Elements Project Tutorial - Docker Setup

This repository contains the Docker configuration to follow the Elements Project Tutorial.

Structure

tutorial/
├── docker-compose.yml          # Container configuration
├── bitcoindir/
│   └── bitcoin.conf           # Bitcoin Core configuration
├── elementsdir1/
│   └── elements.conf          # Elements Node 1 configuration
├── elementsdir2/
│   └── elements.conf          # Elements Node 2 configuration
├── elements-aliases.sh        # Script with functions/aliases
└── README.md                  # This file

Requirements

• Docker
• Docker Compose

Starting the Environment

docker compose up -d

Using the Commands

There are two ways to use the tutorial commands:

Option 1: Using the aliases script (recommended)

Load the aliases script in your terminal:

source elements-aliases.sh

Now you can use the same commands as the tutorial:

# Bitcoin
b-cli getblockcount
b-cli generate 101

# Elements Node 1
e1-cli getblockcount
e1-cli getnewaddress

# Elements Node 2
e2-cli getblockcount
e2-cli getpeerinfo

Option 2: Direct Docker commands

If you prefer not to use aliases:

# Bitcoin
docker exec tutorial_bitcoind bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcuser=user3 -rpcpassword=password3 getblockcount

# Elements Node 1
docker exec tutorial_elementsd1 elements-cli -chain=elementsregtest -rpcuser=user1 -rpcpassword=password1 getblockcount

# Elements Node 2
docker exec tutorial_elementsd2 elements-cli -chain=elementsregtest -rpcuser=user2 -rpcpassword=password2 getblockcount

Available Commands

When you load elements-aliases.sh with source, you get access to these commands:

Tutorial Commands (same interface as the original tutorial)

b-cli <command>     # Execute bitcoin-cli commands
e1-cli <command>    # Execute elements-cli commands on node 1
e2-cli <command>    # Execute elements-cli commands on node 2

Container Management

# Start individual nodes (equivalent to tutorial's *-dae commands)
b-dae               # Start bitcoind
e1-dae              # Start elementsd1
e2-dae              # Start elementsd2

# Stop individual nodes
b-stop              # Stop bitcoind
e1-stop             # Stop elementsd1
e2-stop             # Stop elementsd2

# General management
elements-up         # Start all containers
elements-down       # Stop and remove all containers
elements-status     # View container status

View Logs

# Individual logs (follow mode)
b-logs              # View bitcoind logs
e1-logs             # View elementsd1 logs
e2-logs             # View elementsd2 logs

# All logs
elements-logs       # View all container logs

Network Configuration

Bitcoin Core (regtest)

• RPC: localhost:18888
• P2P: localhost:18889
• User: user3
• Password: password3

Elements Node 1 (elementsregtest)

• RPC: localhost:18884
• P2P: localhost:18886
• User: user1
• Password: password1

Elements Node 2 (elementsregtest)

• RPC: localhost:18885
• P2P: localhost:18887
• User: user2
• Password: password2

Following the Tutorial

Now you can follow the official tutorial at: https://elementsproject.org/elements-code-tutorial/working-environment

All tutorial commands will work the same way, just use the configured aliases!

Stopping the Environment

docker compose down

To also remove volumes (persistent data):

docker compose down -v