Gateway

The gateway is a Node.js (Fastify) service between users and the node. The web app, the SDKs and the MCP server all talk to it.

It does	Details
Serves the REST API	Most paths proxy the node; a few are its own — see REST
Serves the WebSocket	/ws — live blocks, transactions, AI events, balance subscriptions; see WebSocket
Routes by shard	Sends each transaction to the node serving the sender's shard
Watches the chain	Polls the node, turns changes into events, raises contract activity alerts
Rate-limits	Per IP, globally and for AI endpoints
Hosts AI tools	Contract audit proxy, contract generation (SmartForge), documentation assistant

The gateway never decides anything about chain state: signatures, balances and AI scores come from the node.

Run

cd neurochain/gateway
npm install
NODE_RPC_URL=http://localhost:9933 node src/index.js

curl -s http://localhost:3000/health
# {"status":"ok","network":"neurochain-mainnet-1","height":11,"peers":0,"round":0,"mempool":0}

It listens on port PORT (3000) on all interfaces.

Configuration

Connection

Variable	Default	Meaning
PORT	3000	Listening port
NODE_RPC_URL	http://localhost:9933	The node's RPC
NEUROCHAIN_SHARD_NODES	—	Shard routing, e.g. 0=http://n0:9933,1=http://n1:9934
SHARD_NODE_URLS	—	Same, positional (index = shard), used if the above is unset
NETWORK_ID	neurochain-mainnet-1	Network name reported in /health
CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS	*	Allowed browser origins — set your site's origin in production
TLS_CERT, TLS_KEY	—	PEM paths to serve HTTPS directly

Limits

Variable	Default	Meaning
GLOBAL_RL_MAX_RPS	200	Requests per second per IP
AI_RL_MAX_RPM	10	AI endpoint requests per minute per IP
WS_MAX_MSG_BYTES	65 536	Largest WebSocket message
WS_MAX_SUBS_PER_CLIENT	50	Balance subscriptions per connection
WS_RPC_MAX_RPS	30	RPC calls per second per connection

Chain watching

Variable	Default	Meaning
POLL_NODE_INTERVAL_MS	2000	How often the node is polled for new blocks
SENTINEL_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS	30000	Contract activity check
SENTINEL_SPIKE_LOW_THRESHOLD / _HIGH_THRESHOLD	10 / 50	Calls per interval that raise a medium / high alert
SENTINEL_LOW_SCORE_THRESHOLD	60	Alert when a contract below this security score starts being called
ALERT_COOLDOWN_MS	60000	Minimum gap between alerts for one contract
PROTOCOL_PARAMS_REFRESH_MS	60000	How often protocol parameters are re-read from the node

Faucet (test networks)

Variable	Default	Meaning
FAUCET_AMOUNT	50 NRO	Amount per request
FAUCET_COOLDOWN_SECS	86400	Per address and IP
REDIS_URL	redis://localhost:6379	Optional — keeps the faucet cooldown across gateway restarts; without Redis it is kept in memory

AI tools

Variable	Default	Meaning
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	—	Enables SmartForge contract generation with Claude; without it a built-in template generator is used
SMARTFORGE_MODEL, SMARTFORGE_MAX_TOKENS	—	Model and length for SmartForge
AI_EXPORT_TOKEN	—	If set, /api/v1/ai/export/* requires it
ASSISTANT_ENABLED	0	Documentation assistant (POST /api/v1/assistant/ask); rebuild its index with npm run assistant:index

The full list with every default is in the repository's .env.example.

Security notes

• Keep the node's RPC private and expose only the gateway (behind a reverse proxy with TLS, or with TLS_CERT / TLS_KEY).
• Set CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS to your own origins.
• POST /api/v1/wallet/derive-address receives a recovery phrase; the node refuses it on mainnet, and it should never be reachable on a public gateway.
• Some fields of /api/v1/network/status (tps_peak, block_time_ms, the crypto list, AI model figures) are fixed descriptive values, not measurements.

Tests

cd neurochain/gateway
npm test            # HTTP API tests; the node must be running for the full set