zebra

---

• Getting Started
  • Docker
  • Manual Install
• CI/CD Architecture
• Documentation
• User support
• Security
• License

Zebra is a Zcash full node written in Rust.

Getting Started

You can run Zebra using our Docker image or you can install it manually.

Docker

This command will run our latest release, and sync it to the tip:

docker run -d \
  --name zebra \
  -p 8233:8233 \
  -v zebrad-cache:/home/zebra/.cache/zebra \
  zfnd/zebra:latest

The -p 8233:8233 flag exposes the P2P port so other Zcash nodes can connect to yours, and -v persists the chain state across restarts (use port 18233 for Testnet). For more information, read our Docker documentation.

Manual Install

Building Zebra requires Rust, libclang, and a C++ compiler. Below are quick summaries for installing these dependencies.

General Instructions for Installing Dependencies

1. Install cargo and rustc.
2. Install Zebra's build dependencies:
   • libclang, which is a library that comes under various names, typically libclang, libclang-dev, llvm, or llvm-dev;
   • clang or another C++ compiler (g++, which is for all platforms or Xcode, which is for macOS);
   • protoc (optional).

Dependencies on Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S rust clang protobuf

Note that the package clang includes libclang as well. If you hit a compiling failure in rocksdb, see the GCC 15 workaround below.

GCC 15 workaround

GCC 15, which is the default on many recent distros like Arch Linux and Ubuntu 25 onwards, introduces a compiling failure in the version of the rocksdb dependency used by Zebra. A workaround is running the following before installing Zebra:

export CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS -include cstdint"

On x86_64 or aarch64 Linux (glibc 2.34+), you can skip the build dependencies and download a signed, pre-built binary with cargo binstall:

cargo binstall zebrad

The same binaries are attached to each GitHub release, with a SHA-256 checksum, a Sigstore build-provenance attestation, and a Cosign signature.

Otherwise, once you have the dependencies in place, you can build and install Zebra from source with:

cargo install --locked zebrad

Alternatively, you can install it from GitHub:

cargo install --git https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zebra --tag v6.0.0 zebrad

You can start Zebra by running

zebrad start

Refer to the Building and Installing Zebra and Running Zebra sections in the book for enabling optional features, detailed configuration and further details.

CI/CD Architecture

Zebra uses a comprehensive CI/CD system built on GitHub Actions to ensure code quality, maintain stability, and automate routine tasks. Our CI/CD infrastructure:

• Runs automated tests on every PR and commit.
• Manages deployments to various environments.
• Handles cross-platform compatibility checks.
• Automates release processes.

For a detailed understanding of our CI/CD system, including workflow diagrams, infrastructure details, and best practices, see our CI/CD Architecture Documentation.

Documentation

The Zcash Foundation maintains the following resources documenting Zebra:

• The Zebra Book:

  • General Introduction,

  • User Documentation,

  • Developer Documentation.

  • User guides of note:

    • Zebra Health Endpoints — liveness/readiness checks for Kubernetes and load balancers

• The documentation of the public APIs for the latest releases of the individual Zebra crates.

• The documentation of the internal APIs for the main branch of the whole Zebra monorepo.

User support

If Zebra doesn't behave the way you expected, open an issue. We regularly triage new issues and we will respond. We maintain a list of known issues in the Troubleshooting section of the book.

If you want to chat with us, Join the Zcash Foundation Discord Server and find the "zebra-support" channel.

Security

Zebra has a responsible disclosure policy, which we encourage security researchers to follow.

License

Zebra is distributed under the terms of both the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0). Some Zebra crates are distributed under the MIT license only, because some of their code was originally from MIT-licensed projects. See each crate's directory for details.

See LICENSE-APACHE and LICENSE-MIT.