Mockup mode

By default the octez-client described in the sandboxed node needs a node running. This page describes the mockup mode, a mode that works without connecting to a node. For the moment, its features are more limited than the default mode (see the proxy mode for an intermediate mode between default and mockup).

Motivation

The main motivation for implementing the mockup mode is to provide developers of Tezos smart contracts with an easy local environment, offering a fast development cycle, which uses only lightweight local files for keeping the state, and which does not require a running blockchain.

Overview

In mockup mode, the client uses some dummy values for the initial parameters that are usually gathered from a node, such as the head of the chain or the network identifier. Then the mockup client simulates activation from genesis and runs local implementations of the RPCs itself.

Modes of operation

Mockup mode can run in three ways:

  • Stateless mode.

    In this mode, octez-client operates on its inputs and returns a value. Nothing is written to disk, and no state is preserved between calls to the client. This is the default.

  • Stateful mode.

    In this mode, octez-client creates or manipulates a state on disk. The switch for this is --base-dir <directory_name>.

  • Stateful asynchronous mode.

    This mode adds baking. The command-line switch for this is --base-dir <directory_name> --asynchronous.

Supported features

Currently, depending on the way it is run, the mockup mode can:

  • typecheck, serialize, sign and evaluate a contract – without a node.

    These features do not require a persistent state.

  • perform transactions, originations, contract calls in a purely local fashion; mimicking the sandboxed mode but without a node.

    These features require a persistent state.

  • perform some RPCs locally via the command line.

    These features work in stateful asynchronous mode.

We recommend that beginners use the persistent state, as it represents a suitable tradeoff between simplicity and supported features.

Nevertheless, the modes of operation are shown in the order above.

Run a mockup client without persistent state

Without persistent state, the mockup mode is already able to typecheck scripts. Let’s typecheck for example the script michelson_test_scripts/mini_scenarios/hardlimit.tz:

$ octez-client --mode mockup typecheck script michelson_test_scripts/mini_scenarios/hardlimit.tz

The script can also be executed:

$ octez-client --mode mockup run script <filename> on storage <storage> and input <input>

where <storage> and <input> are some Michelson expression describing the contract’s storage and script input respectively. A --trace-stack option can be added in the end to output the state of the stack after each step of script’s execution.

For example:

$ octez-client --mode mockup run script michelson_test_scripts/attic/id.tz on storage '"hello"' and input '"world"'
# Ignore warnings about the missing/wrong base directory, they do not apply to "run script"
storage
  "world"
[...]

Run a mockup client with persistent state

Setting up a mockup state requires to choose a protocol. To see the list of supported protocols in mockup mode, issue the following command:

$ octez-client list mockup protocols

At any given time, it should return Alpha and at least the two protocols before that.

To create the mockup client state, issue the following command:

$ octez-client \
  --protocol ProtoALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaDdp3zK \
  --base-dir /tmp/mockup \
  --mode mockup \
  create mockup

Now that this command has been issued, the next calls below all use --mode mockup and --base-dir /tmp/mockup arguments. This is akin to doing a mockup session. To avoid mistakes, we advise to do the following in the local shell running the session:

$ alias mockup-client='octez-client --mode mockup --base-dir /tmp/mockup'

You can now use standard commands, such as:

$ mockup-client list known addresses
bootstrap5: tz1ddb9NMYHZi5UzPdzTZMYQQZoMub195zgv (unencrypted sk known)
bootstrap4: tz1b7tUupMgCNw2cCLpKTkSD1NZzB5TkP2sv (unencrypted sk known)
bootstrap3: tz1faswCTDciRzE4oJ9jn2Vm2dvjeyA9fUzU (unencrypted sk known)
bootstrap2: tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN (unencrypted sk known)
bootstrap1: tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx (unencrypted sk known)
$ mockup-client transfer 100 from bootstrap1 to bootstrap2
Node is bootstrapped, ready for injecting operations.
Estimated gas: 10207 units (will add 100 for safety)
Estimated storage: no bytes added
Operation successfully injected in the node.
Operation hash is 'ooMyN7FDmDGyNk8CLdSFwcdxcQea5KLXYqrgzu6CEYB7G2xYbth'
NOT waiting for the operation to be included.
Use command
  octez-client wait for ooMyN7FDmDGyNk8CLdSFwcdxcQea5KLXYqrgzu6CEYB7G2xYbth to be included --confirmations 30 --branch BLockGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisCCCCCeZiLHU
and/or an external block explorer to make sure that it has been included.
This sequence of operations was run:
  Manager signed operations:
    From: tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx
    Fee to the baker: ꜩ0.001282
    Expected counter: 2
    Gas limit: 10307
    Storage limit: 0 bytes
    Balance updates:
      tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx ........... -ꜩ0.001282
      fees(tz1Ke2h7sDdakHJQh8WX4Z372du1KChsksyU,0) ... +ꜩ0.001282
    Transaction:
      Amount: ꜩ100
      From: tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx
      To: tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN
      This transaction was successfully applied
      Consumed gas: 10207
      Balance updates:
        tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx ... -ꜩ100
        tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN ... +ꜩ100
$ mockup-client get balance for bootstrap1
3999898.997437 ꜩ

