Network Roles

Last updated: 2026-06-28

The node runtime exposes distinct roles through the packaged cortensord binary. Role selection determines how a node participates in routing, mining, oracle coordination, validation, pooling, user-task quality sampling, or tooling.

flowchart LR
  App["Application / caller"] --> Router["Router Node<br/>routerv1"]
  Router --> Queue["Session Queue"]
  Queue --> Miner["Miner<br/>minerv4"]
  Miner --> Queue
  Oracle["Oracle<br/>oraclev3"] --> Queue
  ValidatorV1["Validator v1<br/>network task regulator"] --> Queue
  ValidatorV2["Validator v2<br/>quantitative post-result checks"] --> Queue
  ValidatorV3["Validator v3<br/>qualitative post-result checks"] --> Queue
  Pool["Pool<br/>poolv1"] --> Queue
  Quality["Quality oracle<br/>qualityv1"] --> Queue
  Tool["Tooling<br/>tool"] --> Router
  Tool --> Miner

Role	What it does	Runtime role
Router	API-facing coordinator. Accepts requests, resolves sessions, submits tasks, and returns results or verdicts.	routerv1
Miner	Executes assigned inference work and submits precommit/commit data.	minerv4
Oracle	Watches and coordinates lifecycle transitions around sessions and tasks.	oraclev3
Validator v1	Network task-level checker and regulator. Handles cognitive-level and node-level validation around task execution and network behavior.	validatorv1
Validator v2	Post-result quantitative validator. Maintains numeric task, node, and performance checks after network task results are produced.	validatorv2
Validator v3	Post-result qualitative validator. Handles qualitative result checking and quality-oriented verdict flows after network task results are produced.	validatorv3
Pool	Supports pool and network coordination.	poolv1
Quality oracle	User task quality sampling oracle. Samples user task quality on a heartbeat-style cadence and is separate from validator v2/v3 post-result checking.	qualityv1
Tool	Key generation, registration, verification, migrations, and maintenance commands.	tool

Cortensor runs all three validator roles together: validatorv1 for network task-level checking and regulation, validatorv2 for quantitative post-result checks, and validatorv3 for qualitative post-result checks. qualityv1 is a separate user task quality sampling oracle rather than another network-result validator.

Role Names

Setup guides and operator commands use the runtime names in the table above. The packaged binary expects the role name as the second argument after the environment file.

Setup Command Pattern

Node setup pages use packaged binary commands:

cortensord ~/.cortensor/.env routerv1
cortensord ~/.cortensor/.env minerv4
cortensord ~/.cortensor/.env oraclev3
cortensord ~/.cortensor/.env validatorv1
cortensord ~/.cortensor/.env validatorv2
cortensord ~/.cortensor/.env validatorv3

The packaged binary interface is the public operator path.

Role Interactions

Interaction	Operational detail
Application to router	Request shape, authentication, model/session selection, timeout behavior.
Router to queue	Session ID resolution, task creation, privacy/off-chain options.
Miner to queue	Assignment, precommit, commit, result or URN submission.
Oracle to session	Lifecycle observation and coordination.
Validators to queue	Network task-level regulation, quantitative post-result checks, qualitative post-result checks, verdicts, quality signals, and retry behavior.
Quality oracle to queue	Heartbeat-style user task quality sampling independent of validator v2/v3 post-result checks.
Tool to network	Registration, verification, key generation, stats, reputation, and balance checks.