Skip to main content

​
Introduction

The Cosmos SDK requires Go and a built binary to run a blockchain node. This tutorial walks through installing Go, building the simd binary, and configuring your environment to run a Cosmos SDK node.

​
Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes you have the following installed:
  • A terminal application
  • A code editor
  • Basic familiarity with command-line operations

​
1. Install Go

The Cosmos SDK requires Go version 1.25 or higher. Download the installer from the official Go downloads page and follow the installation instructions for your operating system. Verify the installation: 
go version

​
Configure Go environment variables

Open your shell config file (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) and add:
export GOPATH=$HOME/go
export PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH/bin
Apply changes: source ~/.bashrc
Verify: go env GOPATH

​
2. Clone the Cosmos SDK repository

This tutorial uses simapp, the Cosmos SDK example application. Clone the Cosmos SDK repository to access simapp.
  1. Navigate to your preferred directory. This example uses ~/Documents/GitHub:
cd ~/Documents/GitHub
  1. Clone the Cosmos SDK repository:
git clone https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk.git
  1. Navigate into the cloned repository:
cd cosmos-sdk
If you are building your own chain, clone your chain’s repository instead. Replace simd with your chain’s binary name throughout this tutorial.

​
3. Build the simd binary

The simd binary is the command-line interface for interacting with the Cosmos SDK blockchain. Build and install the simd binary: 
make install
Windows users: If make is not available, you can install it via Chocolatey (choco install make) or use WSL2.
Verify simd is working: 
simd version
Your environment is now set up to run a Cosmos SDK node.

​
Next steps