One can also originate contracts:

$ mockup-client originate contract foo transferring 100 from bootstrap1 running 'parameter unit; storage unit; code { CAR; NIL operation; PAIR}' --burn-cap 10
[...]
New contract KT1DieU51jzXLerQx5AqMCiLC1SsCeM8yRat originated.

The client can be used to display the state of the contract, e.g. its storage:

$ mockup-client get contract storage for foo
Unit

The RPC mechanism can also be conveniently used to access the state of the contract in JSON format:

$ mockup-client rpc get /chains/main/blocks/head/context/contracts/KT1DieU51jzXLerQx5AqMCiLC1SsCeM8yRat/storage
{ "prim": "Unit" }

The stateful mockup mode stores state data in a single context.json file, located under the mockup subdirectory of the base directory. In our running example, its absolute file name is /tmp/mockup/mockup/context.json.

Tune mockup parameters

The examples so far have used mockup mode’s default settings. Some use cases need a custom setup, so mockup mode lets us configure some initial parameters.

For simplicity, the mockup mode - like the sandboxed mode - uses default values for the protocol constants. Such values are visible as follows (we recall that mockup-client is an alias for octez-client, see previous section):

$ mockup-client config show
Default value of --bootstrap-accounts:
...
Default value of --protocol-constants:
...

To tune these values, we recommend to first generate the files corresponding to the default values:

$ mockup-client config init
Written default --bootstrap-accounts file: /tmp/mockup/bootstrap-accounts.json
Written default --protocol-constants file: /tmp/mockup/protocol-constants.json

You can now edit the files bootstrap-accounts.json and protocol-constants.json to your liking then create a tuned mockup state.

$ mv /tmp/mockup/{bootstrap-accounts,protocol-constants}.json /tmp/.
$ rm /tmp/mockup -Rf
$ mockup-client --protocol ProtoALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaALphaDdp3zK \
  create mockup \
  --protocol-constants /tmp/protocol-constants.json \
  --bootstrap-accounts /tmp/bootstrap-accounts.json

You can check your custom parameters were taken into account:

$ mockup-client config show
Default value of --bootstrap-accounts:
...
Default value of --protocol-constants:
...

Setting protocol constants for the mockup mode

Let’s look at the contents of the protocol-constants.json file as produced by the --mode mockup config init and --mode mockup config show commands. The following was generated:

