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This guide provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the configuration and monitoring options for op-challenger. The challenger is a critical fault proofs component that monitors dispute games and challenges invalid claims to protect your OP Stack chain. See the op-challenger explainer for a general overview of this fault proofs feature. The challenger is responsible for:
  • Monitoring dispute games created by the fault proof system
  • Challenging invalid claims in dispute games
  • Defending valid state transitions
  • Resolving games when possible
For the complete catalog of flags, environment variables, and defaults, see the challenger configuration reference.
From the Karst upgrade, cannon-kona is the respected fault-proof game type, replacing op-program. Configure op-challenger with the cannon-kona trace type and a kona-client absolute prestate. A challenger still running the cannon / op-program trace type past Karst will not defend your chain.
op-geth has reached end-of-support (2026-05-31) and does not support the now-active Karst hardfork, so op-geth nodes can no longer follow the canonical chain. Migrate to op-reth, the primary supported execution client. See the op-geth deprecation notice for the full migration plan.

Prerequisites

Essential requirements

Before configuring your challenger, complete the following steps:
1

Deploy OP Stack chain with fault proofs enabled

  • L1 contracts deployed with dispute game factory
  • Fault proof system active on your chain
  • Access to your chain’s contract addresses
  • Generate an absolute prestate for your network version - This is critical as the challenger will refuse to interact with games if it doesn’t have the matching prestate
2

Set up required infrastructure access

  • L1 RPC endpoint (Ethereum, Sepolia, etc.)
  • L1 Beacon node endpoint (for blob access)
  • L2 archive node with debug API enabled
  • Rollup node (op-node) with historical data
3

Prepare configuration files

  • rollup.json - Rollup configuration file
  • genesis-l2.json - L2 genesis file
  • prestate.json - The absolute prestate file generated in step 1

Software requirements

  • Git (for cloning repositories)
  • Go 1.21+ (if building from source)
  • Docker and Docker Compose (optional but recommended)
  • Access to a funded Ethereum account for challenger operations

Finding the current stable releases

To ensure you’re using the latest compatible versions of OP Stack components, always check the official releases page: OP Stack releases page This guide is verified against the following versions:
  • op-challengerop-challenger/v1.9.4 (look for the latest op-challenger/v*).
  • op-rethv2.2.5 (look for the latest op-reth release). op-reth is both the sequencer’s execution client and the archive node the challenger reads withdrawal proofs from.
  • kona-client — the absolute prestate is built from a tagged kona-client/v* release (e.g. kona-client/v1.6.0-rc.1). Use the tag matching the prestate registered on your chain; for governance-approved upgrades the version is named in the upgrade notice. See the kona-client prestate tutorial.
Always check the release notes to ensure you’re using compatible versions with your chain’s deployment. Using the op-challenger and kona-client versions named in the upgrade notice (or the latest matching releases) is the supported path.

Software installation

For challenger deployment, you can either build from source (recommended for better control and debugging) or use Docker for a containerized setup.

Build and configure

Building from source gives you full control over the binaries and is the preferred approach for production deployments.Clone and build op-challenger
Build kona-hostThe challenger also needs kona-host, the pre-image oracle server for the cannon-kona game type. Build it from the kona-client release tag matching the absolute prestate registered on your chain (see Finding the current stable releases), so the server matches the kona-client build committed on chain:

Verify installation

Check that you have properly installed the challenger component:

Configuration setup

1

Organize your workspace

After building the binaries, create your challenger working directory:
2

Copy configuration files

3

Set up environment variables

You’ll need to gather several pieces of information before creating your configuration. Here’s where to get each value:L1 network access:
  • L1 RPC URL: Your L1 node endpoint (Infura, Alchemy, or self-hosted)
  • L1 Beacon URL: Beacon chain API endpoint for blob access
L2 network access:
  • L2 RPC URL: Your op-reth archive node endpoint
  • Rollup RPC URL: Your op-node endpoint with historical data
Challenger wallet:
  • Private key for challenger operations (must be funded)
Network configuration:
  • Game factory address from your contract deployment
  • Network identifier (e.g., op-sepolia, op-mainnet, or custom)
Copy and paste in your terminal, to create your env file.
Important: Replace ALL placeholder values (YOUR_ACTUAL_*) with your real configuration values.
4

