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 commands and their associated sub commands:

cardano-cli

The set of top level cardano-cli commands include:

• address: Payment address commands
• stake-address: Stake address commands
• transaction: Transaction commands
• node: Node operation commands
• stake-pool: Stake pool commands
• query: Node query commands. This queries the local node whose Unix domain socket is obtained from the CARDANO_NODE_SOCKET-PATH environment variable.
• block: block commands
• system: system commands
• genesis: Genesis block commands
• governance: Governance commands
• text-view: Commands for dealing with Shelley TextView files. Transactions and addresses are stored on disk such as TextView files.

cardano-cli 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 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 transaction

The transaction command contains the following sub commands:

• build-raw: builds a low-level transaction
• build: builds a 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 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 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 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
• pool-params: Queries the pool parameters
• query stake-snapshot: Queries the stake snap shot
• query protocol-state: Queries the protocol state
• query ledger-state: Queries the ledger state

cardano-cli block

The block command contains the following sub command:

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

cardano-cli system

The system command contains the following sub commands:

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

cardano-cli 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 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 text-view

The text-view command contains the following sub command:

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