# For Agents: Bootstrap Guide

Go from nothing to operational on Verus. This guide assumes you're an AI agent with shell access.

Placeholder convention: Examples use placeholder names you should substitute with your own values.

youragentname — the identity name you want to register

YOUR_R_ADDRESS — an R-address from your wallet (getnewaddress)

alice.yourapp@ — a SubID under your namespace; yourapp is a placeholder for your registered namespace currency

# Overview

Step	Command	Autonomous?
Download CLI	`wget` / `curl`	✅
Install	`tar -xzf`	✅
Start daemon	`verusd -testnet -bootstrap`	✅
Sync chain	Wait	✅ (under 3 hours with bootstrap)
Create address	`getnewaddress`	✅
Get funds	Faucet / human	❌ Requires external help
Register identity	`registeridentity`	✅ (once funded)

The bottleneck: Getting initial VRSC. Everything else is fully automatable.

# Step 1: Download and Install

# Find latest release
DOWNLOAD_URL=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/VerusCoin/VerusCoin/releases/latest \
  | grep "browser_download_url.*Linux.*x86_64" \
  | head -1 | cut -d '"' -f 4)

# Download and extract
mkdir -p ~/verus-cli
wget -q -O /tmp/verus-cli.tgz "$DOWNLOAD_URL"
tar -xzf /tmp/verus-cli.tgz -C ~/verus-cli --strip-components=1

# ZK parameters (~1.7GB) — run fetch-params before first daemon start
# The daemon may auto-download if missing, but official docs recommend running this first
# To pre-download manually (optional):
cd ~/verus-cli && ./fetch-params

Requirements: ~2GB RAM, ~25GB disk (mainnet) or ~10GB (testnet).

# Step 2: Start and Sync

No manual configuration needed. When you first run verusd, it automatically creates the data directory (~/.komodo/vrsctest/ for testnet, ~/.komodo/VRSC/ for mainnet) and generates a config file with random RPC credentials.

# Use -bootstrap for first-time sync (under 3 hours vs ~3 days without it)
~/verus-cli/verusd -testnet -bootstrap

# Poll sync status
while true; do
  BLOCKS=$(~/verus-cli/verus -testnet getinfo 2>/dev/null | grep '"blocks"' | tr -dc '0-9')
  HEADERS=$(~/verus-cli/verus -testnet getinfo 2>/dev/null | grep '"headers"' | tr -dc '0-9')
  echo "Sync: $BLOCKS / $HEADERS"
  [ "$BLOCKS" = "$HEADERS" ] && [ -n "$BLOCKS" ] && echo "SYNCED" && break
  sleep 60
done

Time with -bootstrap: Under 3 hours (testnet or mainnet). Without bootstrap: testnet 2–6 hours, mainnet ~3 days.

# Reading Auto-Generated Credentials

After first launch, read the auto-generated RPC credentials:

# Testnet
cat ~/.komodo/vrsctest/vrsctest.conf | grep -E "rpcuser|rpcpassword|rpcport"

# Save for programmatic access
RPC_USER=$(grep rpcuser ~/.komodo/vrsctest/vrsctest.conf | cut -d= -f2)
RPC_PASS=$(grep rpcpassword ~/.komodo/vrsctest/vrsctest.conf | cut -d= -f2)
RPC_PORT=$(grep rpcport ~/.komodo/vrsctest/vrsctest.conf | cut -d= -f2)

cat > ~/.verus-rpc-credentials << EOF
RPC_URL=http://127.0.0.1:${RPC_PORT:-18843}
RPC_USER=$RPC_USER
RPC_PASS=$RPC_PASS
EOF

💡 Optional: You can add custom settings (like addnode=) to the auto-generated conf file. Just edit it and restart the daemon.

# Step 3: Create Address

~/verus-cli/verus -testnet getnewaddress "agent-wallet"
# Returns: R-address (save this)

# Step 4: Get Funded

This is the step that requires external help:

Method	How
Testnet faucet	Ask in Verus Discord #testnet-faucet
Human sponsor	Have someone send VRSCTEST to your R-address
Mining	`./verus -testnet setgenerate true 1` (slow)

You need ~100 VRSCTEST for identity registration + fees (free test currency from faucet). On mainnet, a root ID costs ~100 VRSC (80 with referral). The 20 VRSC discount goes to the referral chain, not back to the registrant — you always pay 80 minimum. Free IDs are available via Valu, and subIDs/PBaaS chain IDs can cost pennies.

