---
title: Tools
description: Some tools that can be useful when working with Ocean Protocol.
---

## Barge

Barge is a shell script allowing you to run an Ocean network by orchestrating all [core components](/components) locally with Docker and Docker Compose. Extensively used by Ocean developers to develop and test Ocean core components locally, and the [quickest way](/setup/quickstart/) to get a full Ocean network up and running.

<repo name="barge"></repo>

## Tuna

Tuna is a showcase and provides cross environment examples & tests for the Squid client libraries.

<repo name="tuna"></repo>

## Plecos

Plecos is a Python tool to check metadata (a JSON file) to see if it conforms to the [OEP-8 schema](https://github.com/oceanprotocol/OEPs/tree/master/8). It wraps the [jsonschema](https://github.com/Julian/jsonschema) validator. Aquarius uses Plecos for checking metadata and other Ocean Protocol software will probably use it in the future.

<repo name="plecos"></repo>

## Faucet Server

The [Ocean Protocol Faucet Server](https://github.com/oceanprotocol/faucet) is a microservice that allows users to request Ether for a particular Ethereum network (e.g. the Nile Testnet). It is [deployed in multiple networks](/tutorials/get-ether-and-ocean-tokens/#get-ether), and started by default when using [Barge](#barge).

<repo name="faucet"></repo>

## Submarine Blockchain Explorer

Submarine is based on [BlockScout](https://github.com/poanetwork/blockscout) (by [POA](https://poa.network/)), an open source blockchain explorer for EVM-based blockchain networks. We use our own [fork of BlockScout](https://github.com/oceanprotocol/blockscout).

Instances are deployed for:

- **Pacific Network: [submarine.oceanprotocol.com](https://submarine.oceanprotocol.com/)**
- **Nile Testnet: [submarine.dev-ocean.com](https://submarine.dev-ocean.com/)**

<repo name="blockscout"></repo>

## Ocean Network Status

The Ocean status page checks all Ocean network connections from your browser.

- [**Ocean Network Status**](https://status.oceanprotocol.com)

<repo name="status"></repo>

## Command-Line Interfaces

There are a few Ocean Protocol command-line interfaces (CLIs). All of them were under development at the time of writing, so you may have issues with using them.

- [ocean-cli](https://github.com/bigchaindb-gmbh/ocean-cli) was built using squid-java
- [ocean-cli-py](https://github.com/bigchaindb-gmbh/ocean-cli-py) was built using squid-py

## IPFS

The IPFS protocol is integrated into the Ocean Protocol stack in various places. For this, we run and maintain our own IPFS node and gateway with a custom frontpage for simple adding of files to that IPFS node.

- [**Ocean Protocol 💖 IPFS**](https://ipfs.oceanprotocol.com)

<repo name="ipfs"></repo>

To learn more about how IPFS is used, have a look at OEP-15 and the respective blog post:

- [OEP-15: Distributed Asset File Storage with IPFS](https://github.com/oceanprotocol/OEPs/tree/master/15)
- [Ocean Protocol and IPFS, Sitting In The Merkle Tree](https://blog.oceanprotocol.com/ocean-ipfs-integration-store-asset-files-43c623c356d7)