Bitbrew is a simple CLI tool to help you create and manage private Bitcoin test networks. It is designed to be easy to use and to provide a simple interface to the Bitcoin Core RPC API. It leverages the regtest mode of Bitcoin Core to create a private network that can be used for testing, development and teaching purposes.

BitBrew uses Docker to create and manage the nodes. Make sure that Docker is installed on your system and added to the path. You can download Docker from here.

Make sure that Node.js is installed on your system. You can download Node.js from here.

Note: Node.js version 18 or higher is recommended.

$ npm install -g bitbrew

Check if the installation was successful by running:

$ bitbrew --version

Windows: Run PowerShell as an administrator.

Linux: Run the following command to run the CLI as a superuser.

sudo su

Then you can find the list of available commands by running:

$ bitbrew --help

______ _ _  ______
| ___ (_) | | ___ \
| |_/ /_| |_| |_/ /_ __ _____      __
| ___ \ | __| ___ \ '__/ _ \ \ /\ / /
| |_/ / | |_| |_/ / | |  __/\ V  V /
\____/|_|\__\____/|_|  \___| \_/\_/


Usage: bitbrew [options] [command]

BitBrew: Craft your own Bitcoin test networks with ease

Options:
  -V, --version                                     output the version number
  -h, --help                                        display help for command

Commands:
  brew [options]                                    Brew your own Bitcoin test network
  connect [options] [source-node] [target-node...]  Connect nodes in the Bitcoin network
  ls                                                List your network nodes
  start [options] [node...]                         Start nodes in the Bitcoin network
  stop [options] [node...]                          Stop your Bitcoin test network
  add <name>                                        Add a new node to your Bitcoin test network
  clean                                             Clean up your Bitcoin test network
  remove <node>                                     Remove nodes from your Bitcoin test network
  exec <node> <command>                             Execute a command
  attach <node>                                     Attach to a running node
  wallet                                            Manage wallets
  send <from> <to> <amount>                         Transfer funds between wallets
  mine <wallet> [number]                            Mine a new block

Start by brewing your network:

$ bitbrew brew

This will create and start two nodes node0 and node1.

You can list the nodes by running:

$ bitbrew ls

┌─────────┬─────────┬───────────┬───────┬──────────┐
│ (index) │  name   │  status   │ port  │ RPC port │
├─────────┼─────────┼───────────┼───────┼──────────┤
│    0    │ 'node0' │ 'running' │ 20443 │  21443   │
│    1    │ 'node1' │ 'running' │ 20444 │  21444   │
└─────────┴─────────┴───────────┴───────┴──────────┘

You can connect the nodes by running:

$ bitbrew connect node0 node1

This will create an outbound connection from node0 to node1.

You can then create a wallet using the following command:

$ bitbrew wallet create alice node0

This will create a wallet named alice associated with node0. We will create another wallet named bob associated with node1.

$ bitbrew wallet create bob node1

You can list all the wallets by running:

$ bitbrew wallet ls

┌─────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
│ (index) │  name   │  node   │
├─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤
│    0    │ 'alice' │ 'node0' │
│    1    │  'bob'  │ 'node1' │
└─────────┴─────────┴─────────┘

You can mine blocks using the following command:

$ bitbrew mine alice 101

This will mine 101 blocks and send the rewards to the alice wallet.

You can send funds from one wallet to another using the following command:

$ bitbrew send alice bob 10

This will send 10 BTC from the alice wallet to the bob wallet.

You can check the balance of a wallet using the following command:

$ bitbrew wallet balance alice

mine:
  trusted:           39.99999859
  untrusted_pending: 0
  immature:          5000
lastprocessedblock:
  hash:   5a730482a236de6f38adbd594af1bf8aa919c720d7ca964367c2fe13ae7c5bee
  height: 101

Congratulations! You have successfully created a Bitcoin test network, connected the nodes, created wallets, mined blocks, and sent funds between wallets.

You can attach to a running node using the following command:

$ bitbrew attach node0

This will allow you to interact with the node's machine directly. You can use the bitcoin-cli command to interact with the node.

Enter exit to exit the node's machine.

Optionally, you can execute a bitcoin-cli command on a node using the following command:

$ bitbrew exec node0 getblockchaininfo

chain:                regtest
blocks:               101
headers:              101
bestblockhash:        5a730482a236de6f38adbd594af1bf8aa919c720d7ca964367c2fe13ae7c5bee
difficulty:           4.656542373906925e-10
time:                 1721195807
mediantime:           1721195806
verificationprogress: 1
initialblockdownload: false
chainwork:            00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000cc
size_on_disk:         30375
pruned:               false
warnings: