Explorer Setup

Deploy a Blockscout block explorer for your L1 via Terraform, Kubernetes, or Docker.

Choose Your Deployment Method

Terraform and Kubernetes deploy Blockscout through the avalanche-deploy repo; Docker generates a standalone Docker Compose setup.

Select L1

Enter the Avalanche Blockchain ID (not EVM chain ID) of the L1 you want to run an explorer for.

Avalanche Blockchain ID

Subnet ID

Avalanche Deploy Stack

This path deploys Blockscout as an add-on onto the cloud infrastructure provisioned by avalanche-deploy (Terraform + Ansible on AWS, GCP, or Azure). It requires a running L1 stack — validators and RPC nodes — deployed by that repo.

Don't have one yet? Follow the Avalanche Deploy L1 guide first, then come back here to add the explorer.

Open Your Deployment Checkout

Run the add-on from the same avalanche-deploy checkout that deployed your stack — terraform apply writes the Ansible inventory (ansible/inventory/<cloud>_hosts) into that working tree, and the Terraform state lives there too.

cd avalanche-deploy

cd avalanche-deploy

Prerequisites

A Kubernetes cluster with kubectl connected and helm v3 installed. Your L1's RPC endpoint must be reachable from inside the cluster — either the avalanche-deploy L1 charts running in the same cluster, or an external RPC URL.

Not running your L1 on Kubernetes yet? Follow the Avalanche Deploy Kubernetes guide first.

Clone Avalanche Deploy

The Blockscout Helm chart lives in the avalanche-deploy repo. Unlike the Terraform path, a fresh clone works here — the chart only needs your kubectl context:

git clone https://github.com/ava-labs/avalanche-deploy && cd avalanche-deploy/kubernetes

git clone https://github.com/ava-labs/avalanche-deploy && cd avalanche-deploy/kubernetes

Set up Instance

Set up a linux server with any cloud provider, like AWS, GCP, Azure, or Digital Ocean. 4 vCPUs, 8GB RAM, 40GB storage is enough to get you started. Choose more storage if the Explorer is for a long-running testnet or mainnet L1.

Docker & Docker Compose Installation

Make sure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed on your system. You can use the following commands to install both:

# Install Docker using convenience script
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

# Test installation
docker run -it --rm hello-world
docker compose version

# Install Docker using convenience scriptcurl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.shsudo sh get-docker.shsudo usermod -aG docker $USERnewgrp docker# Test installationdocker run -it --rm hello-worlddocker compose version

# Install Docker
sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install -y docker
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

# Install Docker Compose v2 plugin (Amazon Linux specific)
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins
sudo curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.26.1/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

newgrp docker

# Test installation
docker run -it --rm hello-world
docker compose version

# Install Dockersudo yum update -ysudo yum install -y dockersudo systemctl start dockersudo systemctl enable dockersudo usermod -aG docker $USER# Install Docker Compose v2 plugin (Amazon Linux specific)sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-pluginssudo curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.26.1/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-composesudo chmod +x /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-composenewgrp docker# Test installationdocker run -it --rm hello-worlddocker compose version

# Install Docker using convenience script
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

# Test installation
docker run -it --rm hello-world
docker compose version

# Install Docker using convenience scriptcurl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.shsudo sh get-docker.shsudo usermod -aG docker $USERnewgrp docker# Test installationdocker run -it --rm hello-worlddocker compose version

# Install Docker Desktop for Mac
# Download from: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/
echo "Please download and install Docker Desktop for Mac from the official Docker website."
echo "Docker Compose is included with Docker Desktop."

# After installation, you can test it by running:
docker run -it --rm hello-world
docker compose version

# Install Docker Desktop for Mac# Download from: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/echo "Please download and install Docker Desktop for Mac from the official Docker website."echo "Docker Compose is included with Docker Desktop."# After installation, you can test it by running:docker run -it --rm hello-worlddocker compose version