> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.joinbase.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Master node

> The Docker Swarm manager node that owns the registry, the single public API, the control plane, and final weight computation for the subnet.

The **master** is the Docker Swarm manager node. It owns the central registry,
admin operations, the Swarm challenge lifecycle, challenge tokens, emission
configuration, and final weight computation. The same node also hosts every
long-lived challenge service.

*Source: `docs/architecture.md:36-40`; `README.md:32-36`.*

<Card title="Source repository" icon="github" href="https://github.com/BaseIntelligence/base">
  Master proxy, registry, weight service, and the Swarm bring-up that runs them.
</Card>

## The single public API

The master hosts one proxy that serves the whole public surface on a single port:
the `/v1/registry` and `/v1/weights/latest` reads, the `/health` check, the
`/challenges/*` passthrough that bridges miner traffic to challenges, and the
token-gated admin routes.

*Source: `docs/architecture.md:38`, `docs/architecture.md:40`; `README.md:262-265`.*

The proxy app is built by `create_proxy_app`. When a runtime controller is wired in,
the admin/registry router (`build_admin_router`) is mounted onto the same app, so
there is no separate admin listener or admin port.

*Source: `src/platform_network/master/app_proxy.py:263`, `src/platform_network/master/app_proxy.py:534-548`; `src/platform_network/master/app_admin.py:66`.*

| Route                                | Auth               | Defined at                                                 |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| `GET /health`                        | none               | `src/platform_network/master/app_proxy.py:320-322`         |
| `GET /v1/registry`                   | none (public read) | `src/platform_network/master/app_admin.py:132-134`         |
| `GET /v1/weights/latest`             | none (public read) | `src/platform_network/master/app_admin.py:136-157`         |
| `GET /challenges/{slug}` passthrough | passthrough        | `src/platform_network/master/app_proxy.py:520-525`         |
| `/admin`, `/v1/admin/challenges/*`   | admin token        | `src/platform_network/master/app_admin.py:176`, `:202-326` |

Full request/response detail for these routes lives in the
[API reference](/reference/api).

## Ports

The manager publishes its control-plane services on fixed host ports. The default
in-container service ports are the proxy on `8080` and the broker on `8082`; the
Swarm installer publishes them on the host as `18080` (proxy) and `18082` (broker).

*Source: `docs/master/README.md:11-16`; `README.md:262-264`.*

`/v1/registry` and `/v1/weights/latest` are served by the proxy on the public port;
there is no separate admin service or port.

*Source: `README.md:265`.*

## What the master owns

* **Registry** — active challenges, their emission shares, and the registry state
  file at `/var/lib/platform/registry.json`.

  *Source: `docs/architecture.md:36-38`; `src/platform_network/config/settings.py:32`.*
* **Challenge services** — the master runs every active challenge service on the
  host, pinned with the placement constraint `node.role==manager`.

  *Source: `docs/architecture.md:40`; `src/platform_network/config/settings.py:102`.*
* **Control-plane state** — a single shared PostgreSQL-compatible database addressed
  by `PLATFORM_DATABASE_URL`, private to the control-plane process and never shared
  with challenge containers.

  *Source: `docs/architecture.md:42`; `docs/security.md:7`.*
* **Weight computation** — the master collects, normalizes, and serves the final
  vector; the on-chain submitter performs the Bittensor submission.

  *Source: `docs/architecture.md:38`; `README.md:127-135`.*

## Epoch cadence

The master recomputes weights on an epoch interval. The default
`epoch_interval_seconds` is `360`.

*Source: `src/platform_network/config/settings.py:28`.*

The end-to-end computation is detailed on the
[Weights pipeline](/architecture/weights-pipeline) page.

## Supervisor and broker

The master also hosts the [broker](/architecture/broker), which dispatches
short-lived evaluation jobs to workers, and the [supervisor](/architecture/supervisor),
a systemd watchdog that runs the manager-only maintenance loops.

*Source: `docs/architecture.md:46`; `docs/master/README.md:39-56`.*

<Tip>
  The master node is also the validator / hotkey node in the reference topology, but
  challenge orchestration and on-chain submission are separate concerns — see the
  [Validator network](/architecture/validator-network) page.
</Tip>

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Architecture overview" icon="sitemap" href="/architecture/overview">
    How the master fits into the whole subnet.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Weights pipeline" icon="scale-balanced" href="/architecture/weights-pipeline">
    What the master computes each epoch.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Sources

Citations reference the `base` repository pinned at SHA
`e33109bfa4f5054928c3b4d429be9cf35d36b166` (see `SOURCES.md`).