mev-beta/PRODUCTION_DEPLOYMENT_GUIDE.md

MEV Bot V2 - Production Deployment Safety Guide

STATUS: ⚠️ PRE-PRODUCTION - NOT SAFE FOR LARGE CAPITAL YET

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🚨 CRITICAL: Read This First

DO NOT deploy to production with significant capital until:

1. ✅ All safety mechanisms are tested
2. ✅ Profit calculations validated with known scenarios
3. ✅ 24+ hours of dry-run monitoring completed
4. ✅ Emergency stop tested and working
5. ✅ Monitoring/alerting configured and tested

Current Status: Bot is in TESTING phase. Suitable for small-scale testing only.

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Safety-First Deployment Sequence

Phase 1: Dry-Run Validation (Days 1-3)

Objective: Validate detection without risking capital

Configuration:

DRY_RUN_MODE=true
ENABLE_EXECUTION=false
ENABLE_SIMULATION=true
MIN_PROFIT_WEI=50000000000000000  # 0.05 ETH - conservative

Actions:

1. Deploy with .env.production.safe configuration
2. Monitor logs for 24+ hours continuously
3. Verify opportunities are detected correctly
4. Check profit calculations match expected values
5. Ensure no false positives

Success Criteria:

• ✅ Bot runs stable for 24+ hours
• ✅ No crashes or errors
• ✅ Profit calculations look reasonable
• ✅ Pool data updates correctly

DO NOT PROCEED if success criteria not met.

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Phase 2: Testnet Validation (Days 4-7)

Objective: Test execution logic without real money

Configuration:

# Use Arbitrum Sepolia/Goerli testnet
CHAIN_ID=421614  # Arbitrum Sepolia
RPC_URL=https://sepolia-rollup.arbitrum.io/rpc
ENABLE_EXECUTION=true
MAX_POSITION_SIZE=100000000000000000  # 0.1 ETH testnet funds

Actions:

1. Get testnet ETH from faucet
2. Deploy on testnet
3. Execute actual transactions
4. Monitor profit/loss carefully
5. Test circuit breaker triggers
6. Test emergency stop

Success Criteria:

• ✅ Transactions execute successfully
• ✅ Profit calculations accurate (compare pre/post trade)
• ✅ Circuit breaker stops trading after losses
• ✅ Emergency stop works immediately
• ✅ No unexpected behavior

DO NOT PROCEED to mainnet if any failures.

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Phase 3: Mainnet Micro-Testing (Days 8-14)

Objective: Validate on mainnet with minimal capital

Configuration:

# Mainnet with strict safety limits
CHAIN_ID=42161
RPC_URL=https://arb-mainnet.g.alchemy.com/v2/YOUR_KEY  # Archive RPC required!
ENABLE_EXECUTION=true
MAX_POSITION_SIZE=100000000000000000  # 0.1 ETH - TINY positions
MAX_DAILY_VOLUME=500000000000000000   # 0.5 ETH daily max
MAX_TRADES_PER_HOUR=5                 # Rate limit

Capital Required: 0.5-1 ETH (amount you're willing to lose)

Actions:

1. Fund wallet with SMALL amount only
2. Enable execution with strict limits
3. Monitor CONTINUOUSLY for first 24 hours
4. Track every trade manually
5. Calculate actual profit/loss
6. Verify gas costs match predictions

Success Criteria:

• ✅ Net profitable over 7 days (including gas)
• ✅ No unexpected losses
• ✅ Circuit breaker triggers appropriately
• ✅ Monitoring/alerts working

IF UNPROFITABLE: Stop immediately, debug issues

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Phase 4: Gradual Scale-Up (Weeks 3-8)

Objective: Slowly increase capital if consistently profitable

Only if Phase 3 was net profitable:

Week	Max Position	Max Daily Volume	Notes
3	0.25 ETH	1 ETH	Still testing
4	0.5 ETH	2 ETH	Monitor closely
5	1 ETH	5 ETH	If profitable, continue
6	2 ETH	10 ETH	Standard operation
7-8	3-5 ETH	20 ETH	Mature operation

Rules:

• If ANY week is unprofitable, revert to previous week's limits
• Track ROI weekly - stop if declining
• Monitor gas costs - stop if eating profits

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🛡️ Safety Mechanisms

1. Circuit Breaker

Triggers:

• 3 consecutive losing trades
• Hourly loss > 0.1 ETH
• Daily loss > 0.5 ETH

Action: Immediately stop trading for 1 hour cooldown

Testing:

# Manually trigger by creating test scenario
# Verify bot stops and doesn't restart automatically

2. Emergency Stop

File-based kill switch:

