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description Frequently asked questions about the Obol Stack

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is the Obol Stack?

The Obol Stack is a local Kubernetes-based environment for running AI agents alongside blockchain infrastructure. It uses k3d (Kubernetes in Docker) to provide a lightweight cluster where you can deploy a default AI agent (Hermes), Ethereum nodes, Layer 2 networks, payment-gated services, and other applications.

Is the Obol Stack suitable for production?

It is not yet advised. The Obol Stack works on mainnet, as do DV pods, but it would be wise to only use it with less than a threshold amount of validator nodes, or with only as much crypto assets under management that you would be okay with an Obol Agent losing. For production validator deployments, see the Run a DV docs for the latest mainnet guides.

What operating systems are supported?

  • macOS (Darwin) — Intel and Apple Silicon
  • Linux — amd64 and arm64 architectures

Windows is not currently supported. Windows users may be able to use WSL2, but it is not yet tested.

What are the hardware requirements?

Resource Minimum Recommended
CPU 4 cores 8+ cores
RAM 8 GB 16+ GB
Storage 50 GB 500 GB – 2 TB (depends on networks)

{% hint style="info" %} Running multiple networks or full Ethereum mainnet nodes significantly increases resource requirements. {% endhint %}

Installation

The installer fails with "Docker daemon not running"

Ensure Docker is installed and running:

# Check Docker status
docker info

# Start Docker (macOS)
open -a Docker

# Start Docker (Linux)
sudo systemctl start docker

How do I update the Obol Stack?

Re-run the installer:

bash <(curl -s https://stack.obol.org)

The installer will update the CLI binary while preserving your configuration and data. Apply chart updates inside the running cluster with obol upgrade.

How do I uninstall the Obol Stack?

obol stack purge -f
rm -f ~/.local/bin/{obol,kubectl,helm,k3d,helmfile,k9s,obolup.sh}
rm -rf ~/.config/obol ~/.local/share/obol

The installer cannot modify /etc/hosts

Manually add the entry:

echo "127.0.0.1 obol.stack" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts

The Obol Agent

What's the default agent?

Hermes is the default Obol Agent runtime as of v0.9.0. obol stack up provisions a default Hermes instance in the hermes-obol-agent namespace, with its own Ethereum signing wallet and a built-in skill library.

OpenClaw remains supported as an optional alternate runtime — obol agent new --runtime openclaw if you want one.

How do I chat with the agent?

obol hermes chat

That command passes through to the in-cluster Hermes CLI and gives you an interactive chat TUI. Other useful pass-throughs:

obol hermes skills list           # see installed skills
obol hermes config show           # inspect config
obol hermes --help                # full Hermes CLI surface

How do I get my agent to message me on Telegram / Discord / Slack?

obol hermes setup

This walks through Hermes' messaging integrations. Once configured, the agent can ping you when long-running work finishes, when a paid service settles a transaction, or any time it decides it needs your attention.

How do I change the model provider?

obol model setup

Or set up a specific provider:

obol model setup ollama
obol model setup anthropic
obol model setup openai
obol model setup custom --name my-vllm --endpoint http://192.168.1.10:8000/v1 --model qwen36

Custom endpoints work with any OpenAI-compatible server (vLLM, sglang, mlx-lm, etc.).

Where's the agent's Ethereum wallet?

Each agent instance gets a unique Ethereum signing wallet, backed by a remote-signer service. To inspect:

obol agent wallet address          # print the address
obol agent wallet list             # list wallets across all instances

Back it up — losing it means losing the agent's on-chain identity:

obol agent wallet backup -o ~/obol-wallet-backup.json --passphrase "..."

Selling services

What is obol sell demo?

obol sell demo deploys a small HTTP service behind an x402 payment gate and prints copy-paste instructions for paying it. It's the canonical "first paid endpoint" experience on the Obol Stack.

obol sell demo                    # 1 OBOL/req on Ethereum mainnet
obol sell demo blocks             # 0.0001 USDC/req on base-sepolia
obol sell demo quant              # 0.01 USDC/req on base-sepolia

Use it to see the full sell → discover → pay → receive loop end-to-end before you wrap your own services with obol sell http or obol sell inference.

