Run as a service

You want the node to start on boot, stay running, restart on crash, and log somewhere predictable. Three options below.

Linux: systemd

Create /etc/systemd/system/exfer.service:

[Unit]
Description=Exfer node
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=exfer
Group=exfer
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/exfer node \
    --datadir /var/lib/exfer \
    --rpc-bind 127.0.0.1:9334 \
    --repair-perms
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
LimitNOFILE=65536

# Hardening
NoNewPrivileges=true
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=true
ReadWritePaths=/var/lib/exfer
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Create the user and data directory once:

sudo useradd --system --home /var/lib/exfer --shell /usr/sbin/nologin exfer
sudo install -d -o exfer -g exfer -m 0750 /var/lib/exfer

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now exfer
sudo systemctl status exfer
sudo journalctl -fu exfer

Mining variant — replace the ExecStart line with:

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/exfer mine \
    --datadir /var/lib/exfer \
    --miner-pubkey YOUR_PUBKEY_HEX \
    --rpc-bind 127.0.0.1:9334 \
    --repair-perms

The pubkey-only mining mode means the wallet private key never lives on the mining host. See Solo mine.

macOS: launchd

Create ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.exfer.node.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key><string>org.exfer.node</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/exfer</string>
        <string>node</string>
        <string>--datadir</string>
        <string>/Users/you/.exfer</string>
        <string>--rpc-bind</string>
        <string>127.0.0.1:9334</string>
        <string>--repair-perms</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key><true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key><string>/tmp/exfer.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key><string>/tmp/exfer.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Load it:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.exfer.node.plist
launchctl list | grep exfer
tail -f /tmp/exfer.log

To stop / reload:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.exfer.node.plist
launchctl load   ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.exfer.node.plist

Docker

Minimal Dockerfile:

FROM debian:bookworm-slim
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
        ca-certificates curl \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
RUN curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/exfer \
    https://github.com/ahuman-exfer/exfer/releases/latest/download/exfer-linux-x86_64 \
    && chmod +x /usr/local/bin/exfer
WORKDIR /data
EXPOSE 9333
CMD ["exfer", "node", "--datadir", "/data", "--rpc-bind", "0.0.0.0:9334", "--repair-perms"]

Run:

docker build -t exfer .
docker run -d --name exfer \
    -p 9333:9333 -p 127.0.0.1:9334:9334 \
    -v exfer-data:/data \
    --restart unless-stopped \
    exfer
docker logs -f exfer

Notes:

• Use a named volume (-v exfer-data:/data) to persist the chain across container restarts.
• Map 9334 only to localhost (127.0.0.1:9334:9334). The RPC has no authentication — exposing it on 0.0.0.0 is dangerous on shared hosts.

Resource expectations

A small VPS is plenty for a full node:

Mining changes the picture — Argon2id is memory-hard, so each miner thread needs ~64 MiB of resident memory. See Solo mine.