Understanding key configuration flags

  • This is the HTTP provider URL for a standard L1 node, can be a full node. op-challenger will be sending many requests, so chain operators need a node that is trusted and can easily handle many transactions.
  • Note: Challenger has a lot of money, and it will spend it if it needs to interact with games. That might risk not defending games or challenging games correctly, so chain operators should really trust the nodes being pointed at Challenger.
  • This is needed just to get blobs from.
  • In some instances, chain operators might need a blob archiver or L1 consensus node configured not to prune blobs:
    • If the chain is proposing regularly, a blob archiver isn’t needed. There’s only a small window in the blob retention period that games can be played.
    • If the chain doesn’t post a valid output root in 18 days, then a blob archiver running a challenge game is needed. If the actor gets pushed to the bottom of the game, it could lose if it’s the only one protecting the chain.
  • This needs to be an op-reth archive node, with debug enabled.
  • Technically doesn’t need to go to bedrock, but needs to have access to the start of any game that is still in progress.
  • The withdrawal-proof data the challenger reads via eth_getProof is served by op-reth’s historical-proofs store. Enable it with --proofs-history --proofs-history.storage-version v2, set a persistent --proofs-history.storage-path, and size --proofs-history.window to cover the dispute game window (≥ 28 days). On permissioned chains, --rpc.eth-proof-window bounds how far back eth_getProof will serve. See Running op-reth with historical proofs.
  • Seed the proofs storage once before starting the node with --proofs-history, or op-reth refuses to start (the proofs-history ExEx panics with Proofs storage not initialized). With the node stopped, run op-reth proofs init --chain <chain-or-genesis> --datadir <reth-datadir> --proofs-history.storage-path <proofs-db-path> --proofs-history.storage-version v2. It snapshots the chain’s current state to seed the sidecar; the ExEx then indexes forward as the node syncs. Initialize at (or near) genesis so the whole fault-proof window is covered — a node seeded at the current tip only serves proofs for blocks after that point.
  • This needs to be an op-node archive node because challenger needs access to output roots from back when the games start. See below for important configuration details:
  1. Safe Head Database (SafeDB) Configuration for op-node:
    • The op-node behind the op-conductor must have the SafeDB enabled to ensure it is not stateless.
    • To enable SafeDB, set the --safedb.path value in your configuration. This specifies the file path used to persist safe head update data.
    • Example Configuration:
      If this path is not set, the SafeDB feature will be disabled.
    Never restore the SafeDB from a snapshot. The SafeDB records the safe head as derived from L1, and a snapshot may not reflect the actual on-chain derivation state. If the SafeDB is out of sync with L1, op-challenger will act on an incorrect safe head and may incorrectly attack valid outputs. op-challenger cannot detect this condition — the data it receives appears normal. If you suspect the SafeDB was restored from a snapshot or is otherwise corrupted, delete it and resync from a snapshot that is at least 30 days old — op-node does not backfill the SafeDB, so it will only populate it going forward from that point. A 30-day-old snapshot provides enough history to cover the 28-day dispute game window.
  2. Ensuring Historical Data Availability:
    • Both op-node and op-reth must have data from the start of the games to maintain network consistency and allow nodes to reference historical state and transactions.
    • For op-node: Configure it to maintain a sufficient history of blockchain data locally or use an archive node.
    • For op-reth: Similarly, configure to store or access historical data.
    • Example Configuration:
    Replace <op-node-archive-node-url> with the URL of your archive node and <path-to-safe-head-db> with the desired path for storing SafeDB data.
  • Chain operators must specify a private key or use something else (like op-signer).
  • This uses the same transaction manager arguments as op-node , batcher, and proposer, so chain operators can choose one of the following options:
    • a mnemonic
    • a private key
    • op-signer endpoints
  • This identifies the L2 network op-challenger is running for, e.g., op-sepolia or op-mainnet.
  • When using the --network flag, the --game-factory-address will be automatically pulled from the superchain-registry.
  • When the trace is generated, challenger needs the rollup config and the L2 genesis file. Both files are automatically loaded when a registry --network is used, but custom networks must specify both the L2 genesis and rollup config.
  • For custom networks not in the superchain-registry, the --game-factory-address and rollup must be specified, as follows:
These options vary based on which --network is specified. Chain operators always need to specify a way to load prestates and must also specify the --cannon-kona-server whenever the docker image isn’t being used.
  • This is a directory that op-challenger can write to and store whatever data it needs. It will manage this directory to add or remove data as needed under that directory.
  • If running in docker, it should point to a docker volume or mount point, so the data isn’t lost on every restart. The data can be recreated if needed but particularly if challenger has executed cannon as part of responding to a game it may mean a lot of extra processing.
The prestate is effectively the version of kona-client that is deployed on chain (run inside the Cannon VM as the cannon-kona game type). And chain operators must use the right version. op-challenger will refuse to interact with games that have a different absolute prestate hash to avoid making invalid claims. If deploying your own contracts, chain operators must specify an absolute prestate hash taken from the just reproducible-prestate-kona command during contract deployment, which will also build the required prestate file.All governance approved releases use a tagged version of kona-client. These can be rebuilt by checking out the version tag and running just reproducible-prestate-kona.
  • There are two ways to specify the prestate to use:
    • --cannon-kona-prestate: specifies a path to a single kona-client absolute-prestate file
    • --cannon-kona-prestates-url: specifies a URL to load prestates from. This enables participating in games that use different prestates, for example due to a network upgrade. The prestates are stored in this directory named by their hash.
  • Example final URL for a prestate:
Challenger will refuse to interact with any games if it doesn’t have the matching prestate. Check this guide on how to generate a absolute prestate.

Create challenger startup script

Create scripts/start-challenger.sh:

Initializing and starting the challenger

Start the challenger

Verify challenger is running

Monitor challenger logs to ensure it’s operating correctly:
The challenger should show logs indicating:
  • Successful connection to L1 and L2 nodes
  • Loading of prestates and configuration
  • Monitoring of dispute games

Monitoring with op-dispute-mon

Consider running op-dispute-mon for enhanced security monitoring:
  • Provides visibility into all game statuses for the last 28 days
  • Essential for production challenger deployments

Next steps