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 script validation costs on mainnet.

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.