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

For the simplest and most reliable installation:

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

This downloads the latest binary, prompts for Terms of Use acceptance, and starts interactive mode.

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

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

Proving with the CLI is documented here.

To start with an existing node ID, run:

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 app.nexus.xyz.

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

To run the CLI noninteractively, you can also opt to start it in headless mode.

nexus-cli start --headless

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

nexus-cli logout

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

nexus-cli --help

The Nexus CLI features an adaptive difficulty system that automatically adjusts task difficulty based on your node's performance. This ensures optimal resource utilization while preventing system overload.

• Starts at: small difficulty
• Auto-promotes: If tasks complete in < 7 minutes

Lower Difficulty (e.g. Small or SmallMedium):

• Resource-constrained systems
• Background processing alongside other apps
• Testing/development environments
• Battery-powered devices

Higher Difficulty (e.g. Large, ExtraLarge, or ExtraLarge2):

• High-performance hardware (8+ cores, 16+ GB RAM)
• Dedicated proving machines
• Maximum reward optimization

# Lower difficulty for resource-constrained systems
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty small
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty small_medium

# Higher difficulty for powerful hardware
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty medium
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty large
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty extra_large
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty extra_large_2
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty extra_large_3
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty extra_large_4

# Equivalent to extra_large_4 if no extra_large_5 tasks available
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty extra_large_5

# Case-insensitive (all equivalent)
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty MEDIUM
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty medium
nexus-cli start --max-difficulty Medium

Tip: Use nexus-cli start --help to see the full auto-promotion details in the CLI help text.

Tasks taking too long:

Try a lower difficulty.

nexus-cli start --max-difficulty small_medium

Want more challenging tasks:

Request a harder difficulty. It will still take time to build up reputation to get the requested difficulty.

nexus-cli start --max-difficulty extra_large_2

Unsure about system capabilities:

• Use the default adaptive system (no --max-difficulty needed)
• The system will automatically find the optimal difficulty for your hardware
• Only override if you're fine-tuning performance

For containerized deployments:

1. Install Docker and Docker Compose
2. Update the node ID in docker-compose.yaml
3. Build and run:

docker compose build --no-cache
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs  # Check logs
docker compose down  # Shutdown

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

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:

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

• Network FAQ
• Discord Community
• Technical issues? Open an issue
• To submit programs to the network for proving, contact [email protected].

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.

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

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

# Install using Homebrew
brew install protobuf

# Verify installation
protoc --version

Install WSL, then see Linux instructions above.

# Install using Chocolatey
choco install protobuf

Nexus CLI is distributed under the terms of both the MIT License and the Apache License (Version 2.0).