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This guide covers the flags every orchestrator sets, and how to choose their values. It assumes go-livepeer is installed and your GPU is detected. For the full flag list, see the CLI flags reference.

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The essential flags

These must be set every time the node starts as an orchestrator.
FlagPurpose
-network arbitrum-one-mainnetJoin the production network (default is offchain — no protocol participation)
-ethUrl <RPC>An Arbitrum One RPC endpoint for on-chain reads/writes
-orchestratorEnable the on-chain protocol role (routing, reward calls, discovery)
-transcoderEnable local GPU transcoding
-nvidia <ids>Which NVIDIA GPUs to use (0, 0,1, or all)
-maxSessions <n>Max concurrent transcode sessions
-pricePerUnit <wei>Price per pixel, in wei (see Pricing)
-serviceAddr <ip:port>Public address gateways use to reach you
A complete combined-mode startup command: 
livepeer \
  -network arbitrum-one-mainnet \
  -ethUrl https://arb-mainnet.g.alchemy.com/v2/YOUR_API_KEY \
  -orchestrator \
  -transcoder \
  -nvidia 0 \
  -maxSessions 10 \
  -pricePerUnit 1000 \
  -serviceAddr YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:8935
Add -v 6 while getting started for verbose logs (transcoding activity, RPC calls, sessions).

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Choosing the GPU

nvidia-smi -L          # list device IDs first

-nvidia 0              # single GPU, device 0
-nvidia 0,1            # two GPUs
-nvidia all            # all available GPUs
Omitting -nvidia falls back to CPU transcoding, which is too slow to be competitive. For AI-only operation you still need -nvidia to expose the GPU to AI runner containers, even without -transcoder.

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Setting the session limit

Set -maxSessions to the minimum of your hardware limit and your bandwidth limit: 
session limit = min(hardware limit, bandwidth limit)
  • Hardware limit — the highest concurrent session count your GPU sustains at a real-time ratio ≤ 0.8 (benchmark with livepeer_bench).
  • Bandwidth limit — available symmetric Mbps ÷ 6 Mbps per stream × 0.8 margin.
Example: hardware limit 12, 100 Mbps bandwidth (~13) → use -maxSessions 12.
-maxSessions applies to video transcoding only. AI capacity is set per pipeline by the capacity field in aiModels.json — see Add AI inference.

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Setting the service address

-serviceAddr is how the network finds you. Common mistakes that silently cost you all your jobs:
  • using an internal IP (192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x) — not routable from the internet
  • using 0.0.0.0 — binds locally but isn’t a network address
  • changing the IP without updating on-chain registration — gateways lose contact
Prefer a domain name (orch.yourdomain.com:8935): if the server IP changes, you update DNS instead of paying for a new on-chain registration transaction.

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Deployment modes

ModeFlagsUse when
Combined (most common)-orchestrator -transcoderOne machine handles everything
Orchestrator-only-orchestratorRemote transcoders connect via -orchSecret
Transcoder-only-transcoder -orchAddr <host:port>Running a GPU worker that reports to a separate orchestrator process
In a split (O-T) setup, add -reward=false to all transcoder processes — only the orchestrator process should call reward(). Also drop -ethUrl from transcoders sharing the wallet so they don’t submit on-chain transactions.

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Run it as a service

For production, supervise the process so it restarts on failure. A minimal systemd unit:
/etc/systemd/system/livepeer.service
[Unit]
Description=Livepeer Orchestrator
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/livepeer \
  -network arbitrum-one-mainnet \
  -ethUrl https://arb-mainnet.g.alchemy.com/v2/YOUR_API_KEY \
  -orchestrator -transcoder -nvidia 0 \
  -maxSessions 10 -pricePerUnit 1000 \
  -serviceAddr YOUR_PUBLIC_IP:8935
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable --now livepeer
journalctl -u livepeer -f

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Next

Activate on Arbitrum

Fund the wallet, stake LPT, and register on-chain.

Set pricing

Price so gateways actually select your node.