Quickstart

This quickstart takes you through the shortest reliable path through ProveKit: compile the checked-in noir-examples/basic circuit, generate a proof from its prover inputs, and verify the proof locally. About five minutes.

You’ll need provekit-cli available (cargo install provekit-cli or a source checkout) and a copy of noir-examples/basic/ to run against. See Installation and setup if either is missing.

The commands below assume provekit-cli is on your PATH. Source-checkout users: substitute cargo run --release --bin provekit-cli -- for provekit-cli in every command.

Run your first proof

1. Enter the example Noir package.

   cd noir-examples/basic

2. Prepare the prover and verifier keys.

   provekit-cli prepare

3. Generate a proof from Prover.toml.

   provekit-cli prove

4. Verify the proof locally.

   provekit-cli verify

What success looks like

verify returns exit code 0 when the proof is valid. If verification fails, re-run prepare in the same package directory before investigating further. A stale .pkp / .pkv pair is the most common cause.

What each command reads and writes

Step	Command	Reads	Writes
1	prepare	Nargo.toml, src/main.nr, Noir dependencies	basic.pkp, basic.pkv, Noir target/ artifacts
2	prove	basic.pkp, Prover.toml	proof.np
3	verify	basic.pkv, proof.np	exit status only, no output file

basic.pkp, basic.pkv, and proof.np are generated. Don’t commit them unless a downstream integration explicitly relies on checked-in fixtures.

Generated artifacts

Artifact	Purpose	Default location
basic.pkp	Prover key written by prepare.	Named after the enclosing Noir package.
basic.pkv	Verifier key written by prepare.	Named after the enclosing Noir package.
proof.np	Proof written by prove, consumed by verify.	./proof.np (override with prove --out).
Prover.toml	Prover inputs for the example circuit.	Checked into noir-examples/basic/.

Clean up

Return the example directory to a source-only state:

rm -f basic.pkp basic.pkv proof.np
rm -rf target

Where to go next

• End-to-end overview, working-directory and artifact rules across every integration path.
• Generate artifacts, explicit output paths, hash choices, and recursive-verifier exports.
• Artifact lifecycle, pairing, regeneration, and custody rules before sharing files.
• Common errors, if prepare, prove, or verify can’t find expected files.