 {
      "preserved_cycles": 2,
      "blocks_per_cycle": 8,
      "blocks_per_commitment": 4,
      "nonce_revelation_threshold": 4,
      "blocks_per_stake_snapshot": 4,
      "cycles_per_voting_period": 8,
      "hard_gas_limit_per_operation": "1040000",
      "hard_gas_limit_per_block": "2600000",
      "proof_of_work_threshold": "4611686018427387903",
      "minimal_stake": "6000000000",
      "vdf_difficulty": "50000",
      "origination_size": 257,
      "reward_weights": {
          "base_total_rewards_per_minute": "85007812",
          "baking_reward_fixed_portion_weight": 5120,
          "baking_reward_bonus_weight": 5120,
          "attesting_reward_weight": 10240,
          "liquidity_baking_subsidy_weight": 1280,
          "seed_nonce_revelation_tip_weight": 1,
          "vdf_revelation_tip_weight": 1
      },
      "cost_per_byte": "250",
      "hard_storage_limit_per_operation": "60000",
      "quorum_min": 2000,
      "quorum_max": 7000,
      "min_proposal_quorum": 500,
      "liquidity_baking_toggle_ema_threshold": 1000000000,
      "max_operations_time_to_live": 240,
      "minimal_block_delay": "1",
      "delay_increment_per_round": "1",
      "consensus_committee_size": 256,
      "consensus_threshold": 0,
      "minimal_participation_ratio": {
          "numerator": 2,
          "denominator": 3
      },
      "max_slashing_period": 2,
      "limit_of_delegation_over_baking": 19,
      "percentage_of_frozen_deposits_slashed_per_double_baking": 10,
      "percentage_of_frozen_deposits_slashed_per_double_attestation": 50,
      "cache_script_size": 100000000,
      "cache_stake_distribution_cycles": 8,
      "cache_sampler_state_cycles": 8,
      "dal_parametric": {
          "feature_enable": false,
          "number_of_slots": 16,
          "attestation_lag": 4,
          "attestation_threshold": 50,
          "blocks_per_epoch": 2,
          "redundancy_factor": 8,
          "page_size": 128,
          "slot_size": 32768,
          "number_of_shards": 64
      },
      "smart_rollup_enable": true,
      "smart_rollup_arith_pvm_enable": false,
      "smart_rollup_origination_size": 6314,
      "smart_rollup_challenge_window_in_blocks": 80640,
      "smart_rollup_stake_amount": "10000000000",
      "smart_rollup_commitment_period_in_blocks": 60,
      "smart_rollup_max_lookahead_in_blocks": 172800,
      "smart_rollup_max_active_outbox_levels": 80640,
      "smart_rollup_max_outbox_messages_per_level": 100,
      "smart_rollup_number_of_sections_in_dissection": 32,
      "smart_rollup_timeout_period_in_blocks": 40320,
      "smart_rollup_max_number_of_cemented_commitments": 5,
      "smart_rollup_max_number_of_parallel_games": 32,
      "smart_rollup_reveal_activation_level": {
          "raw_data": { "Blake2B": 0 },
          "metadata": 0,
          "dal_page": 0
      },
      "zk_rollup_enable": false,
      "zk_rollup_origination_size": 4000,
      "zk_rollup_min_pending_to_process": 10,
      "zk_rollup_max_ticket_payload_size": 2048,
      "global_limit_of_staking_over_baking": 5,
      "edge_of_staking_over_delegation": 2,
      "adaptive_issuance_launch_ema_threshold": 1600000000,
      "adaptive_rewards_params": {
          "reward_ratio_min": { "numerator": "1", "denominator": "200" },
          "reward_ratio_max": { "numerator": "1", "denominator": "10" },
          "max_bonus": "50000000000000",
          "growth_rate": "115740740",
          "center_dz": { "numerator": "1", "denominator": "2" },
          "radius_dz": { "numerator": "1", "denominator": "50" }
      },
      "chain_id": "NetXynUjJNZm7wi",
      "initial_timestamp": "1970-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}

Besides usual protocol constants, there are 2 additional fields supported in Mockup mode:

  • chain_id: Used to prevent replay of operations between chains. You can pick a chain id for your mockup environment using the following command:

$ octez-client compute chain id from seed <string>

For instance, the following command:

$ octez-client compute chain id from seed strudel

yields the chain id NetXwWbjfCqBTLV.

  • initial_timestamp: The creation time of the first block of the chain. This date string follows the ISO-8601 standard format, which can be generated by date --iso-8601=seconds.

Baking

Baking in mockup mode is more aptly named fake baking. Indeed, it behaves somewhat differently than baking in the sandbox.

With fake baking, everything happens locally, keeping track on disk of the context and the mempool. In addition, the mockup chain only ever has one live block, its head, so that you cannot have competing chains. In effect, it behaves as if the time-to-live of transactions was 0.

As a result of only having one block, only transactions done on the head can be baked in. Consequently, transactions refused during successful baking will not be in position to be added at any point down the road. Thus, after each successful baking, the mempool is emptied from any outstanding operations, which are appended to a so-called trashpool containing the list of all refused transactions at any point.

Let us make that clearer with an example.

Run a mockup client with asynchronous state

We will start by creating a mockup directory supporting asynchronous transfers, i.e., where transfers do not immediately bake the block.

$ rm /tmp/mockup -Rf # Was created by commands above
$ mockup-client create mockup --asynchronous

This will create a fresh mockup directory. Notice that, in addition to the mockup/context.json file, you now also have a mockup/mempool.json, which is initially empty.

Now, let us add 2 transactions, that we will label respectively t1 and t2, to the mempool.

