nexus-xyz/nexus-cli

Nexus CLI

A high-performance command-line interface for contributing proofs to the Nexus network.

Nexus Network

Nexus is a global distributed prover network that unites the world’s computers to power a new and better Internet: the Verifiable Internet.

There have been several testnets so far:

• Testnet 0: October 8 – 28, 2024
• Testnet I: December 9 – 13, 2024
• Testnet II: February 18 – 22, 2025
• Devnet: February 22 - June 20 2025
• Testnet III: Ongoing

Quick Start

Installation

Precompiled Binary (Recommended)

For the simplest and most reliable installation:

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curl https://cli.nexus.xyz/ | sh

This will:

1. Download and install the latest precompiled binary for your platform.
2. Prompt you to accept the Terms of Use.
3. Start the CLI in interactive mode.

The exact installation script is viewable here.

Non-Interactive Installation

For automated installations (e.g., in CI):

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curl -sSf https://cli.nexus.xyz/ -o install.sh
chmod +x install.sh
NONINTERACTIVE=1 ./install.sh

Proving

Proving with the CLI is documented here.

To start with an existing node ID, run:

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nexus-cli start --node-id <your-node-id>

Alternatively, you can register your wallet address and create a node ID with the CLI, or at at app.nexus.xyz.

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nexus-cli register-user --wallet-address <your-wallet-address>
nexus-cli register-node
nexus-cli start

The register-user and register-node commands will save your credentials to ~/.nexus/config.json. To clear credentials, run:

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nexus-cli logout

For troubleshooting or to see available command line options, run:

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nexus-cli --help

Terms of Use

Use of the CLI is subject to the Terms of Use. First-time users running interactively will be prompted to accept these terms.

Node ID

During the CLI’s startup, you’ll be asked for your node ID. To skip prompts in a non-interactive environment, manually create a ~/.nexus/config.json in the following format:

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{
   "node_id": "<YOUR NODE ID>"
}

Current Limitations

• To submit programs to the network for proving, contact growth@nexus.xyz.

Get Help

• Network FAQ
• Discord Community
• Technical issues? Open an issue

Contributing

Interested in contributing to the Nexus Network CLI? Check out our Contributor Guide for:

• Development setup instructions
• How to report issues and submit pull requests
• Our code of conduct and community guidelines
• Tips for working with the codebase

For most users, we recommend using the precompiled binaries as described above. The contributor guide is intended for those who want to modify or improve the CLI itself.

🛠 Developer Guide

The following steps may be required in order to setup a development environment for contributing to the project:

Linux

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sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev git-all
sudo apt install protobuf-compiler

macOS

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# Install using Homebrew
brew install protobuf

# Verify installation
protoc --version

Windows

Install WSL, then see Linux instructions above.

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# Install using Chocolatey
choco install protobuf

Building ProtoBuf files

To build the ProtoBuf files, run the following command in the clients/cli directory:

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cargo build --features build_proto

Creating a Release

To create a release, update the package version in Cargo.toml, then create and push a new (annotated) tag, e.g.:

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git tag -a v0.1.2 -m "Release v0.1.2"
git push origin v0.1.2

This will trigger the GitHub Actions release workflow that compiles binaries and pushes the Docker image, in addition to creating release.

WARNING: Creating a release through the GitHub UI creates a new release but does NOT trigger the workflow. This leads to a release without a Docker image or binaries, which breaks the installation script.