Manthan Testnet (Phase 4)

Phase-4 testnet per the platform tracker. Three Manthan nodes (genesis-alpha, genesis-beta, genesis-gamma) running locally with filled-in Charter / LOTS / privacy-policy / observability / incident runbook. Localhost is the dev stage; AWS is the production target.

What's here

Path	Contents
`nodes/genesis-{alpha,beta,gamma}/charter.md`	Filled-in operator Charter per R-203 (T-335)
`nodes/genesis-{alpha,beta,gamma}/lots.md`	Filled-in Log Operator Transparency Statement per T-106 (T-335)
`nodes/genesis-{alpha,beta,gamma}/privacy-policy.md`	Filled-in privacy policy per G-011
`nodes/genesis-{alpha,beta,gamma}/data/`	Runtime: operator key, SQLite ledger (created at first run)
`deploy/bootstrap-seed-list.json`	Signed seed list per T-337 / G-006 §3.1
`deploy/gen-certs.sh`	Self-signed TLS cert generation (T-336; local-service only)
`observability/alerts.yaml`	Prometheus alert rules per G-012
`observability/dashboard.md`	Grafana dashboard panels per G-012
`incident-response/runbook.md`	Operational runbook per T-338
`src/bootstrap-issuer.ts`	Generates the signed seed list (re-runnable)
`src/testnet-node.ts`	Spins up all 3 nodes + gossip ring + HTTP/MWP endpoints

Run the testnet (local-service)

cd services/testnet
npm install
npm run bootstrap     # Generate signed seed list (run once)
npm run certs         # Generate self-signed TLS certs (local-service wss:// only)
npm start             # Spin up the 3-node testnet

You'll see:

[testnet] loaded bootstrap seed list (3 seeds, signed by sigil:gng3urrvyq3i…)
[testnet] starting 3 nodes…
[genesis-alpha] sigil=sigil:omff5x… local-service/ ws://local-service/
[genesis-beta]  sigil=sigil:wkf2vm… local-service/ ws://local-service/
[genesis-gamma] sigil=sigil:esyduy… local-service/ ws://local-service/
[testnet] wiring gossip ring…
[testnet] genesis ceremony: alpha originates first network envelope…
[testnet] genesis envelope id=…
[testnet] ledger state after 
[genesis-alpha] seen=0 verified=1
[genesis-beta] seen=0 verified=1
[genesis-gamma] seen=0 verified=1

The genesis envelope propagates through the ring and is verified by all three nodes, exercising the full stack: signed Charter at startup, MWP handshake, ENVELOPE_GOSSIP, dedupe, ledger persistence, verify-on-receive.

By default the testnet auto-stops after 30s. To keep it running:

MANTHAN_RUN_FOREVER=1 npm start

If the default local-service ports are already in use, override the bases:

MANTHAN_HTTP_BASE_PORT=10120 MANTHAN_MWP_BASE_PORT=10220 npm start

Inspect the running testnet

# Health and readiness
curl local-service/healthz
curl local-service/readyz

# Operator transparency documents (signed at startup)
curl local-service/charter | jq .          # signed Charter
curl local-service/lots                    # LOTS markdown
curl local-service/privacy-policy          # privacy policy

# Operational
curl local-service/sth                     # latest tree head
curl local-service/canary                  # warrant canary
curl local-service/incidents               # incident registry
curl local-service/metrics                 # Prometheus metrics (G-012)

What this proves

Phase 4 deliverables, per the tracker:

Tracker item	Where it lives
P-006: Deploy initial "Network Genesis" with 3 nodes	`src/testnet-node.ts` runs them; genesis envelope ceremony fires on startup
G-011: Metadata and Privacy Policy	`nodes/*/privacy-policy.md`
G-012: Operations and Observability	`observability/alerts.yaml` + `observability/dashboard.md` + `/metrics` endpoint per node
T-335: Filled-in Charter and LOTS	`nodes//charter.md` and `nodes/``/lots.md`
T-336: TLS deployment plumbing	`deploy/gen-certs.sh` generates self-signed certs; AWS production still needs ALB/ACM termination wiring
T-337: Persistent discovery / bootstrap	`deploy/bootstrap-seed-list.json` (signed by bootstrap authority)
T-338: Rollback and incident-response	`incident-response/runbook.md` (12 procedures)

