# Dedicated Ephemeral Node Setup

### Overview

A **Dedicated Ephemeral Node** allows a user to directly assign their own miner (inference node) to a session they have created. This setup is ideal for private use cases or testing, where task routing bypasses automatic node selection logic.

This mechanism is similar to regular ephemeral miners but introduces manual pairing of node and session by the user.

> ⚠️ Note: No authentication is enforced yet. Access control and auth mechanisms will be introduced in upcoming updates.

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### Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have followed the general installation instructions:

📖 [Installation and Setup Guide](https://docs.cortensor.network/getting-started/installation-and-setup)

This includes:

* Installing `cortensord`
* IPFS setup
* Environment configuration
* Docker installation

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### Key Differences from Standard Miner Setup

| Component          | Regular Miner                                        | Dedicated Ephemeral Node                 |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Startup Command    | `minerv4` or default                                 | `minerv4`                                |
| Session Assignment | Automatically selected via router & reputation logic | Manually assigned to session you control |
| Authorization      | Session, Session Queue & Session Auth                | N/A (auth coming soon)                   |

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### How to Start

1. **Update `.env` File**\
   Ensure your environment file is configured with the correct values, especially:

   ```env
   CONTRACT_ADDRESS_RUNTIME=<runtime_contract_address>

   ...

   # Dedicated Node Configuration
   #-----------------------------------------------------------
   # Set to 1 to run as a dedicated node (instead of ephemeral)
   ENABLE_DEDICATED_NODE=1
   # Comma-separated list of session IDs this node is authorized to serve
   # Example: "0,1,2,3,4,5"
   DEDICATED_NODE_AUTHORIZED_SESSIONS="<your_session_id>"
   ```

   1. Replace `<your_session_id>` with the ID of the session you want to dedicate this node to (e.g., the session ID shown in the dashboard).
2. **Start as Dedicated Ephemeral Miner**\
   Use the following startup command:

   ```bash
   cortensord ~/.cortensor/.env minerv4 1 docker
   ```
3. Use the **"**&#x44;edicated Node&#x73;**"** interface to input your node’s address (i.e., the address your miner is registered with).

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### Use Case

Dedicated Ephemeral Nodes are useful when:

* You want complete control over which node handles your inference.
* You’re testing or debugging inference performance privately.
* You’re building custom integrations with known node-session bindings.

***

### What’s Next

* Authentication & validation will be added soon to prevent misuse.