# Create this file to stop bot immediately
touch /tmp/mev-bot-emergency-stop

# Bot checks this file every 10 seconds
# Gracefully stops all operations

Testing:

# While bot running in testnet:
touch /tmp/mev-bot-emergency-stop
# Bot should log "Emergency stop detected" and exit within 10s

3. Position Size Limits

Prevents large losses from single trade:

• MAX_POSITION_SIZE enforced before execution
• MAX_DAILY_VOLUME enforced cumulatively
• Transactions rejected if limits exceeded

4. Slippage Protection

Prevents sandwich attacks and price manipulation:

• MAX_SLIPPAGE_BPS: 100 (1%) - very strict
• Simulation runs before every trade
• Trade rejected if simulated output < expected

5. Gas Price Limits

Prevents overpaying during network congestion:

• MAX_GAS_PRICE_GWEI: 50 gwei
• Transactions rejected if gas price higher
• Use GAS_PRICE_STRATEGY=safe for lower gas

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📊 Monitoring Requirements

Essential Metrics to Track

1. Profitability Metrics

• Gross profit per trade
• Net profit after gas
• ROI percentage
• Win rate (profitable trades / total trades)

2. Execution Metrics

• Trade execution latency
• Gas costs per trade
• Failed transactions
• Successful vs failed trade ratio

3. Safety Metrics

• Circuit breaker triggers
• Emergency stops
• Position size violations
• Daily volume tracking

4. System Health

• RPC connection status
• WebSocket connection status
• Pool cache size
• Memory/CPU usage

Monitoring Tools

Prometheus + Grafana (included in repo):

docker-compose up -d prometheus grafana
# Access Grafana at http://localhost:3000

Log Monitoring:

# Tail logs in real-time
docker logs -f mev-bot-v2

# Filter for profits
docker logs mev-bot-v2 | grep "profit"

# Filter for errors
docker logs mev-bot-v2 | grep "ERROR\|WARN"

Alerting (recommended):

• Set up Slack/Discord/Telegram webhook
• Alert on circuit breaker triggers
• Alert on large losses (> 0.05 ETH)
• Alert on system errors

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🔧 Production Infrastructure

Required Infrastructure

1. Archive RPC Provider (CRITICAL)

• ❌ Public RPC insufficient
• ✅ Use: Alchemy, QuickNode, or Infura
• Cost: ~$200-500/month for archive access
• Required for pool discovery and state queries

2. Private RPC (Recommended)

• Reduces MEV risk on transaction submission
• Flashbots Protect or private mempool
• Cost: Free (Flashbots) or ~$100/month

3. Dedicated Server

• Minimum: 4 CPU cores, 8GB RAM
• Recommended: 8 CPU cores, 16GB RAM
• Low latency network connection to RPC
• Uptime: 99.9%+

4. Monitoring Stack

• Prometheus for metrics
• Grafana for visualization
• Alerting service (PagerDuty, Slack, etc.)

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⚠️ Known Limitations & Risks

Technical Limitations

1. WebSocket Sequencer Connection

   • Status: Not fully stable on Anvil fork
   • Impact: May miss some pending transactions
   • Mitigation: Test on live testnet/mainnet

2. Pool Discovery

   • Currently uses hardcoded pools for testing
   • Production needs archive RPC for discovery
   • May miss new pools initially

3. Gas Estimation

   • Estimates may be inaccurate under high load
   • May overpay or fail transactions
   • Needs more testing

4. Profit Calculations

   • Not validated against known scenarios yet
   • Risk of calculation errors
   • MUST test extensively before large capital

Market Risks

1. Competition

   • Other MEV bots may front-run
   • Profits may be lower than expected
   • Need low latency connection

2. Gas Price Volatility

   • Network congestion can spike gas
   • May eat into profits
   • Circuit breaker helps limit damage

3. Smart Contract Risks

   • DEX contracts could have bugs
   • Pools could be manipulated
   • Use whitelisted pools only initially

4. Slippage & Sandwich Attacks

   • Larger trades more susceptible
   • Strict slippage limits help
   • Consider splitting large trades

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📋 Pre-Deployment Checklist

Infrastructure

• Archive RPC provider configured and tested
• Private RPC configured (optional but recommended)
• Server meets minimum specs
• Monitoring stack deployed (Prometheus + Grafana)
• Alerting configured and tested
• Backup wallet key secured (hardware wallet recommended)

Configuration

• .env.production.safe reviewed and customized
• All safety limits set conservatively
• DRY_RUN_MODE=true initially
• ENABLE_EXECUTION=false initially
• Gas limits appropriate
• Slippage tolerance conservative

Testing

• Dry-run completed (24+ hours)
• Profit calculations validated
• Circuit breaker tested
• Emergency stop tested
• Testnet deployment successful
• Manual trades verified profitable

Monitoring

• Grafana dashboards configured
• Alerts set up for losses
• Alerts set up for circuit breaker
• Alerts set up for system errors
• Log rotation configured
• Backup/restore tested

Safety

• Emergency stop file path configured
• Circuit breaker thresholds set
• Position limits conservative
• Daily volume limits set
• Gas price limits set
• Whitelist/blacklist configured (if needed)

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🚀 Deployment Commands

Step 1: Build Docker Image

docker build -t mev-bot-v2:production .