Why pay in $OBOL on mainnet?

Buyers paying in $OBOL on Ethereum mainnet sign an EIP-2612 permit off-chain. The Obol-operated x402 facilitator batches that permit with the transfer at settlement time, so buyers never spend ETH on gas and never need to do a one-time approve. They just sign a message, the seller gets paid in OBOL, the facilitator covers the on-chain cost.

USDC and other tokens settle on the rail their issuer supports (EIP-3009 for USDC).

How do I list my service on a public agent registry?

obol sell register --chain mainnet --name my-service --private-key-file <path>

This publishes the agent's wallet + service catalogue to the ERC-8004 Identity Registry on the chain you specify. Note that this requires ETH on the registering wallet for gas.

obol sell demo deliberately skips registration by default — run obol sell register later when you want on-chain discovery.

Stack operations

The cluster fails to start

Port conflicts:

The Obol Stack uses ports 80, 443, 8080, and 8443. Check for conflicts:

lsof -i :8080
lsof -i :8443

If ports 80/443 are taken (common on macOS where they require root), edit ~/.config/obol/k3d.yaml and remove the 80:80 and 443:443 entries (keep 8080:80 and 8443:443). Access at http://obol.stack:8080 instead.

Previous cluster not cleaned up:

k3d cluster delete --all
obol stack init --force
obol stack up

Can I use my existing kubectl configuration?

The Obol Stack uses an isolated kubeconfig at ~/.config/obol/kubeconfig.yaml. To use it with your standard kubectl:

export KUBECONFIG=~/.config/obol/kubeconfig.yaml
kubectl get nodes

Or use the bundled passthrough: obol kubectl get nodes.

How do I persist data across cluster restarts?

Data is automatically persisted. obol stack down stops the cluster but keeps data in ~/.local/share/obol/. Only obol stack purge -f deletes persistent data.

Networks

How do I know which deployment ID was generated?

The deployment ID is displayed when you run obol network install. You can also list deployments:

ls ~/.config/obol/networks/

Can I run multiple instances of the same network?

Yes. Each deployment gets a unique namespace:

obol network install ethereum --id=mainnet --network=mainnet
obol network install ethereum --id=hoodi --network=hoodi

How long does it take to sync an Ethereum node?

Network Client Approximate Time
Hoodi Reth 2–6 hours
Hoodi Geth 4–12 hours
Mainnet Reth 1–3 days
Mainnet Geth 3–7 days

{% hint style="info" %} Sync times depend on hardware, network connection, and chain state. {% endhint %}

My network deployment is stuck in Pending state

obol kubectl describe pod -n <namespace> <pod-name>
obol kubectl get events -n <namespace>
obol kubectl get pvc -n <namespace>

Common causes: insufficient Docker resources, PVC not bound, image pull errors.

Claude Code plugin

How do I use the Obol skills with Claude Code?

/plugin marketplace add ObolNetwork/skills
/plugin install obol@obol

The run-obol-stack skill teaches Claude how to drive the CLI: bring-up, agent setup, debugging, deploying networks, and walking through obol sell demo. Source: github.com/ObolNetwork/skills.

Troubleshooting

Error: "stack not running, use 'obol stack up' first"

Start the cluster:

obol stack up

Error: "deployment not found" or "multiple deployments found"

If you have a single deployment, obol network sync auto-selects it. With multiple deployments, specify which one:

ls ~/.config/obol/networks/
obol network sync ethereum/correct-id

How do I report a bug?

Report issues on GitHub: https://github.com/ObolNetwork/obol-stack/issues

Include:

  • Obol Stack version (obol version)
  • Operating system and architecture
  • Docker version (docker version)
  • Steps to reproduce
  • Relevant logs (obol kubectl logs -n <ns> <pod>)

Need more help?

Head over to our Discord where a member of our team or the community will be happy to assist you.