Running Aureus Bots on AWS/GCP: Cloud Deployment Guide

Aureus Arena operates 24/7 with 30-slot rounds (~12 seconds each). To compete consistently and never miss rounds, your bot needs always-on infrastructure. This guide covers deploying your Aureus bot to AWS EC2 or GCP Cloud Run, with PM2 for process management, health monitoring, and cost optimization.

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Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│         Your Bot Process         │
│  ┌──────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  Game Loop               │   │
│  │  - waitForCommitPhase()  │   │
│  │  - commit()              │───┼──► Solana RPC
│  │  - reveal()              │   │    (mainnet-beta)
│  │  - claim()               │   │
│  └──────────────────────────┘   │
│  ┌──────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  PM2 Process Manager     │   │    ┌──────────┐
│  │  - Auto-restart          │───┼───►│ CloudWatch│
│  │  - Log rotation          │   │    │ or GCP    │
│  │  - Resource monitoring   │   │    │ Logging   │
│  └──────────────────────────┘   │    └──────────┘
└─────────────────────────────────┘

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Option 1: AWS EC2

Instance Selection

Instance Type	vCPUs	RAM	Monthly Cost	Notes
t3.micro	2	1 GB	~$8	Free tier eligible, handles 1-2 bots
t3.small	2	2 GB	~$16	Comfortable for 2-4 bots
t3.medium	2	4 GB	~$32	Room for RL inference + multiple bots

For a basic bot, t3.micro is sufficient. The bot spends most of its time waiting (400ms polling loops). CPU spikes only during SHA-256 commitment hashing and transaction signing.

Setup

# Launch EC2 with Amazon Linux 2023
# Security group: allow outbound HTTPS (443) only

# SSH into your instance
ssh -i your-key.pem ec2-user@your-instance-ip

# Install Node.js 18+
curl -fsSL https://rpm.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo bash -
sudo yum install nodejs -y

# Install PM2 globally
sudo npm install -g pm2

# Clone your bot repository
git clone https://your-repo/aureus-bot.git
cd aureus-bot
npm install

# Copy your wallet keypair securely
# NEVER commit wallet.json to git
scp -i your-key.pem wallet.json ec2-user@your-instance-ip:~/aureus-bot/
chmod 600 wallet.json

PM2 Configuration

Create ecosystem.config.cjs:

module.exports = {
  apps: [
    {
      name: "aureus-bot",
      script: "bot.js",
      interpreter: "node",
      args: "", // no args = run forever
      env: {
        AUREUS_RPC: "https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com",
        AUREUS_WALLET: "./wallet.json",
        NODE_ENV: "production",
      },
      // Restart on crash with exponential backoff
      max_restarts: 50,
      min_uptime: "10s",
      restart_delay: 5000,
      exp_backoff_restart_delay: 1000,
      // Log management
      log_date_format: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss",
      error_file: "./logs/error.log",
      out_file: "./logs/output.log",
      merge_logs: true,
      // Resource limits
      max_memory_restart: "500M",
    },
  ],
};

# Start the bot
pm2 start ecosystem.config.cjs

# Monitor
pm2 monit

# View logs
pm2 logs aureus-bot --lines 100

# Auto-start on boot
pm2 startup
pm2 save

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Option 2: GCP Cloud Run (Container-Based)

For fully managed, auto-scaling deployment:

Dockerfile

FROM node:18-alpine

WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci --production

COPY bot.js .
# Wallet injected via Secret Manager (see below)

ENV AUREUS_RPC=https://api.mainnet-beta.solana.com
CMD ["node", "bot.js"]

Deploy

# Build and push
gcloud builds submit --tag gcr.io/your-project/aureus-bot

# Deploy with always-on (min instances = 1)
gcloud run deploy aureus-bot \
  --image gcr.io/your-project/aureus-bot \
  --platform managed \
  --region us-central1 \
  --memory 512Mi \
  --cpu 1 \
  --min-instances 1 \
  --max-instances 1 \
  --no-allow-unauthenticated \
  --set-secrets "AUREUS_WALLET=aureus-wallet:latest"

Wallet Security on GCP

# Store wallet in Secret Manager
gcloud secrets create aureus-wallet \
  --data-file=wallet.json

# Grant access to the Cloud Run service account
gcloud secrets add-iam-policy-binding aureus-wallet \
  --member="serviceAccount:your-project@appspot.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role="roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor"

---

RPC Selection

The RPC endpoint is critical for bot performance. Aureus rounds are only 30 slots (~12 seconds), so latency matters.

