add-operators

name	add-operators
description	Add new operators to an existing Charon distributed validator cluster
user-invokable	true

Add Operators

Warning: This is an alpha feature and is not yet recommended for production use.

Expand a Charon cluster by adding new operators. This is a coordinated operation involving both existing and new operators.

Prerequisites

Read scripts/edit/add-operators/README.md for full details if needed.

Common prerequisites:

1. .env file exists with NETWORK and VC variables set
2. .charon directory with cluster-lock.json and charon-enr-private-key
3. Docker is running
4. jq installed

Role Selection

Ask the user: "Are you an existing operator in the cluster, or a new operator joining?"

If Existing Operator

Script: scripts/edit/add-operators/existing-operator.sh

Additional prerequisites:

• .charon/cluster-lock.json and .charon/validator_keys/ must exist
• The script will automatically stop the VC container for ASDB export

Arguments to gather:

• --new-operator-enrs: Comma-separated ENRs of the new operators joining
• Whether to use --dry-run first

Run:

./scripts/edit/add-operators/existing-operator.sh \
    --new-operator-enrs "enr:-...,enr:-..." \
    [--dry-run]

Set WORK_DIR env var to override the repository root directory if running from a custom location.

The script will export the anti-slashing database, run the P2P ceremony, update keys, and print commands to start containers manually. After completion, remind the user to wait ~2 epochs before starting containers.

If New Operator

Script: scripts/edit/add-operators/new-operator.sh

This is a two-step process:

Step 1: Generate ENR

Ask if the user needs to generate an ENR (first time setup):

./scripts/edit/add-operators/new-operator.sh --generate-enr

This creates .charon/charon-enr-private-key and displays the ENR. Tell the user to share this ENR with the existing operators. The existing operators, in turn, need to share the cluster-lock.json with the new operators, which contains the current cluster configuration and is required for the P2P ceremony.

Step 2: Join the Ceremony

After the existing operators have the ENR, gather:

• --new-operator-enrs: Comma-separated ENRs of ALL new operators (including their own)
• --cluster-lock: Path to the cluster-lock.json received from existing operators
• Whether to use --dry-run first

./scripts/edit/add-operators/new-operator.sh \
    --new-operator-enrs "enr:-...,enr:-..." \
    --cluster-lock ./received-cluster-lock.json \
    [--dry-run]

Set WORK_DIR env var to override the repository root directory if running from a custom location.

Remind the user that all operators (existing AND new) must participate simultaneously in the P2P ceremony. After completion, the script will print commands to start containers manually. The new operator does NOT have slashing protection history (fresh start).