Quick start guide
In this section, we show you how to get started with installing the needed libraries and packages in Celestia to help you run a node on Celestia.
Celestia Node
Install celestia-node allows you to get started with running a light node and do data availability sampling.
Light nodes are the best nodes to test out initially if you are new to participating in Celestia.
celestia-node client also allows you to run other types of data availability (DA) nodes like bridge and full DA storage nodes, which will be covered in later sections.
Celestia App
Install celestia-app allows you to get started running a consensus node.
celestia-app is the software that allows you to run validator nodes and also provide RPC endpoints.
celestia-app covers the consensus layer, while celestia-node covers the DA layer.
Getting started
As covered in the previous section, Celestia offers two different test networks, Arabica devnet and Mocha testnet.
If you are planning to run a light node, it is recommended to use Arabica, which you will find options to connecting to in the later sections.
If you plan on running a validator, your only option is to run your node on Mocha.
In this quick start guide, we will go over installing both of the software clients: celestia-node and celestia-app.
NOTE
If you just want to run a light node, you don't need to install celestia-app and can skip that part.
Proceed to the next section in order to get started.