$ mockup-client transfer 1 from bootstrap1 to bootstrap2 --fee 1
$ mockup-client transfer 2 from bootstrap2 to bootstrap3 --fee 0.5

You can check that it is indeed the case by visiting mockup/mempool.json. This should look like this

[ { "shell_header":
      { "branch": "BLockGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisCCCCCeZiLHU" },
    "protocol_data":
      { "contents":
          [ { "kind": "transaction",
              "source": "tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx",
              "fee": "1000000", "counter": "1", "gas_limit": "10307",
              "storage_limit": "0", "amount": "1000000",
              "destination": "tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN" } ],
        "signature":
          "siggZXnjqYnFMjMxfE1avK2PZdRmRekp5fr56F5uJcuQkfHPL23HNDdtz2iG1QeYtU8DGEniWXjqDh1RxGx6scVgMaK74CrF" } },
  { "shell_header":
      { "branch": "BLockGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisCCCCCeZiLHU" },
    "protocol_data":
      { "contents":
          [ { "kind": "transaction",
              "source": "tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN",
              "fee": "500000", "counter": "1", "gas_limit": "10307",
              "storage_limit": "0", "amount": "2000000",
              "destination": "tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx" } ],
        "signature":
          "sigTBpkXw6tC72L2nJ2r2Jm5iB6uidTWqoMNd4oEawUbGBf5mHVfKawFYL8X8MJECpL73oBnfujyUZNLK2LQWD1FaCkYMP4j" } } ]

Now let’s simulate a selective baker, like so

$ mockup-client bake for bootstrap1 --minimal-fees 0.6

The effect of successfully baking the new head will be to include t1 but discard t2. You can check that t2 has been added to the file mockup/trashpool.json, since we know it cannot be added to further blocks of the mockup chain.

[ { "shell_header":
   { "branch": "BLockGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisCCCCCeZiLHU" },
 "protocol_data":
   { "contents":
       [ { "kind": "transaction",
           "source": "tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN",
           "fee": "500000", "counter": "1", "gas_limit": "10307",
           "storage_limit": "0", "amount": "2000000",
           "destination": "tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx" } ],
     "signature":
       "sigTBpkXw6tC72L2nJ2r2Jm5iB6uidTWqoMNd4oEawUbGBf5mHVfKawFYL8X8MJECpL73oBnfujyUZNLK2LQWD1FaCkYMP4j" } } ]

If we repeat somewhat similar steps

$ mockup-client transfer 1 from bootstrap4 to bootstrap5 --fee 1
$ mockup-client transfer 2 from bootstrap2 to bootstrap3 --fee 0.5

And bake once more selectively

$ mockup-client bake for bootstrap3 --minimal-fees 0.6

Then, once again, the first transaction, with a fee of 1, will make it as part of the new head whereas the second will be appended to the trashpool, which now looks like this

 [ { "shell_header":
    { "branch": "BLockGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisGenesisCCCCCeZiLHU" },
  "protocol_data":
    { "contents":
        [ { "kind": "transaction",
            "source": "tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN",
            "fee": "500000", "counter": "1", "gas_limit": "10307",
            "storage_limit": "0", "amount": "2000000",
            "destination": "tz1KqTpEZ7Yob7QbPE4Hy4Wo8fHG8LhKxZSx" } ],
      "signature":
        "sigTBpkXw6tC72L2nJ2r2Jm5iB6uidTWqoMNd4oEawUbGBf5mHVfKawFYL8X8MJECpL73oBnfujyUZNLK2LQWD1FaCkYMP4j" } },
{ "shell_header":
    { "branch": "BKmdPRhxVBU4RCpHsLtU2FHNXRPCbcquMTpzK5QWvHG9C4TwMCj" },
  "protocol_data":
    { "contents":
        [ { "kind": "transaction",
            "source": "tz1gjaF81ZRRvdzjobyfVNsAeSC6PScjfQwN",
            "fee": "500000", "counter": "1", "gas_limit": "10307",
            "storage_limit": "0", "amount": "2000000",
            "destination": "tz1faswCTDciRzE4oJ9jn2Vm2dvjeyA9fUzU" } ],
      "signature":
        "sigeFcabZTE8Y2LXv19Fe7TbRtkjzVpBy2qhABp263Xnj8TJtA6XpRRMfGeD5YxwCJiTr9r6ZFGBdLnpxL9Y9CG3bpbXmu7E" } } ]

Performing protocol migrations of persistent mockup states

The persistent state of the mockup mode is highly protocol-dependent. But Tezos is self-amending: protocols regularly evolve from one to the next. When a protocol switch happens on-chain, the protocol state is automatically migrated to the format used by the new protocol.

A command is provided to do the same on the persistent mockup state:

$ mockup-client migrate mockup to <protocol hash>

The protocol corresponding to the hash must know how to migrate from the current protocol.

This is mostly useful for protocol developers, but also for other developers, e.g., those wanting to check the robustness of their application with respect to protocol changes, including new features or breaking changes.

See also

This tutorial has also served as a base for a nice blog post, written in a more casual way and intended for a larger audience of application developers. Of course, some aspects may gradually become outdated in the blog version.