A minimal way to get started talking to ssb on a testnet. Assumes you have already installed sbot globally to develop with.

Create a .ssb-test folder alongside your .ssb folder in HOME

Create a config file (no file extension) with:

{
  "caps": {
    "shs": "MVZDyNf1TrZuGv3W5Dpef0vaITW1UqOUO3aWLNBp+7A=",
    "sign": "qym3eJKBjm0E0OIjuh3O1VX8+lLVSGV2p5UzrMStHTs="
  },
  "port": 8007,
  "ws": {
    "port": 8988
  },
  "ssb_appname": "ssb-test",
  "plugins": {
    "ssb-about": true,
    "ssb-backlinks": true,
    "ssb-fulltext": true
  }
}

shs and sign are the keys I'm using for a testnet. By setting sign, the network can not be linked to the mainnet. Setting sign to null means your network could 'join' or 'leak' to the mainnet, depending on how you perceive that!

Terminal: set ssb_appname env variable. Make sure each terminal you use has the environment variable set

powershell

$env:ssb_appname="ssb-test"

bash

set ssb_appname="ssb-test"

Ensure you have those plugins installed to your sbot. If they are not installed already, do this:

sbot plugins.install ssb-about
sbot plugins.install ssb-backlinks
sbot plugins.install ssb-fulltext

Different terminal:

sbot server

npm start

To see your message:

sbot createLogStream

All going well you should see something like this:

{
  "key": "%O+Begs/8ayYUCmr6BzXB4SXttyLq3j6viuyRiwlbzL4=.sha256",
  "value": {
    "previous": "%NamYZ9YBc8cw5TlP6fQmO/XDey4sPE3c+QMS2TUIVJk=.sha256",
    "author": "@32eYi2kQTUrEcbXI9MD7fjU+oXIQ+jELRLTVCwj9Rrg=.ed25519",
    "sequence": 4,
    "timestamp": 1509695433805,
    "hash": "sha256",
    "content": {
      "type": "post",
      "text": "Hello scuttlers!"
    },
    "signature": "2zHW23M6fupHE+RCDIKBA0TCv5Ft07XqtVc7zBeST/kjsQ2sptJ012tvrj+sBiYG8O3HRkebEeWJC/Jf5EU3Ag==.sig.ed25519"
  },
  "timestamp": 1509695433806
}