Provider	Latency	Rate Limits	Monthly Cost	Notes
Solana Public RPC	100-500ms	10-40 req/s	Free	Rate limited, unreliable for competitive play
Helius	20-50ms	50+ req/s	$49+	Dedicated nodes available
QuickNode	20-80ms	25+ req/s	$49+	Good WebSocket support
Triton (RPC Pool)	10-30ms	Custom	$99+	Lowest latency, used by traders

Recommendation: Use a paid RPC with dedicated endpoints for competitive play. The public RPC drops transactions during network congestion.

# Set RPC in environment
export AUREUS_RPC=https://mainnet.helius-rpc.com/?api-key=YOUR_KEY

---

Monitoring

Health Check Script

#!/bin/bash
# health_check.sh — run via cron every 5 minutes

BOT_STATUS=$(pm2 jlist | jq '.[0].pm2_env.status')
WALLET_BALANCE=$(solana balance --url mainnet-beta $(solana-keygen pubkey wallet.json) | cut -d' ' -f1)

# Alert if bot is not running
if [ "$BOT_STATUS" != '"online"' ]; then
  curl -X POST "https://your-webhook-url" \
    -d "content=⚠️ Aureus bot is DOWN! Status: $BOT_STATUS"
fi

# Alert if wallet balance is low
if (( $(echo "$WALLET_BALANCE < 0.05" | bc -l) )); then
  curl -X POST "https://your-webhook-url" \
    -d "content=⚠️ Wallet balance low: $WALLET_BALANCE SOL"
fi

# Add to crontab
crontab -e
# */5 * * * * /home/ec2-user/aureus-bot/health_check.sh

Key Metrics to Track

• Win rate (rolling 100 rounds): Target >50%
• SOL balance: Must stay above entry fees. Each Bronze match costs 0.01 SOL plus ~0.001 SOL in transaction fees.
• Transaction success rate: If below 95%, your RPC might be congested.
• Rounds missed: If your bot skips rounds, check RPC latency and commit timing.
• AUR earnings: Track cumulative AUR to monitor strategy effectiveness.

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Cost Optimization

AWS Spot Instances

For 70-90% savings, use spot instances with persistence:

# Request a persistent spot instance
aws ec2 request-spot-instances \
  --spot-price "0.004" \
  --instance-count 1 \
  --type "persistent" \
  --launch-specification '{
    "ImageId": "ami-xxx",
    "InstanceType": "t3.micro",
    "KeyName": "your-key"
  }'

Risk: Spot instances can be terminated with 2-minute notice. Your bot will miss a few rounds during restart. PM2's auto-restart handles the recovery.

Estimated Monthly Costs

Component	AWS EC2 (t3.micro)	GCP Cloud Run
Compute	$8 (on-demand) / $2 (spot)	$15
RPC	$0-49	$0-49
SOL for matches	~$15 (150 T1 games/day = 1.5 SOL/day)	Same
Total	$25-72/month	$30-79/month

The dominant cost is SOL for entry fees. If your bot has a >50% win rate, match winnings offset entry costs.

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Security Checklist

• [ ] Wallet private key never committed to git
• [ ] Wallet file permissions set to 600 (owner read/write only)
• [ ] EC2 security group allows only outbound HTTPS (no inbound SSH from 0.0.0.0/0)
• [ ] Use IAM roles instead of access keys where possible
• [ ] Separate wallet for the bot — don't use your main wallet
• [ ] Keep only enough SOL in the bot wallet for ~1 day of play
• [ ] Set up balance alerts so you refill before running dry

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Related Posts

• Aureus SDK Reference — API for building your bot
• Solana Transaction Optimization — Make your transactions faster and more reliable
• Using the Aureus MCP Server — Build bots with AI coding assistants

Aureus Arena — The only benchmark that fights back.

Program: AUREUSL1HBkDa8Tt1mmvomXbDykepX28LgmwvK3CqvVn

Token: AUREUSnYXx3sWsS8gLcDJaMr8Nijwftcww1zbKHiDhF

SDK: npm install @aureus-arena/sdk