<p>A relay is a full node. I thibk what you're asking is how can I have a light wallet like experience with cardano-cli and the answer to that is you can't; however you can use something like blockfrost API to get the same type of information cardano-cli can provide.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-22T23:20:11.860Z
Oh i see :(, thanks for that, it's because i always run out of resources when trying to build a full node on docker.
Mysterious_android
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-22T14:41:43.340Z
2021-12-22T14:41:43.340Z
Samuel Leathers
<p>As the other answer says there is no real difference, a cardano-node is just configured to become a relay, its the same thing underneath.</p>
<p>If you build cardano-node from source, then you can control the number of threads used to compile with the standard -j flag, -j8 being 8 cores, more cores = more RAM needed.  <a href="https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node/blob/master/doc/getting-started/install.md/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node/blob/master/doc/getting-started/install.md/</a></p>
<p>Still, actually running cardano-node on 8GB might be a bit too small, RAM optimizations are coming.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-23T16:29:58.733Z
2021-12-23T16:29:58.733Z
Scalextrix
<p>I want to start a relay node not run the full cardano node.</p>
<p>There doesn't seem to be any tutorials for starting a relay node.</p>
<p>Anyone know how can i just a lightweight relay node so that I can run cardano-cli queries ?</p>
<p>Please note i only have 8 GB memory in docker so I can't afford to run a full node using docker or AWS/Google because they will cost a lot.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>

<wallet><cardano-cli><cardano-node>
How to run a Cardano relay instead of a full node?
# How to run a Cardano relay instead of a full node?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-12-22)

I want to start a relay node not run the full cardano node.

There doesn't seem to be any tutorials for starting a relay node.

Anyone know how can i just a lightweight relay node so that I can run cardano-cli queries ?

Please note i only have 8 GB memory in docker so I can't afford to run a full node using docker or AWS/Google because they will cost a lot.

Thanks

**Tags:** wallet, cardano-cli, cardano-node

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-12-22. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

A relay is a full node. I thibk what you're asking is how can I have a light wallet like experience with cardano-cli and the answer to that is you can't; however you can use something like blockfrost API to get the same type of information cardano-cli can provide.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Oh i see :(, thanks for that, it's because i always run out of resources when trying to build a full node on docker.  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2021-12-23. Score: 2

As the other answer says there is no real difference, a cardano-node is just configured to become a relay, its the same thing underneath.

If you build cardano-node from source, then you can control the number of threads used to compile with the standard -j flag, -j8 being 8 cores, more cores = more RAM needed. <https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node/blob/master/doc/getting-started/install.md/>

Still, actually running cardano-node on 8GB might be a bit too small, RAM optimizations are coming.


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