Test Amendments

You can test how the xrpld server behaves, before amendments are fully enabled on Mainnet, using one of the following approaches:

• Connect to Devnet: Devnet runs beta xrpld releases and is the public network where new amendments are previewed before reaching Mainnet.
• Stand-Alone Mode: Run a single xrpld server in offline mode with the amendment forced on. Does not connect to the peer-to-peer network or use consensus.
• Private Test Network: Initialize a self-hosted network with multiple validators where you control how amendments activate.

To test an amendment already enabled on Devnet, connect to it directly without setting up your own validators or local server.

Follow Connect Your xrpld to a Parallel Network, but be sure to skip the [features] stanza described in step 3. Devnet has its own amendment state, and forcing features causes your server to diverge from the network.

Once connected, confirm the amendment is active by inspecting Amendments via the ledger_entry method.

To test locally without setting up validators or connecting to a network, run your server in stand-alone mode with the amendment forced on.

Two stanzas in xrpld.cfg interact with amendments: [amendments] records which amendments a server votes to support, while [features] forces specific features to be treated as enabled, only on the local server. Add a [features] stanza with one amendment short name per line:

[features]
MultiSign
TrustSetAuth

To confirm the amendment is active, query the Amendments ledger entry with the ledger_entry method.

To test an amendment under multi-validator consensus on a private network, you can either enable it at the genesis ledger or compress the standard two-week voting timer. Enabling skips the activation flow entirely, while compressing the timer lets you exercise it on a shorter schedule.

If your private network uses a Network ID of 1025 or higher, transactions submitted to it must include a matching NetworkID field.

Start each validator with the --start flag to enable amendments at the genesis ledger. This skips the two-week voting timer entirely.

xrpld --start --net --conf /etc/opt/ripple/xrpld.cfg

Once the network is producing ledgers, subsequent restarts don't require --start.

To verify that amendments are active, query the Amendments ledger entry with the ledger_entry method.

Changing which amendments are enabled requires resetting the network to a new genesis ledger. As a best practice, if other users rely on your test network, communicate on Discord both before and after each reset.

To exercise the amendment voting and activation flow on a quicker schedule, set [amendment_majority_time] in each validator's xrpld.cfg. This shortens the delay between an amendment reaching majority support and its activation. Do not use it on Mainnet, Testnet, or Devnet.

[amendment_majority_time]
30 minutes

The format is <number> <minutes|hours|days|weeks>. The minimum is 15 minutes due to the flag-ledger interval. Common test-network values are 30 minutes or 48 hours.

Once the network is running, run the following on each validator:

xrpld feature <amendment_name> accept

You can verify the amendment's voting status with xrpld feature.

• Concepts:
  • Amendments
  • Parallel Networks
• References:
  • ledger_entry method
  • NetworkID field
  • xrpld Commandline Usage
• Tutorials:
  • Run a Private Network with Docker
  • Start a New Genesis Ledger in Stand-Alone Mode