoints
  • JSON syntax
  • Examples
  • Full grammar
  • Reference implementation
• Proof-of-stake in Tezos
  • Brief Overview
  • Blocks
  • Cycles
  • Delegation
  • Accusations
• Sapling integration
  • Sapling
  • Tezos integration
• The Voting Process
  • Periods
  • Super-majority and Quorum
  • Operations
  • Client Commands
• Glossary
  • Tezos
  • Protocol Alpha
• Command Line Interface
  • Client manual
  • Admin-client manual
  • Signer manual
  • Baker manual
  • Endorser manual
  • Accuser manual
  • Benchmark tool manual
• RPCs - Index
  • Protocol 008 Edo
• RPCs - Full description
  • Protocol 008 Edo

Developer Tutorials:

• JSON/RPC interface
• The data_encoding library
  • Examples/Tutorial
  • How the Dataencoding module works
• The Error Monad
  • Why you want the error monad
  • A simple version of the error monad
  • A slight improvement
  • Traces
  • A more descriptive message
  • Putting Lwt.t in the mix
  • The actual Tezos error monad
• Michelson Anti-Patterns
  • Refunding to a list of contracts
  • Avoid batch operations when users can increase the size of the batch
  • Signatures alone do not prevent replay attacks
  • Storing/transferring private data
  • Not setting all state before a transfer
• How to start reading protocol Alpha
  • The TEZOS_PROTOCOL structure
  • The big abstraction barrier: Alpha_context
  • Below the Alpha_context
  • Above the Alpha_context
• Economic protocol sandboxing
• Overview of Testing in Tezos
  • Testing frameworks
  • Executing tests
  • Conventions
• Flexible Network Sandboxes
  • Build
  • Usage
  • MacOSX Users
  • See Also
  • Concepts
  • Examples
  • Implementation Considerations
  • Special Coding Style
• Python Execution and Testing Environment
  • Code organization
  • Installation
  • A simple sandbox scenario
  • Test suite and pytest
  • Regression testing
  • TODO
  • Known issues
  • Adding new dependencies
• Tezt: OCaml Tezos Test Framework
  • How to Run Tests
  • Regression Tests
  • Pre-commit hook
  • Architecture
  • How to Write New Tests
  • Detailed Walkthrough of the Basic Test
• How to test a protocol proposal
  • The branch proto-proposal
  • Unit tests and sandboxed mode
  • Manual migration testing
  • Wrap up the manual migration procedure
  • Automatic migration testing with Tezt
  • Wrap up the automatic migration procedure with Tezt
  • Tips and tricks
  • Anatomy of migration code
• Profiling the Tezos node
  • Memory profiling the OCaml heap
  • Memory profiling the C heap
  • Performance profiling
• Benchmarking with Snoop
  • Architecture of tezos-snoop
  • Usage example
  • Rewriting Micheline with tezos-micheline-rewriting
• How to contribute
  • Introduction
  • Our git strategy
  • Workflow of an MR
  • Preparing a Merge Request
  • Creating the Merge Request
  • Protocol development MRs
  • Code Review
  • The Merge-Request Bot
• Merge Team
• Coding guidelines
  • Comments in the code
  • Documenting interfaces
  • README files
  • Logging Levels
  • Code formatting

Protocols:

• Protocol 003_PsddFKi3
  • Description of the patch
  • How to apply the patch
  • More details on fees and cost model
  • FAQ
• Protocol 004_Pt24m4xi Athens
  • Gas and fees
  • Changelog
• Protocol 005_PsBabyM1 Babylon
  • Emmy+
  • Michelson
  • Proposal quorum
  • Quorum caps
  • Make implicit accounts delegatable
  • Replace KT1 accounts with manager.tz script
  • Changes to RPCs
  • Changes to the binary format of operations
  • Migration from scriptless KT1s to manager.tz
  • Bug affecting Bigmaps in 005_PsBABY5H
  • Changelog
• Protocol 006_PsCARTHA Carthage
  • Baking Daemon
  • Smart Contracts
  • Baking and Endorsing
  • Accounts
  • Michelson
  • Changes to RPCs
  • Changes to the binary format of operations
  • Changelog
• Protocol 008_PtEdoTez Edo
  • Environment V1
  • RPCs
  • Encodings
  • Voting procedure
  • Smart contracts/Michelson
  • Internal
  • Changelog

Releases:

• Mainnet April 2019
  • Enable the testchain
  • Peers randomization
  • A lighter setup using snapshots
  • Single machine setup
  • Two machine setup
  • Example setup
• Mainnet May 2019
  • Activation of Athens
  • Storage Migration
  • Changelog
• Mainnet September 2019
  • Changelog
• Mainnet-Staging October 2019
  • Changelog
• Mainnet December 2019
  • Changelog
  • Storage Upgrade
  • Guide for mainnet.sh Users
• Mainnet January 2020
  • Changelog
  • Update Instructions
• Version 7.5
  • Update Instructions
  • New Versioning Scheme
  • Note for Remote Signer Users
  • Multinetwork Node
  • Changelog — Version 7.5
  • Changelog — Version 7.4
  • Changelog — Version 7.3
  • Changelog — Version 7.2
  • Changelog — Version 7.1
  • Changelog — Version 7.0
• Version 8.0~rc2
  • Update Instructions
  • Changelog — Version 8.0~rc2
  • Changelog — Version 8.0~rc1

APIs:

• Building documentation locally
  • Building instructions
  • Sphinx extensions
  • OCaml documentation
• Online OCaml Documentation
• OpenAPI Specification
  • Shell RPCs
  • Delphi RPCs
  • How to Generate
  • How to Test
• RPC Errors
  • Protocol Alpha
  • Shell
  • Michelson parsing/macros
  • Client
  • Miscellaneous

Indices and tables

• Index

• Module Index

• Search Page