AWS deployment plan

This testnet is the dev stage. Mapping each component to AWS:

Local component	AWS production equivalent
3 local-service ports	3 ECS tasks (or EC2 instances), each in a different AZ (start) → eventually different AWS regions
`data/operator.key.json` (mode 0600)	AWS Secrets Manager + KMS envelope encryption; IAM-attached role
`data/ledger.sqlite`	EFS-mounted volume; hourly snapshots → S3
local `ws://local-service` MWP	public `wss://` at ALB/ACM → private `ws://` to ECS task
local `local-service` API	public `https://` at ALB/ACM → private HTTP to ECS task
`bootstrap-seed-list.json`	Versioned S3 bucket (public-read); URL pinned in node software
Self-signed certs	ACM auto-renewing certs
`/metrics` endpoint	Scraped by Prometheus running in EKS or ECS Fargate
Alertmanager rules	Forwarded to PagerDuty (SEV-1/2) and Slack (SEV-3)
Runbook URL	S3 + CloudFront (public-read), linked from PagerDuty alerts
Hourly backup	EFS snapshot → S3 cross-region

To deploy on AWS:

1. Build a Docker image: docker build -t manthan-testnet-node:0.2.0 . (Dockerfile TBD; uses node:24-alpine base, copies lib/ and services/, runs node --experimental-strip-types services/testnet/src/testnet-node.ts).
2. Push to ECR.
3. Apply Terraform/CDK for the ECS service definitions, ALB, EFS, KMS, Secrets Manager, ACM cert, S3 buckets.
4. Per-node Charter and LOTS get committed to S3 (versioned), mounted into the ECS task at /etc/manthan/.
5. Bootstrap seed list signed once (offline) by a real bootstrap authority key (HSM-backed); committed to S3.
6. Replace <TBD> markers in Charter §1, §5, §9 with real values.
7. Operator runs the incident-response/runbook.md procedures; verify each before declaring production-ready.

Some deployment adaptation is still required. The next phase supplies the Dockerfile, ECS/ALB/EFS/KMS/Secrets Manager/ACM/S3 IaC, real legal/operator values, and production bootstrap signing.

What the testnet is NOT

Not a real production network. It's all on local-service, single operator, single jurisdiction, no real TLS. It's the dev stage that lets us validate the deployment design before burning AWS credit.
Not a permanent network. The local-service testnet exits after 30 seconds (or stays alive with MANTHAN_RUN_FOREVER=1). Production AWS deployment runs continuously.
Not jurisdictionally diverse. Per Charter §8 (each node), all three are on the same machine. Production MUST diversify across AWS regions.

These deficiencies are catalogued explicitly — that's the point of the testnet exemplar Charter/LOTS. Production deployments inherit these documents and replace the testnet-specific markers.

Cumulative project status

After Phase 4:

Reference libraries: cbor-det, herald-core-ts, herald-ct-log, herald-core-py, manthan-ledger, manthan-mwp, manthan-agent-ts
Reference services: reference-herald, the-scribe, testnet
Demos: mvp-workflow, manthan-runtime, manthan-gossip, conduit, audit-log, cli
39 verified Phase 2/3/3.5 tests, plus local-service testnet smoke verification
13 Phase-0 gate specs
4 canonical protocol documents (SPEC, EXT, CHARTER, THREATS)
Filled-in Charter / LOTS / privacy-policy templates
Bootstrap seed list (signed)
Self-signed cert generation for local TLS
Prometheus alert rules + dashboard panels
Incident-response runbook with 12 procedures

The HERALD v0.2 protocol stack is feature-complete at local-service/testnet-dev level. Phase 5 is deployment engineering: containerization, IaC, real wss:///https://, real operator values, real alert routing, backups, and runbook drills.

Manthan Testnet (Phase 4)