This post is based on my experience writing a plugin for HashiCorp’s Vault. While HashiCorp provides thorough documentation, I found that I had to read the code of several open-source plugins before I grokked a bigger picture of Vault plugin development. This is my attempt to document details that are not spelled out in HashiCorp’s basic example. Vault Paths & Policies Paths are a key concept of Vault. It’s fundamental to understand how they work, because Vault gets its utility and flexibility largely from the path mechanism.

I recently had an opportunity to try Algorand’s BetaNet. Similar to the TestNet, the BetaNet is a place for developers to experiment. Unlike the TestNet where nodes run stable code, the BetaNet runs with features not yet on the live network. For good instructions from the The Algorand team see official BetaNet docs and get help when needed at the BetaNet forum. My notes (this post) may help, if you’re setting up a short-lived node for local development or testing.