docs: August 2026 w33 — CLI reference gaps on release/3.5, dead checkpoint endpoint

[bloxster]

Why

The release/3.5 CLI reference was missing 11 registered flags. All 11 are already documented on release/3.6 and main — #22938 and #22939 added them on 2026-08-01 — but neither had a release/3.5 counterpart. Since docs.erigon.tech publishes from release/3.5 only, the deployed docs were the sole place carrying the gap.

The flags: --allow-insecure-unlock, --chaos.monkey, --dev-validator-count, --dev-validator-seed, --dev.slot-time, --etl.bufferSize, --experimental.always-generate-changesets, --experimental.bal, --experimental.concurrent-commitment, --miner.extradata, --miner.gaslimit.

Each is registered in node/cli/default_flags.go on this branch and appeared in no page under docs/site/docs.

Not a copy of the 3.6 text

Ten entries are based on the wording merged in #22939, but every default was re-read from release/3.5 source. The eleventh, --experimental.concurrent-commitment, exists only on this branch — it was renamed to --experimental.parallel-commitment for 3.6 — so its entry is written from 3.5 source directly.

Then two adversarial review passes (GPT-5.5 and Fable) were run against the diff before pushing, and five statements in the merged 3.6 wording turned out to be false. Each was re-checked against source before rewriting:

Statement in the 3.6 text	What the source says
--miner.gaslimit default 0	cmd/utils/flags.go applies it only when set and non-zero; setDefaultMinerGasLimit (node/eth/backend.go) then fills an unset limit from the chain config's default block gas limit, falling back to 60_000_000
--experimental.always-generate-changesets default false	derived as !dbg.BatchCommitments (node/ethconfig/config.go:93); BATCH_COMMITMENTS defaults true, so under BATCH_COMMITMENTS=false the default flips
"Allows insecure account unlocking"	the flag does nothing — registered, but read nowhere in the tree on 3.5, 3.6 or main, and Erigon exposes no account-unlocking RPC
--dev-validator-seed "enables PoS dev mode"	setDevnetEthConfig is reached only via case networkname.Dev, so --chain dev selects dev mode; the seed is merely read inside it
--dev.slot-time "minimum 2"	values below 2 are silently raised to 2, not rejected

Because all five are equally wrong on release/3.6 and main, the same corrections ship there in the sibling PRs rather than leaving the three branches to diverge.

Also noted: --miner.extradata is truncated to 32 bytes, and --etl.bufferSize is settable via the ETL_OPTIMAL environment variable.

Dead checkpoint-sync endpoint

The Prysm example passed --checkpoint-sync-url=https://beaconstate.info. That host no longer resolves — its NS records still delegate to bunny.net, but there is no A, AAAA or CNAME record, so the documented command fails at DNS before it reaches the network. Confirmed by authoritative query to kiki.bunny.net (NOERROR, zero answers).

Replaced with https://mainnet.checkpoint.sigp.io, which the Lighthouse example on this same page already used and which is on the eth-clients checkpoint-sync list the surrounding prose links to. Worth noting the dead host is still listed upstream, so that list is itself stale.

The frozen versioned_docs/version-v3.3 and version-v3.4 snapshots carry the same dead URL. Left alone deliberately — they are archived releases, and the routine restricts edits to docs/site/docs/.

Testing

• cd docs/site && npm ci && npm run build ✅
• python3 docs/site/scripts/generate-llms.py --check ✅ (artifacts regenerated and committed)
• Every default and behaviour claim verified against origin/release/3.5 source, never against 3.6/main or a --help string

Part of the w33 weekly docs routine. Sibling PRs cover main and release/3.6.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates the release/3.5 documentation set to close CLI reference gaps on the branch that backs docs.erigon.tech, and fixes a now-dead checkpoint-sync URL in the external CL quickstart.

Changes:

• Add documentation for previously-undocumented CLI flags (dev-mode helpers, miner/build flags, ETL tuning, and experimental commitment mode) in the CLI/config reference.
• Replace the non-resolving beaconstate.info checkpoint-sync endpoint in the Prysm example with https://mainnet.checkpoint.sigp.io.
• Regenerate and commit the LLM artifacts (llms-full.txt) to reflect the doc updates.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
llms-full.txt	Regenerated aggregate LLM artifact reflecting the updated docs content (flags + checkpoint URL).
docs/site/static/llms-full.txt	Regenerated docs-site-served copy of the LLM artifact to match the updated docs content.
docs/site/docs/get-started/easy-nodes/how-to-run-an-ethereum-node/ethereum-with-an-external-cl.mdx	Updates Prysm checkpoint-sync URL to a working endpoint already used elsewhere in the page.
docs/site/docs/fundamentals/configuring-erigon.mdx	Documents the missing registered CLI flags and adds an execution/commitment-trie note for --experimental.concurrent-commitment.

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