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Getting Started

Welcome to Cowboy — a privacy-preserving protocol that lets you prove facts about web data using zero-knowledge proofs. This guide will walk you through setting up your environment, generating your first proof, and writing your own integration.

🧰 What You'll Need

Before proving anything, you need two components installed:

  • Cowboy TLSN Browser Extension
    Captures web requests and works with a notary server to produce TLS Notary proofs.

  • Cowboy Prover Docker Container
    Generates RISC Zero zk-STARK proofs based on your TLS Notary transcript and custom logic.

➡️ See Resources for setup instructions.

✅ Quick Start Steps

  1. Install the Cowboy TLSN Extension

    • Follow the steps in Resources.
    • Configure it to use Cowboy’s hosted notary server.

  2. Run the Cowboy Prover Locally

    docker run -p 1881:1881 --platform linux/amd64 ghcr.io/project-cowboy/cowboy-prover:latest

  3. Capture a Web Request Use the extension to browse to a site like x.com, then trigger the notarization flow.

  4. Generate and Submit a Proof After capturing the TLS Notary proof, click the On-chain tab in the extension to:

    • Connect to a devnet node
    • Create a wallet and claim test funds
    • Look up any existing integration
    • Prove and submit your data to the network

See the Generating and Submitting Proofs guide for full details.

🧪 Test an Example Integration

Want to see what Cowboy can do? Try one of the example integrations:

  • X.com account proof
  • TikTok influencer tier, without revealing folllower count or username

These use preconfigured endpoints and logic to showcase how custom integrations work.

🛠️ Write Your Own Integration

Once you're comfortable submitting proofs, try writing your own:

  • Write a Rust program that parses the TLS Notary proof and asserts your desired conditions.
  • Use the prover to generate the app-specific zk-STARK proof.
  • Upload your integration to the chain and start verifying onchain.

Check out the Developer Examples for structure, utilities, and inspiration.

Repo

Check out the Repo here

🧠 Learn More

  • Introduction: What Cowboy is and why it matters.
  • FAQs: Get clarity on integrations, proof types, and more.
  • Resources: All tools in one place.