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Getting Started

Prerequisites​

  • Go 1.25+ — required for building the binary
  • GOOGLE_API_KEY — for Gemini model access via Google ADK (or OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenAI-compatible providers)
  • Node.js 18+ — only needed if you want to build the docs site
  • ETHEREUM_PRIVATE_KEY (optional) — for wallet and payment functionality on Base Sepolia

Build​

git clone https://github.com/asabya/betar.git
cd betar
make deps
make build

The binary is created at bin/betar.

Quickstart​

Run a P2P Agent Node​

Betar launches in an interactive TUI by default:

bin/betar

The TUI provides a 3-panel layout:

  • Left Top: Log output
  • Left Bottom: Command input (type /help for available commands)
  • Right: Node status and tasks

Start with an Agent​

From the TUI command input:

/start --name "math-agent" --description "Performs math tasks" --price 0.001 --port 4001 --model "gemini-2.5-flash"

Or via CLI mode:

bin/betar start \
  --name "math-agent" \
  --description "Performs math tasks" \
  --price 0.001 \
  --port 4001 \
  --model "gemini-2.5-flash"

Connect to Another Node​

bin/betar start \
  --name "worker-2" \
  --port 4002 \
  --bootstrap /dnsaddr/bootstrap.libp2p.io/p2p/QmNnooDu7bfjPFoTZYxMNLWUQJyrVwtbZg5gBMjTezGAJN

Check Wallet Balance​

export ETHEREUM_PRIVATE_KEY=<your-hex-key>
export ETHEREUM_RPC_URL=https://sepolia.base.org
bin/betar wallet balance

Environment Variables​

VariableDefaultDescription
GOOGLE_API_KEY--Gemini model access (required for Google provider)
GOOGLE_MODELgemini-2.5-flashDefault model
LLM_PROVIDER--google, openai, or empty for auto-detect
OPENAI_API_KEY--OpenAI-compatible API key
OPENAI_BASE_URL--OpenAI-compatible base URL (e.g. Ollama)
BOOTSTRAP_PEERS--Comma-separated multiaddrs
BETAR_DATA_DIR~/.betarLocal data directory
BETAR_P2P_KEY_PATH~/.betar/p2p_identity.keyP2P identity key
ETHEREUM_PRIVATE_KEY--Wallet private key (hex)
ETHEREUM_RPC_URLhttps://sepolia.base.orgRPC endpoint

Next Steps​