# CometBFT p2p configuration

This document contains configurable parameters a node operator can use to tune the p2p behaviour.

| Parameter| Default| Description |
| --- | --- | ---|
|   ListenAddress               |   "tcp://0.0.0.0:26656" |   Address to listen for incoming connections (0.0.0.0:0 means any interface, any port)  |
|   ExternalAddress             |  ""                 |  Address to advertise to peers for them to dial |
|   [Seeds](./pex-protocol.md#seed-nodes) | empty               | Comma separated list of seed nodes to connect to (ID@host:port )|
|   [Persistent peers](./peer_manager.md#persistent-peers)            | empty               | Comma separated list of nodes to keep persistent connections to (ID@host:port )  |
|	[AddrBook](./addressbook.md)                    | defaultAddrBookPath | Path do address book |
|	AddrBookStrict              | true                | Set true for strict address routability rules and false for private or local networks |
|	[MaxNumInboundPeers](./switch.md#accepting-peers)          |  40 | Maximum number of inbound peers |
|	[MaxNumOutboundPeers](./peer_manager.md#ensure-peers)         |  10 |  Maximum number of outbound peers to connect to, excluding persistent peers |
|   [UnconditionalPeers](./switch.md#accepting-peers)          | empty                | These are IDs of the peers which are allowed to be (re)connected as both inbound or outbound regardless of whether the node reached `max_num_inbound_peers` or `max_num_outbound_peers` or not. |
|   PersistentPeersMaxDialPeriod| 0 * time.Second      | Maximum pause when redialing a persistent peer (if zero, exponential backoff is used)    |
|	FlushThrottleTimeout        |100 * time.Millisecond| Time to wait before flushing messages out on the connection |
|	MaxPacketMsgPayloadSize     |  1024 | Maximum size of a message packet payload, in bytes |
|	SendRate                    | 5120000 (5 mB/s) | Rate at which packets can be sent, in bytes/second  |
|	RecvRate                    | 5120000 (5 mB/s) | Rate at which packets can be received, in bytes/second|
|	[PexReactor](./pex.md)                  |  true            | Set true to enable the peer-exchange reactor |
|	SeedMode                    |       false      | Seed mode, in which node constantly crawls the network and looks for. Does not work if the peer-exchange reactor is disabled.  |
|   PrivatePeerIDs              | empty            | Comma separated list of peer IDsthat we do not add to the address book or gossip to other peers. They stay private to us. |
|	AllowDuplicateIP            | false            | Toggle to disable guard against peers connecting from the same ip.|
|	[HandshakeTimeout](./transport.md#connection-upgrade)            | 20 * time.Second | Timeout for handshake completion between peers |
|	[DialTimeout](./switch.md#dialing-peers)                 |  3 * time.Second | Timeout for dialing a peer |


These parameters can be set using the `$CMTHOME/config/config.toml` file. A subset of them can also be changed via command line using the following command line flags:

| Parameter | Flag | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Listen address|  `p2p.laddr` |  "tcp://0.0.0.0:26656" |
| Seed nodes | `p2p.seeds` | `--p2p.seeds “id100000000000000000000000000000000@1.2.3.4:26656,id200000000000000000000000000000000@2.3.4.5:4444”` |
| Persistent peers | `p2p.persistent_peers` | `--p2p.persistent_peers “id100000000000000000000000000000000@1.2.3.4:26656,id200000000000000000000000000000000@2.3.4.5:26656”` |
| Unconditional peers | `p2p.unconditional_peer_ids` | `--p2p.unconditional_peer_ids “id100000000000000000000000000000000,id200000000000000000000000000000000”` |
| PexReactor | `p2p.pex` | `--p2p.pex` |
| Seed mode | `p2p.seed_mode` | `--p2p.seed_mode` |
| Private peer ids | `p2p.private_peer_ids` | `--p2p.private_peer_ids “id100000000000000000000000000000000,id200000000000000000000000000000000”` |

 **Note on persistent peers**

 If `persistent_peers_max_dial_period` is set greater than zero, the
pause between each dial to each persistent peer will not exceed `persistent_peers_max_dial_period`
during exponential backoff and we keep trying again without giving up.

If `seeds` and `persistent_peers` intersect,
the user will be warned that seeds may auto-close connections
and that the node may not be able to keep the connection persistent.