Integration Guide

Integrate ev-abci into a Cosmos SDK application.

Overview

ev-abci replaces CometBFT as the consensus layer. Your ABCI application logic remains unchanged—only the node startup code changes.

Prerequisites

• Cosmos SDK v0.50+ application
• Go 1.22+

Step 1: Add Dependency

go get github.com/evstack/ev-abci@latest

Step 2: Modify Start Command

Locate your app's entrypoint (typically cmd/<appd>/root.go or main.go).

Before (CometBFT)

import (
    "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/server"
)

// In your root command setup:
server.AddCommands(rootCmd, app.DefaultNodeHome, newApp, appExport)

After (ev-abci)

import (
    "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/server"
    evabci "github.com/evstack/ev-abci/server"
)

// Keep existing commands for init, genesis, keys, etc.
server.AddCommands(rootCmd, app.DefaultNodeHome, newApp, appExport)

// Replace the start command
startCmd := &cobra.Command{
    Use:   "start",
    Short: "Run the node",
    RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, _ []string) error {
        return evabci.StartHandler(cmd, newApp)
    },
}
evabci.AddFlags(startCmd)
rootCmd.AddCommand(startCmd)

Step 3: Build

go build -o appd ./cmd/appd

Step 4: Verify

Check for ev-abci flags:

./appd start --help

Expected flags:

--evnode.node.aggregator     Run as block producer
--evnode.da.address          DA layer address
--evnode.signer.passphrase   Signer passphrase
--evnode.node.block_time     Block production interval

Step 5: Initialize

Standard Cosmos SDK initialization:

./appd init mynode --chain-id mychain-1
./appd keys add mykey --keyring-backend test
./appd genesis add-genesis-account mykey 1000000000stake --keyring-backend test
./appd genesis gentx mykey 1000000stake --chain-id mychain-1 --keyring-backend test
./appd genesis collect-gentxs

Step 6: Start

./appd start \
  --evnode.node.aggregator \
  --evnode.da.address http://localhost:7980 \
  --evnode.signer.passphrase secret

Configuration

ev-node Flags

Flag	Description	Default
--evnode.node.aggregator	Run as sequencer	false
--evnode.node.block_time	Block interval	1s
--evnode.da.address	DA layer URL	required
--evnode.signer.passphrase	Signer passphrase	required
--evnode.p2p.peers	P2P peer addresses	none

Full Node (Non-Sequencer)

./appd start \
  --evnode.da.address http://localhost:7980 \
  --evnode.p2p.peers <SEQUENCER_P2P_ID>@<HOST>:26659

RPC Compatibility

ev-abci provides CometBFT-compatible RPC endpoints. Existing clients work without modification.

See RPC Compatibility for details.

Next Steps

• Migration from CometBFT — Migrate existing chain
• RPC Compatibility — Endpoint compatibility