btclib-node

btclib-node is a full node bitcoin implementation written in Python and based on btclib.

To install, or upgrade:

python -m pip install --upgrade btclib-node

Python 3.14 or newer: pyproject.toml's requires-python says so and says why, and pip refuses the wheel below it rather than installing something that will not import. btclib-node is the command this puts on PATH; btclib-node -h lists its options, spelled and read the way Bitcoin Core's own are, and -help-debug adds the ones Core registers for debugging. Read Security before running the node — the classifier is 3 - Alpha and the JSON-RPC listener is not something to expose.

A checkout of main is a cycle in progress, declaring the month with no day, so it is not the same thing as what pip installs; CONTRIBUTING.md has how to work from one.

Running a node

Running a node is what comes after pip install: the command against each of the four chains, pointing it at a peer of your own, reading its progress, the RPC methods it answers, what it validates and what it does not, and what a mainnet sync has actually been measured to cost.

Architecture

ARCHITECTURE.md is the design: the loop Node runs, the protocol and the RPC surface around it, and the store underneath. ASSURANCE_CASE.md is why the security section below holds.

Security

The JSON-RPC listener takes Bitcoin Core's cookie, -rpcauth and -rpcuser/-rpcpassword credentials, and any caller it accepts may call every method its -rpcwhitelist leaves it — SECURITY.md carries that and the rest of what is known and recorded rather than a vulnerability to report again, and how to report one that is not already there.

Contributing

Development is LLM-based: humans are welcome, as long as they are comfortable with agentic development ;-). A contribution must have been read and understood by the person who submits it. CONTRIBUTING.md has the rules.

CONTRIBUTING.md's last section has the commands, and they are the ones CI runs: uv sync builds the environment, uv run pytest is the suite and its coverage floor, and the lint gate is .pre-commit-config.yaml run as lint.yml runs it. uv is the only tool that has to be installed; it fetches the interpreter and every dependency group itself.

How the organization decides, and who holds which role, is its GOVERNANCE.md; what it intends to do, and what it deliberately does not, is its ROADMAP.md.

REVIEWING.md is what a pull request here is answered against.

Links

• Source: https://github.com/btclib-org/btclib-node
• Releases: https://github.com/btclib-org/btclib-node/releases
• CHANGELOG.md for what changed, and RELEASE_NOTES.md for what a release asks a user to act on. pyproject.toml between releases declares the month a cycle is open on rather than a version anybody can install, and CONTRIBUTING.md's A release path, and what it has published is what that shape is for
• REPOSITORY.md for the settings that live outside the tree

The btclib organization and its projects are actively supported by DGI and CheckSig.