TACo Node Management

The TACo network is currently dormant ahead of a relaunch by WEDF scheduled for Q3 2026. Although independent operators may choose to continue running TACo nodes at their discretion, there is no coordinated group of providers running TACo software at this time.

A stable version of the service will be relaunched in Q3 2026 – centered around a Privacy Coalition. If you represent an organization in the domains of privacy advocacy, anti-surveillance, human rights, encryption/whistleblower technology, or pertinent academic research, and would like to be involved, please get in touch.

Until then, this page serves as a reference for prospective members of this new node coalition.

Automatically Upgrade Node

Configure your server to automatically update any running docker containers, via Watchtower. This will relaunch your node with the same environment and commands whenever a new version of nucypher is published. For more information check out the official Watchtower documentation.

docker run --detach \
--name watchtower   \
--restart unless-stopped \
--volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
containrrr/watchtower ursula --cleanup

Manually Upgrade Node

Alternatively, you can manually update your node. This means checking for new version releases in the Threshold announcements channel, then running the following commands to upgrade your node.

# Stop container
$ docker stop ursula && docker rm ursula

# Get latest image
$ docker pull nucypher/nucypher:latest

# Start node 
$ docker run -d                   \
--name ursula                     \
--restart unless-stopped          \
-v ~/.local/share/nucypher:/root/.local/share/nucypher:rw \
-v ~/.cache/nucypher:/root/.cache/nucypher:rw \
-v ~/.ethereum/:/root/.ethereum:ro   \
-p 9151:9151                      \
--env-file nucypher.env           \
nucypher/nucypher:latest          \
nucypher ursula run 

If you run into errors, note that you have to stop the node from running before attempting to troubleshoot or attempting a different configuration.

To confirm that your node is now running the latest version, you can use any browser to check your node's status page. You may need to skip through a warning page.

https://<NODE_IP_ADDRESS>/status/

Update Node Configuration

Configuration settings will be stored in an Ursula configuration file, ursula.json, stored in /home/<user>/.local/share/nucypher by default.

After making configuration changes, the node must be restarted for those changes to take effect.