Qubic Bob

A high-performance indexer for the Qubic blockchain network. Bob syncs tick data, verifies integrity via logging events, indexes blockchain data, and exposes it through an Ethereum-style JSON-RPC 2.0 API (HTTP & WebSocket) and a REST API.

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Table of Contents

• System Requirements
• Quick Start
  • Option 1: Docker Hub (Recommended)
  • Option 2: Docker from Source
  • Option 3: Build from Source (No Docker)
• Configuration
• Usage
• Useful Resources

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System Requirements

Resource	Minimum
CPU	4 cores (AVX2 support required)
RAM	16 GB
Storage	100 GB fast SSD / NVMe

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Quick Start

Choose the method that best fits your setup. If you just want to get Bob running with minimal effort, Option 1 is the way to go.

Option 1: Docker Hub (Recommended)

The standalone image bundles Bob, Redis, and Kvrocks into a single container -- no extra services needed. If you already run your own KeyDB/Kvrocks instances, you can point Bob to them via the config file (see Configuration).

docker run -d --name qubic-bob \
  -p 21842:21842 \
  -p 40420:40420 \
  -v qubic-bob-redis:/data/redis \
  -v qubic-bob-kvrocks:/data/kvrocks \
  -v qubic-bob-data:/data/bob \
  qubiccore/bob:latest

Check the logs to make sure everything is running:

docker logs -f qubic-bob

Ports exposed:

Port	Purpose
21842	P2P server
40420	REST API & JSON-RPC

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Option 2: Docker from Source

If you want to build the Docker image yourself instead of pulling from Docker Hub:

git clone https://github.com/qubic/core-bob.git
cd qubicbob
docker build -t qubic-bob -f docker/Dockerfile .
docker compose -f docker/examples/docker-compose.yml up -d

Check the logs:

docker logs -f qubic-bob

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Option 3: Build from Source (No Docker)

1. Install system dependencies

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install -y vim net-tools tmux cmake git libjsoncpp-dev \
  build-essential uuid-dev libhiredis-dev zlib1g-dev unzip

2. Install KeyDB

KeyDB is a Redis-compatible database required by Bob. Follow the KeyDB installation guide.

Optionally, install KVRocks for additional disk-based persistence: KVRocks installation guide.

3. Build Bob

git clone https://github.com/qubic/core-bob.git
cd qubicbob
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make bob -j$(nproc)

4. Run

./bob <path-to-config.json>

For example, using the provided default config:

./bob ../default_config_bob.json

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Configuration

An example configuration file, default_config_bob.json, ships with the repository. Below is an annotated reference:

{
  "trusted-node": ["BM:157.180.10.49:21841:0-0-0-0", "BM:65.109.122.174:21841:0-0-0-0"],
  "request-cycle-ms": 100,
  "request-logging-cycle-ms": 30,
  "future-offset": 3,
  "log-level": "info",
  "keydb-url": "tcp://127.0.0.1:6379",
  "run-server": false,
  "server-port": 21842,
  "arbitrator-identity": "AFZPUAIYVPNUYGJRQVLUKOPPVLHAZQTGLYAAUUNBXFTVTAMSBKQBLEIEPCVJ",
  "trusted-entities": ["QCTBOBEPDEZGBBCSOWGBYCAIZESDMEVRGLWVNBZAPBIZYEJFFZSPPIVGSCVL"],
  "tick-storage-mode": "kvrocks",
  "kvrocks-url": "tcp://127.0.0.1:6666",
  "tx-storage-mode": "kvrocks",
  "tx_tick_to_live": 3000,
  "max-thread": 8,
  "spam-qu-threshold": 100
}

Key fields:

Field	Description
trusted-node	Nodes to sync from. Format: BM:IP:PORT:PASSCODE or BM:IP:PORT
request-cycle-ms	Interval (ms) for tick data requests. Too low may overload the node
future-offset	How many ticks ahead to request. Too high may overload the node
keydb-url	Redis / KeyDB connection URL
run-server	Set to true to serve data to other nodes on server-port
tick-storage-mode	"kvrocks", "lastNTick", or "free"
tx-storage-mode	"kvrocks" or "free"
log-level	"debug", "info", "warn", or "error"
max-thread	Max worker threads (0 = auto)
spam-qu-threshold	Minimum QU amount to index a transfer

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Usage

Once Bob is running you can interact with it via the JSON-RPC or REST API:

• JSON-RPC (HTTP): POST http://localhost:40420/qubic
• JSON-RPC (WebSocket): ws://localhost:40420/ws/qubic

Example JSON-RPC call:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:40420/qubic \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"qubic_getTickNumber","params":[],"id":1}'

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Useful Resources

Using Bob

• Ethereum-like JSON-RPC (HTTP/WS)
• REST API Endpoints
• What is a Logging Event in Qubic?
• Mastering the findlog Method
• Dealing with Transactions and Logging
• Improve Stability via Kernel Buffer Size

Inside Bob

• Anatomy of Bob
• How the Indexer Indexes Qubic Data