Run a Data Reporter (testnet)

Operate a Data Reporter!

Prerequisites

• A working node.

• An account for creating a reporter that has either created or delegated to a validator.

1) Configure a Reporter on Tellor

Use the layerd cli register and initialize your reporter configuration. Commission-rate and min-tokens-required are shown at safe values, but can be adjusted (now or later) for personal preference:

# create-reporter [commission-rate] [min-tokens-required] [moniker] [flags]
./layerd tx reporter create-reporter 0.05 1000000 REPORTER_MONIKER --from YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME --chain-id layertest-5 --fees 10loya --yes

Parameters:

• A (example) commission-rate of 0.05 means that you get 5% of rewards from your selectors.

• A (example) min-tokens-required value of 1000000 prevents spam by requiring that selectors have at least 1 TRB in their wallet. This can be changed later.

• Choose a REPORTER_MONIKER that you love! (It does not need to be the same as your validator moniker.)

2) Check if your reporter was created successfully:

./layerd query reporter reporters | grep -A 7 YOUR_TELLOR_ADDRESS

If your reporter was created successfully, this will output your reporter information.

3) Download the latest reporterd binary:

Download reporterd v0.2.5:

Linux

mkdir -p ~/layer/binaries/reporter && cd ~/layer/binaries/reporter && wget https://github.com/tellor-io/layer-daemons/releases/download/v0.2.5/reporterd_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz && tar -xvzf reporterd_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz && rm reporterd_Linux_x86_64.tar.gz

Mac

4) Create .env

reporterd loads environment variables from a .env file in the current working directory (or from ../.env when run from a subdirectory). You can also set these in a systemd service file instead.

Copy env.example from layer-daemons and edit the values for your setup:

cd ~/layer/binaries/reporter
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tellor-io/layer-daemons/refs/heads/main/env.example
cp env.example .env

At minimum, set LAYER_HOME, FROM, KEYRING_BACKEND, RPC_NODES, GRPC_NODES, and your custom query API keys. Most CLI flags can be provided as environment variables by uppercasing the flag name and replacing - with _ (for example, --from becomes FROM). Use LAYER_HOME for the Layer home directory instead of relying on the shell's HOME.

On testnet, point BRIDGE_CHAIN_RPC_NODES at your Sepolia (or other bridge-chain) RPC endpoints. Because the bridge chain is not Ethereum mainnet, also set ETH_MAINNET_RPC_NODES so custom query contract reads use mainnet endpoints.

Note: API keys are not strictly required, but reporters should set them to enable reporting for all tipped feeds and maximize earnings.

See the layer-daemons README and env.example for all available options, including auto-unbonding, price guard, and auto balance-to-keep bridge settings.

5) Start the reporter:

From the directory containing your .env file:

cd ~/layer/binaries/reporter && ./reporterd

If you prefer CLI flags instead of .env, you can still pass them explicitly. Environment variables take precedence over matching flags when both are set:

./reporterd --grpc-addr 127.0.0.1:9090 --from ACCOUNT_NAME --home ~/.layer --keyring-backend test --node tcp://127.0.0.1:26657

Here is an example start command for a reporter who wants to automatically unbond 2.999 TRB (2999999 loya) per day with a maximum set to 1% of their total stake:

./reporterd --auto-unbonding-frequency 1 --auto-unbonding-amount 2999999 --auto-unbonding-max-stake-percentage 0.01

The same auto-unbonding settings can be set in .env:

AUTO_UNBONDING_FREQUENCY=1
AUTO_UNBONDING_AMOUNT=2999999
AUTO_UNBONDING_MAX_STAKE_PERCENTAGE=0.01

You can set up a grafana dashboard using this_guide to monitor things in Tellor such as average gas price for submitting a report, block times, total bonded tokens, etc.

Congratulations on becoming a Tellor Reporter! 🎉