Quick Start

So you want to try out Dassie. First, let us congratulate you on your bravery. Second, let us warn you that Dassie is still early in its development and not ready for real money. If you are still interested, read on.

Prerequisites

You need a server, or a virtual machine, with:

Linux with systemd, on x86-64 or arm64. We test the installer on Debian 12, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 42 and CentOS Stream 9. On NixOS, follow Dassie on NixOS instead.
curl or wget
OpenSSL 1.1.1 or later, or minisign, to check the release's signature
a public IP address
a domain name that points to that address
TCP ports 80 and 443 and UDP port 443 open to the world: nodes talk to each other over QUIC, on UDP

Installation

To install Dassie, run this command on your server:

curl --proto =https --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.dassie.land | sh

The installer downloads the newest release from get.dassie.land and checks its signature against the Dassie release key before it unpacks anything. It installs Dassie in /opt/dassie, puts the dassie command on your path and sets up its systemd units.

It also adds you to the group dassie-users, whose members may talk to the node. Group membership changes take effect the next time you log in, so if you want to use that, close your SSH session and log in again.

To check the installation, run:

dassie verify-install

Configuration

Before you can open Dassie's web interface, the node needs a TLS certificate. Dassie gets one from Let's Encrypt itself, so this is quick. Run:

sudo dassie init

It asks for your server's domain name, your agreement to Let's Encrypt's terms and an email address, and then fetches the certificate. Once it has one, it prints a URL where you continue the setup in your browser. The URL stays valid until setup is done, even if the server restarts. If you miss it, print it again with:

sudo dassie setup-url

Checking on your node

To see how your node is doing (its version, address and certificate, whether setup is done, its peers and ledgers, and how the last update went), run:

dassie status

Its output holds no secrets, so you can paste it when you ask for help. The node's full logs are in journalctl -u dassie.

Updating Dassie

Dassie updates itself. Once a day, a systemd timer checks for a newer release, verifies its signature, and switches to it. If the new version does not start, it goes back to the old one, with the node's data as the old one left it. You should not have to worry about updates; dassie status shows how the last one went.

To update right away, run:

sudo dassie update

Uninstallation

If you ever need to uninstall Dassie, run:

curl --proto =https --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.dassie.land | sh -s -- uninstall

This removes Dassie and its systemd units. The node's data stays in /var/lib/private/dassie, in case you change your mind.