# Step 5: Register Identity

# Commitment (prevents front-running)
~/verus-cli/verus -testnet registernamecommitment "youragentname" "YOUR_R_ADDRESS"
# SAVE THE ENTIRE OUTPUT — you need txid and salt

# Wait for 1 confirmation (~1 minute)
sleep 90

# Register
~/verus-cli/verus -testnet registeridentity '{
  "txid": "COMMITMENT_TXID",
  "namereservation": {
    "version": 1,
    "name": "youragentname",
    "salt": "SALT_FROM_COMMITMENT",
    "parent": "iJhCezBExJHvtyH3fGhNnt2NhU4Ztkf2yq",
    "referral": "",
    "nameid": "NAMEID_FROM_COMMITMENT"
  },
  "identity": {
    "name": "youragentname",
    "primaryaddresses": ["YOUR_R_ADDRESS"],
    "minimumsignatures": 1,
    "revocationauthority": "youragentname.VRSCTEST@",
    "recoveryauthority": "youragentname.VRSCTEST@"
  }
}'

# Verify (after 1 confirmation)
sleep 90
~/verus-cli/verus -testnet getidentity "youragentname.VRSCTEST@"

# Step 6: You're Operational

With a VerusID, you can now:

Store data on-chain → Agent Identity
Send/receive payments → Agent Economy
Encrypt communications → Agent Messaging
Sign and verify messages → CLI Reference

# RPC Access Pattern

For all subsequent operations, use JSON-RPC:

# Generic RPC call pattern
curl -s -u "$RPC_USER:$RPC_PASS" http://127.0.0.1:18843 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"jsonrpc\":\"1.0\",\"id\":\"agent\",\"method\":\"METHOD\",\"params\":[PARAMS]}"

See RPC API Overview for language-specific examples.

# Keeping the Daemon Running

# Option 1: systemd (if you have root)
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/verusd.service << EOF
[Unit]
Description=Verus Daemon
After=network.target

[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=$HOME/verus-cli/verusd -testnet -fastload
ExecStop=$HOME/verus-cli/verus -testnet stop
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
sudo systemctl enable --now verusd

# Option 2: tmux
tmux new -d -s verusd "~/verus-cli/verusd -testnet"

# Option 3: nohup
nohup ~/verus-cli/verusd -testnet &

# Complete Bootstrap Script

#!/bin/bash
set -e

NETWORK="${1:-testnet}"
INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/verus-cli"

echo "=== Verus Agent Bootstrap ($NETWORK) ==="

# Download
URL=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/VerusCoin/VerusCoin/releases/latest \
  | grep "browser_download_url.*Linux.*x86_64" | head -1 | cut -d '"' -f 4)
mkdir -p "$INSTALL_DIR"
wget -q -O /tmp/verus-cli.tgz "$URL"
tar -xzf /tmp/verus-cli.tgz -C "$INSTALL_DIR" --strip-components=1

# ZK params
[ ! -f "$HOME/.zcash-params/sprout-proving.key" ] && cd "$INSTALL_DIR" && ./fetch-params

# Set network args
if [ "$NETWORK" = "testnet" ]; then
  DARGS="-testnet"; CONF_DIR="$HOME/.komodo/vrsctest"; CONF="vrsctest.conf"; PORT=18843
else
  DARGS=""; CONF_DIR="$HOME/.komodo/VRSC"; CONF="VRSC.conf"; PORT=27486
fi

# Start with bootstrap (auto-creates dirs and conf with random RPC credentials)
"$INSTALL_DIR/verusd" $DARGS -bootstrap -daemon
sleep 10

# Read auto-generated credentials
RPC_USER=$(grep rpcuser "$CONF_DIR/$CONF" | cut -d= -f2)
RPC_PASS=$(grep rpcpassword "$CONF_DIR/$CONF" | cut -d= -f2)

# Create address
ADDR=$("$INSTALL_DIR/verus" $DARGS getnewaddress "agent-wallet")
echo "Address: $ADDR"
echo "RPC: http://127.0.0.1:$PORT (user: $RPC_USER)"
echo "⚠️  Send VRSC to $ADDR, then register your identity."

# Error Handling Tips

RPC errors return a non-zero exit code and a JSON error object. Common ones:

Error Code	Message	Likely Cause
-5	`Identity not found`	Name doesn't exist or wrong qualification (`alice@` vs `alice.yourapp@`)
-8	`Invalid identity or identity not in wallet`	Trying to sign/send from an ID you don't control
-6	`Insufficient funds`	Not enough balance for amount + fees
-1	Various	Invalid parameters — check `verus help <command>`

Best practices:

Always check exit codes in scripts: verus -testnet getidentity "name@" || echo "FAILED"
Parse stderr for error details
Use fully qualified names for SubIDs (e.g., alice.yourapp@, not alice@)
After registration, wait for 1 confirmation before querying the new identity

Last updated: 2026-02-07