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Improve the history archive docs - #2852

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jayz22:docs/archivist-updates
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Improve the history archive docs#2852
jayz22 wants to merge 1 commit into
stellar:mainfrom
jayz22:docs/archivist-updates

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@jayz22 jayz22 commented Sep 11, 2026

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Reworks the stellar-archivist docs to make it easier to follow by new validators.

  • --verify is dropped from the default examples
  • Adds a command-selection table, and documents --low / --high
  • Calls out that stellar-archivist is separate from stellar-core: run it off the validator host, and don't stop the validator to work on its archive.
  • Removes a stray systemctl start stellar-core at the end of the section, which implied Core had been stopped.

Also defines a Full Validator as publishing a complete archive.

Copilot AI balanced review requested due to automatic review settings September 11, 2026 23:52

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Pull request overview

Reorganizes validator archive guidance around installation, operation, verification, repair, and mirroring.

Changes:

  • Defines Full Validators as publishing complete history.
  • Adds archivist command-selection and operational guidance.
  • Separates optional content verification from routine examples.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File Description
docs/validators/README.mdx Clarifies Full Validator archive completeness.
docs/validators/admin-guide/publishing-history-archives.mdx Reworks archivist workflows and examples.

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Comment thread docs/validators/admin-guide/publishing-history-archives.mdx Outdated
Comment thread docs/validators/admin-guide/publishing-history-archives.mdx

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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Comment thread docs/validators/admin-guide/publishing-history-archives.mdx
Rework the archivist docs around what an operator is actually trying to
do — install the tool, decide where to run it, pick a command, then
scan / repair / mirror:

- Drop --verify from the default examples and give it its own section
  covering what it checks and what it costs.
- Add a command-selection table, and document --low/--high.
- Note that stellar-archivist is separate from stellar-core: run it off
  the validator host, and never stop the validator to work on its
  archive.
- Remove the stray `systemctl start stellar-core` at the end of the
  section, which paired with nothing and implied Core had been stopped.
- Fix an invalid ':::attention' admonition and copyedit throughout.

Also establish that a Full Validator's archive is a complete one.
Neither the Full Validator definition nor the Tier 1 requirements
mentioned archive depth, so nothing said an archive should reach back to
the first ledger. Tier 1 delegates its archive requirement to the Full
Validator definition, so stating completeness there covers both. The
archives page now frames publishing as two stages, so the Backfilling
section no longer implies you are finished when the archive holds only
recent checkpoints.
Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings September 12, 2026 00:25
@jayz22
jayz22 force-pushed the docs/archivist-updates branch from ab58426 to 61d8b65 Compare September 12, 2026 00:25

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Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Suppressed comments (1)

docs/validators/admin-guide/publishing-history-archives.mdx:245

  • This advice is ambiguous for mirror: mirror --verify validates only files downloaded from the source and skips existing destination files unless --overwrite is also set, so it does not generally find corruption in an existing archive. Direct operators to scan --verify and repair --verify for that workflow.
Leave it off for routine completeness checks and for fixing missing files. Turn it on to find and fix corruption, where a file exists but its contents are wrong.

| Fix missing or corrupt files in an archive you already have | [`repair`](#repairing-an-archive) |
| Build an archive from scratch, or backfill a range of history | [`mirror`](#mirroring-an-archive) |

All three accept `--low` and `--high` to restrict the work to a ledger range; both bounds are rounded outward to the nearest checkpoint.

### Where to run stellar-archivist

stellar-archivist is a standalone tool. It does not link against or communicate with `stellar-core`; all it needs is read and write access to the archive itself. That access can be a local filesystem path (`file://`), an HTTP(S) source, or a cloud object store (`s3://`, `gcs://`, `azblob://`, `b2://`), so you can run it from any machine that can reach your archive.
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3 participants