docs: August 2026 w33 — document the embedded HTTPS and IPC transports

[bloxster]

Why

#23108 registered nine RPC transport flags for the erigon binary — --http.url, --https.enabled/.cert/.key/.addr/.port/.url, and --socket.enabled/.url — by wiring them into the embedded RPC config in node/cli/flags.go. node/eth/backend.go:1220 then hands that config to the same rpcdaemoncli.StartRpcServer the standalone daemon calls, so they take effect in the node itself, not just in rpcdaemon.

None of the nine were in the CLI reference. They appeared only inside the rpcdaemon --help paste-through in modules/rpc-daemon.md — which is exactly why a substring-based coverage sweep reported this branch as fully documented while thirteen flags had arrived since the last run.

What this fixes

New flags documented in the CLI reference, with defaults and behaviour read from the implementation.

default-ports.md had no HTTPS listener. --https.port defaults to 0, which cmd/rpcdaemon/cli/config.go:842 resolves to --http.port + 363 — so an enabled HTTPS server binds 8908 on a default configuration. Now in the table and the port-flag list.

A stale claim removed. interacting-with-erigon said "IPC is only available through the separate rpcdaemon process, not the main erigon binary". That is now false for the socket server. The geth-style --ipcpath endpoint is still force-disabled (nodeConfig.IPCPath = "", cmd/erigon/node/node.go), so both statements now appear with their own scope rather than one contradicting the other.

Version label: v3.7, not v3.6

These flags are marked (New in v3.7). release/3.6 was cut on 2026-07-21 and #23108 landed on 2026-08-09, so the flags are absent from release/3.6 source entirely, and main declares 3.7.0-dev in db/version/app.go. The four pre-existing (New in v3.6) labels on the same page are correct and untouched.

Behaviours taken from the code, not the Usage strings

Two adversarial review passes (GPT-5.5 and Fable) surfaced the last two of these:

• A non-empty --https.url self-enables HTTPS. config.go:838 sets HttpsServerEnabled = true when HttpsURL != "" — no need for --https.enabled.
• A missing cert fails silently. ServeTLS runs in a goroutine whose error only reaches log.Warn("Failed to serve https endpoint") (node/endpoints.go:87). The listener binds and the node runs, so --https.enabled without a readable cert looks healthy and serves no TLS.
• --http=false is a master switch. StartRpcServer returns immediately unless cfg.Enabled, which comes from --http — so --http=false --https.enabled yields no listener at all. A TLS-only node needs --http.enabled=false instead. Added as a :::warning, since the natural reading of the new flags invites exactly this mistake.
• A path on a tcp:// URL is a startup failure, not a route prefix. node/endpoints.go:63 concatenates Host + EscapedPath() into the listen address, so tcp://0.0.0.0:8545/rpc is an invalid address. Only unix:// URLs take a path, where it is the socket path. An earlier draft of this PR described it as a harmlessly-ignored prefix — that wording was wrong and is gone.

Also corrected here

Five pre-existing entries that the review challenged and the source confirmed wrong — identical on all three live branches, so they are fixed on each rather than left to diverge:

• --miner.gaslimit ignores an explicit 0 and falls back to the chain config's default block gas limit (60_000_000 where none is set)
• --experimental.always-generate-changesets derives its default from BATCH_COMMITMENTS
• --allow-insecure-unlock is read nowhere in the tree — it is inert, not a security control
• --dev-validator-seed does not itself enable dev mode; --chain dev does
• --dev.slot-time silently clamps below 2 rather than rejecting

Plus the dead beaconstate.info checkpoint-sync endpoint (no A, AAAA or CNAME record), replaced with mainnet.checkpoint.sigp.io — the endpoint the Lighthouse example on the same page already used.

Testing

• cd docs/site && npm ci && npm run build ✅
• python3 docs/site/scripts/generate-llms.py --check ✅ (artifacts regenerated and committed)
• Every claim traced to origin/main source; no default taken from a Usage string

Part of the w33 weekly docs routine. Sibling PRs cover release/3.5 and release/3.6.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates Erigon documentation to cover newly exposed embedded RPC transports (HTTPS and socket/IPC) and to correct several previously inaccurate CLI flag descriptions and defaults, aligning the docs with the actual implementation used by the embedded RPC server and standalone rpcdaemon.

Changes:

• Document --http.url, HTTPS (--https.*) and socket (--socket.*) transport flags (with defaults and behavioral caveats) in the CLI reference and “Interacting with Erigon”.
• Add the implied default HTTPS port (--http.port + 363, i.e. 8908) to the default ports + port-related options list.
• Refresh external-CL checkpoint sync URLs and fix several pre-existing CLI flag descriptions (e.g. --allow-insecure-unlock, --miner.gaslimit, --dev.slot-time, --experimental.always-generate-changesets, --etl.bufferSize).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 6 out of 6 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
llms-full.txt	Regenerated LLM-facing docs snapshot reflecting new RPC transport docs + corrected flag behavior/defaults.
docs/site/static/llms-full.txt	Same regenerated LLM-facing snapshot under the site static path.
docs/site/docs/interacting-with-erigon/index.md	Adds embedded HTTPS and socket/IPC guidance for the erigon binary; updates IPC section to reflect v3.7 behavior.
docs/site/docs/get-started/easy-nodes/how-to-run-an-ethereum-node/ethereum-with-an-external-cl.mdx	Updates checkpoint-sync URL examples to mainnet.checkpoint.sigp.io.
docs/site/docs/fundamentals/default-ports.md	Adds HTTPS default port (8908 when enabled) and related port/url flags.
docs/site/docs/fundamentals/configuring-erigon.mdx	Extends CLI reference with --http.url and new HTTPS/socket transport flags plus behavioral warnings.

Suppressed comments (3)

docs/site/docs/fundamentals/configuring-erigon.mdx:274

• --socket.enabled is described as serving JSON-RPC over a local socket, but the very next bullet says --socket.url supports tcp:// too. Consider wording it as a socket transport (unix or tcp) to match the implementation.

* `--socket.enabled`: Enables an IPC server that serves JSON-RPC over a local socket.

llms-full.txt:2307

• --socket.enabled is described as serving JSON-RPC over a local socket, but --socket.url supports tcp:// too. Update the wording to avoid implying Unix-only.

* `--socket.enabled`: Enables an IPC server that serves JSON-RPC over a local socket.

docs/site/static/llms-full.txt:2307

• --socket.enabled is described as serving JSON-RPC over a local socket, but --socket.url supports tcp:// too. Update the wording to avoid implying Unix-only.

* `--socket.enabled`: Enables an IPC server that serves JSON-RPC over a local socket.

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