This guide walks through installing each dependency, building or downloading captaind, and launching an Ark server on signet .
This path runs on signet , Bitcoin’s public test network. If you’d prefer a fully containerized local setup on regtest, see the Docker Compose guide instead. Install dependencies PostgreSQL Docker (recommended)
Package managers
Manual installation
Run PostgreSQL in a Docker container: docker run \ --name my_postgres \ -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres \ -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres \ -e POSTGRES_DB=bark-server-db \ -p 5432:5432 \ -d postgres
macOS
Debian/Ubuntu
Fedora/CentOS/RHEL
brew install postgresql brew services start postgresql
sudo apt update sudo apt install postgresql sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo dnf install postgresql-server sudo postgresql-setup --initdb sudo systemctl start postgresql
Download PostgreSQL from the official download page and follow the platform-specific instructions. Verify PostgreSQL is running:
psql -h localhost -U postgres -c "SELECT version();"
Bitcoin Core Bitcoin Core v30.0+ is strongly recommended. Download from the official download page and follow the installation instructions for your operating system.
For Linux, unpack the archive and add bitcoind and bitcoin-cli to your path.
Verify the installation:
Optional dependencies
Just is a command runner that simplifies running common tasks. macOS
Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora
cargo install --locked just
Verify: jq is a command-line tool for processing JSON data. Package managers
Manual installation
macOS
Debian/Ubuntu
Fedora/CentOS/RHEL
sudo apt update sudo apt install jq
Download the binaries from the GitHub releases page . Verify: Install captaind Currently, only Unix-based systems (Linux, macOS) are supported.
Download binary
Compile from source
Download the latest captaind binary from the releases page . Verify the installation:
Clone the repository
git clone https://gitlab.com/ark-bitcoin/bark cd bark
Install build dependencies
You will need a Rust compiler. Find installation instructions on the rustup website . On Ubuntu/Debian, install the additional build dependencies: sudo apt update sudo apt install build-essential clang cmake pkg-config protobuf-compiler libpq-dev libsodium-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev
Build and install
Build and install to your path: cargo install --locked --path ./server
Or build without installing: cargo build --bin captaind
Start your signet node
Launch a signet Bitcoin node: bitcoind --signet --daemon
If your bitcoin.conf file is empty, this will launch a signet node. By default the node will:
Create a cookie in ~/.bitcoin/signet/.cookie
Listen for RPC connections on port 38332
Verify the node is running: bitcoin-cli -signet \ -rpcconnect=localhost \ -rpcport=38332 \ -rpccookiefile= $HOME /.bitcoin/signet/.cookie \ getblockcount
Create a config file
Create a config.toml file that specifies the configuration of your Ark server: data_dir = "./bark-server" network = "signet" [ rpc ] public_address = "127.0.0.1:3535" admin_address = "127.0.0.1:3536" [ postgres ] host = "localhost" port = 5432 name = "bark-server-db" user = "postgres" password = "postgres" [ bitcoind ] url = "http://127.0.0.1:38332" cookie = "/home/<username>/.bitcoin/signet/.cookie"
Run the Ark server
Once you’ve got the dependencies running and set up your configuration, launch the server: captaind create --config < path-to-your-toml-fil e > captaind start --config < path-to-your-toml-fil e >
Fund the server Retrieve the server’s funding address:
captaind rpc wallet | jq -r '.rounds.address'
Send signet coins to this address using the Second faucet . Once the transaction confirms, verify the funds arrived:
bitcoin-cli -signet getreceivedbyaddress < addres s >