Step 2: Configure Environment

# Copy safe configuration
cp .env.production.safe .env.production

# Edit with your keys and RPC endpoints
nano .env.production

# CRITICAL: Verify DRY_RUN_MODE=true for first deployment
grep DRY_RUN_MODE .env.production

Step 3: Deploy with Docker

# Start in dry-run mode
docker run -d \
  --name mev-bot-v2-production \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --env-file .env.production \
  -v $(pwd)/logs:/app/logs \
  -p 9090:9090 \
  mev-bot-v2:production

# Monitor logs in real-time
docker logs -f mev-bot-v2-production

Step 4: Monitor & Validate

# Check status
docker ps | grep mev-bot

# View metrics
curl http://localhost:9090/metrics

# Check for errors
docker logs mev-bot-v2-production | grep ERROR | tail -50

# Monitor circuit breaker status
docker logs mev-bot-v2-production | grep "circuit_breaker"

Step 5: Emergency Stop (if needed)

# Method 1: File-based stop
docker exec mev-bot-v2-production touch /tmp/mev-bot-emergency-stop

# Method 2: Graceful stop
docker stop mev-bot-v2-production

# Method 3: Immediate stop
docker kill mev-bot-v2-production

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📞 Support & Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Issue: Bot not finding opportunities

• Check RPC connection is working
• Verify pool discovery running
• Check MIN_PROFIT_WEI isn't too high
• Review MIN_POOL_LIQUIDITY setting

Issue: High gas costs eating profits

• Lower MAX_GAS_PRICE_GWEI
• Use GAS_PRICE_STRATEGY=safe
• Increase MIN_PROFIT_WEI threshold

Issue: Circuit breaker triggering frequently

• Review trade profitability
• Check profit calculations
• Verify gas estimation accurate
• May need to adjust MIN_PROFIT_WEI higher

Issue: Missing transactions

• Check WebSocket connection stable
• Verify archive RPC working
• Review worker count settings
• Check buffer size adequate

Logs to Check

# All errors
docker logs mev-bot-v2-production 2>&1 | grep "ERROR"

# Profitable trades
docker logs mev-bot-v2-production | grep "profit.*ETH"

# Circuit breaker events
docker logs mev-bot-v2-production | grep "circuit_breaker"

# RPC issues
docker logs mev-bot-v2-production | grep "RPC\|connection"

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⚖️ Legal & Compliance

DISCLAIMER:

• MEV trading may be considered front-running in some jurisdictions
• Ensure compliance with local regulations
• This software is provided AS-IS with no warranties
• Use at your own risk
• Author not responsible for losses

Recommendations:

• Consult legal counsel before deployment
• Understand local securities/trading laws
• Consider tax implications of trading
• Maintain detailed trade records

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📝 Post-Deployment Monitoring

Daily Checks (First Week)

• Review all trades from last 24 hours
• Calculate net profit/loss (including gas)
• Check circuit breaker events
• Review error logs
• Verify RPC connection stable
• Check wallet balance

Weekly Checks (Ongoing)

• Calculate weekly ROI
• Review most/least profitable pools
• Analyze gas cost trends
• Review system resource usage
• Update pool blacklist if needed
• Adjust parameters based on performance

Monthly Reviews

• Comprehensive profit/loss analysis
• Compare to market conditions
• Review and update safety limits
• Update dependencies/security patches
• Backup configuration and logs
• Review and optimize strategies

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🎯 Success Criteria

Minimum viable production deployment:

• ✅ Profitable for 7+ consecutive days
• ✅ ROI > 5% after gas costs
• ✅ Win rate > 60%
• ✅ No circuit breaker triggers from bugs
• ✅ Emergency stop tested and working
• ✅ Monitoring functional and alerting

Ready for capital scale-up:

• ✅ Profitable for 30+ days
• ✅ ROI > 10% monthly
• ✅ Win rate > 70%
• ✅ All safety mechanisms tested
• ✅ No unexpected losses
• ✅ Stable system performance

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Last Updated: 2025-11-10 Version: 1.0.0-rc1 Status: Pre-Production