building from source
This guide walks you through building the qorechaind binary from source, covering both the community (open-core) build and the full proprietary build.
Prerequisites
Go
1.26+
Required for all builds
CGO
Enabled (CGO_ENABLED=1)
Required for PQC and SVM FFI bridges
Rust toolchain
Latest stable
Required to compile libqorepqc and libqoresvm
Make
3.81+
Build automation
Git
2.x
Source checkout
Verify your environment:
go version # go1.26.x or later
rustc --version # stable toolchain
cargo --version
echo $CGO_ENABLED # must be 1Every go build, go test, and go run invocation must have CGO_ENABLED=1 set. The PQC and SVM modules use FFI bridges that require cgo.
Native Libraries
QoreChain depends on two Rust-built native libraries that are loaded at runtime.
libqorepqc (Post-Quantum Cryptography)
The PQC library provides ML-DSA-87 (Dilithium-5) key generation, signing, and verification through a C-compatible FFI interface.
The compiled library is placed in lib/{os}_{arch}/:
macOS arm64
libqorepqc.dylib
lib/darwin_arm64/
Linux amd64
libqorepqc.so
lib/linux_amd64/
Linux arm64
libqorepqc.so
lib/linux_arm64/
libqoresvm (SVM Runtime)
The SVM library provides the BPF program execution environment for the x/svm module.
Output follows the same lib/{os}_{arch}/ convention as above (libqoresvm.dylib on macOS, libqoresvm.so on Linux).
Setting the Library Path
The native libraries must be discoverable at runtime. Set the appropriate environment variable for your platform:
macOS:
Linux:
Tip: Add the export to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc) so it persists across sessions.
Open-Core Architecture
QoreChain follows an open-core model:
Community build -- Contains the full module interfaces, CLI commands, protobuf definitions, and message types for every QoreChain module (x/pqc, x/ai, x/reputation, x/qca, x/svm, x/crossvm, etc.). Keepers for proprietary modules use stub implementations that return safe defaults or no-op responses. This allows third-party tooling, wallets, and indexers to integrate with all QoreChain APIs without requiring proprietary code.
Full (proprietary) build -- Enables the complete keeper implementations behind the
proprietarybuild tag. This includes the real AI anomaly detection logic, reinforcement-learning consensus parameter tuning, advanced reputation scoring, and all production-grade features.
Both builds produce the same qorechaind binary name and expose identical CLI commands and gRPC/REST endpoints. The difference is in the runtime behavior of the keeper logic behind those interfaces.
Community Build
This compiles all public module interfaces with stub keepers for proprietary features. The resulting binary is fully functional for:
Running a validator node
Submitting and querying transactions
Interacting with EVM, CosmWasm, and SVM VMs
Building third-party integrations and tooling
Local development and testing
Full Build (Proprietary)
The -tags proprietary flag activates the full keeper implementations. This build requires access to the qorechain-proprietary repository.
Running Tests
The -count=1 flag disables test caching, ensuring a clean run every time. Individual package tests can be run with:
Run the Rust library tests separately:
Build Verification
After a successful build, verify the binary:
The init command should create a genesis file and node configuration in ~/.qorechaind/ without errors.
Docker Build
For containerized builds, a Dockerfile is provided at the repository root:
The Docker image handles all native library compilation and path configuration automatically. See the Quickstart guide for running a node with Docker Compose.