Testnets

CLI Reference

The Cardano command line interface (CLI) provides a collection of tools for key generation, transaction construction, certificate creation and other important tasks. It is organized in a hierarchy of subcommands, and each level comes with its own built-in documentation of command syntax and options.

This section provides a reference of the core cardano-cli shelley commands and their associated sub commands:

cardano-cli shelley The set of cardano-cli shelley commands include:

• address: Shelley payment address commands
• stake-address: Shelley stake address commands
• transaction: Shelley transaction commands
• node: Shelley node operation commands
• stake-pool: Shelley stake pool commands
• query: Shelley node query commands. This queries the local node whose Unix domain socket is obtained from the CARDANO_NODE_SOCKET-PATH environment variable.
• block: Shelley block commands
• system: Shelley system commands
• genesis: Shelley genesis block commands
• text-view: commands for dealing with Shelley text view files that are stored on disk such as transactions or addresses
• governance: Shelley governance commands

cardano-cli shelley address The address command contains the following sub commands:

• key-gen: creates a single address key pair
• key-hash: prints the hash of an address to stdout
• build: builds a Shelley payment address, with optional delegation to a stake address
• build-multisig: builds a Shelley payment multi-sig address.
• info: prints details about the address

cardano-cli shelley stake-address The stake-address command contains the following sub commands:

• key-gen: creates a single address key pair
• build: builds a stake address
• register: registers a stake address
• delegate: delegates from a stake address to a stake pool
• de-register: de-registers a stake address
• registration-certificate: creates a registration certificate
• delegation-certificate: creates a stake address delegation certificate
• deregistration-certificate: creates a de-registration certificate

cardano-cli shelley transaction The transaction command contains the following sub commands:

• build-raw: builds a low-level transaction
• sign: signs the transaction
• witness: witnesses a transaction
• sign-witness: signs and witnesses a transaction
• check: checks the transaction
• submit: submits the transaction to the local node whose Unix domain socket is obtained from the CARDANO_NODE_SOCKET_PATH environment variable.
• calculate-min-fee: calculates the minimum fee for the transaction
• info: prints information about the transaction

cardano-cli shelley node The node command contains the following sub commands:

• key-gen: creates a key pair for a node operator’s offline key and a new certificate issue counter
• key-gen-KES: creates a key pair for a node KES operational key
• key-gen-VRF: creates a key pair for a node VRF operational key
• issue-op-cert: issues a node operational certificate

cardano-cli shelley stake-pool The stake-pool command contains the following sub commands:

• register: registers a stake pool
• re-register: re-registers a stake pool
• retire: retires a stake pool
• registration-certificate: creates a stake pool registration certificate
• de-registration-certificate: creates a stake pool de-registration certificate
• id: builds pool id from the offline key

cardano-cli shelley query The query command contains the following sub commands:

• pool-id: retrieves the node’s pool ID
• protocol-parameters: retrieves the node’s current pool parameters
• tip: gets the node’s current tip (slot number, hash, and block number)
• utxo: retrieves the node’s current UTxO, filtered by address
• version: retrieves the node’s version details
• status: retrieves the current status of the node
• ledger-state: dumps the current state of the node
• stake-address-info: get the current delegations and reward accounts filtered by stake address.
• stake-distribution: get the node's current aggregated stake distribution

cardano-cli shelley block The block command contains the following sub command:

• info: retrieves the pool ID that produced a particular block.

cardano-cli shelley system The system command contains the following sub commands:

• start: starts the system
• stop: stops the system

cardano-cli shelley governance The governance command contains the following sub commands:

• create-mir-certificate: creates an MIR (move instantaneous rewards) certificate
• create-update-proposal: creates an update proposal
• protocol-update: performs a protocol update
• cold-keys: retrieves the cold keys

cardano-cli shelley genesis The genesis command contains the following sub commands:

• key-gen-genesis: creates a Shelley genesis key pair
• key-gen-delegate: creates a Shelley genesis delegate key pair
• key-gen-utxo: creates a Shelley genesis UTxO key pair
• key-hash: prints the identifier, or hash, of a public key
• get-ver-key: derives verification key from a signing key
• initial-addr: gets the address for an initial UTxO based on the verification key
• initial-txin: gets the transaction ID for an initial UTxO based on the verification key.
• create: creates a Shelley genesis file from a genesis template, as well as genesis keys, delegation keys, and spending keys.

cardano-cli shelley text-view The text-view command contains the following sub command:

• decode-cbor: prints a text view file, as decoded CBOR.