Testing RPC Communication

This guide explains how to test the JSON-RPC communication between icnd (daemon) and icnctl (CLI).

Prerequisites

Build both binaries:

cargo build --bin icnd
cargo build --bin icnctl

Create an identity (required for daemon to spawn network actors and RPC server):
```
./target/debug/icnctl id init
```
Follow the prompts to set a passphrase. This will create ~/.icn/identity.age.

Testing Procedure

1. Start the Daemon

In terminal 1:

./target/debug/icnd

You should see output like:

INFO icnd: ICNd starting
INFO icnd: Data directory: "/home/user/.local/share/icn"
INFO icn_core::supervisor: Supervisor starting
INFO icn_core::supervisor: Network actor spawned on 0.0.0.0:7777
INFO icn_core::supervisor: RPC server spawned on 127.0.0.1:5050

The daemon will prompt for your passphrase to unlock the keystore.

2. Test Network Commands

In terminal 2, run these commands:

Check Network Status

./target/debug/icnctl network status

Expected output:

Network Actor Status:

  Running:               true
  Listener address:      0.0.0.0:7777

View Network Statistics

./target/debug/icnctl network stats

Expected output:

Network Statistics:

  Peers discovered:      0
  Active connections:    0
  Total connections:     0

List Discovered Peers

./target/debug/icnctl network peers

Expected output (when no peers are available):

No peers discovered yet.

Tip: Ensure other ICN nodes are running on the network.

Dial a Peer (Example)

./target/debug/icnctl network dial did:icn:z6MkpTHR8VNs... --addr 192.168.1.100:7777

Note: This requires a valid peer DID and address.

Testing Without an Identity

If you run icnd without creating an identity first, you'll see:

WARN icnd: No identity keystore found
WARN icnd: Run 'icnctl id init' to create an identity
WARN icnd: Daemon will run without Identity and Network actors

In this case, the RPC server won't be spawned and icnctl network commands will fail with:

Error: Failed to get status from daemon. Is icnd running?

RPC Protocol Details

Protocol: JSON-RPC 2.0 over HTTP/1.1
Server Address: 127.0.0.1:5050
Transport: HTTP POST requests with JSON payload

Available RPC Methods

network.peers - List discovered peers
network.dial - Connect to a peer
network.stats - Get network statistics
network.status - Get network actor status

Example Raw RPC Request

You can test the RPC server directly with curl:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5050 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "network.status",
    "params": {},
    "id": 1
  }'

Expected response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": {
    "running": true,
    "listen_addr": "0.0.0.0:7777"
  },
  "id": 1
}

Troubleshooting

"Failed to get status from daemon. Is icnd running?"

Check if icnd is running: ps aux | grep icnd
Verify the RPC server is listening: lsof -i :5050
Ensure you created an identity: ls ~/.icn/identity.age

"Connection refused"

The daemon's RPC server only spawns when an identity exists. Run icnctl id init first.

"No peers discovered yet"

mDNS discovery requires:

Other ICN nodes running on the same local network
Multicast DNS support in your network
Firewall rules allowing mDNS traffic (UDP port 5353)

Next Steps

To test peer discovery and connections, you'll need to:

Run multiple icnd instances on the same network (different machines or VMs)
Each instance needs its own data directory: icnd --data-dir ~/.icn-node2
Peers should automatically discover each other via mDNS
Use icnctl network peers to verify discovery
Use icnctl network dial <did> to establish connections