wallet-cli-usage

name

wallet-cli-usage

description

Official Ledger wallet-cli - USB-based CLI for Ledger hardware wallet flows (account discover, receive, balances, operations, send, swap quote/execute/status, genuine-check, assets token / token-by-id) and the Ledger Key Ring (ring init/encrypt/decrypt/keys/destroy — LKRP-backed encryption of files and text). Use for any wallet-cli command execution and for mapping informal requests to the right command.

wallet-cli

USB-based CLI for Ledger wallet flows. Networks: bitcoin, ethereum, solana (mainnet + testnets).

Install globally with a user-preferred package manager — npm i -g @ledgerhq/wallet-cli, pnpm add -g @ledgerhq/wallet-cli, yarn global add @ledgerhq/wallet-cli, or bun add -g @ledgerhq/wallet-cli. Run: wallet-cli [flags].

Concepts & rationale: for why a command behaves the way it does, or to surface a safety rule that this skill states tersely (genuine check, receive-address verification, sessions, sandbox, device contention), read references/business-logic.md.

Session first: When invoked without a specific task, immediately run session view — do not ask the user what to do first. Show the result, then ask what to do next. If labels exist, skip account discover.

Sandbox: account discover, receive, send, genuine-check, swap execute, ring encrypt, ring decrypt, ring keys, ring destroy must use dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true — the first group is blocked by USB restrictions; the ring commands are blocked by OS keychain access restrictions.

Device contention: Never run two device commands in parallel — they fail with [object Object] or garbled APDU. Run sequentially.

Device readiness: Before running a device command, briefly describe what you're about to do. The CLI prompts for device interaction itself — don't time out or kill the command. Exception: genuine-check exits immediately ([✖] Wrong app. Open Ledger dashboard., exit code 4) if any currency app is open — unlike the other device commands, it targets the dashboard and has no auto-launch path. Ensure the device is on the dashboard before running; if it exits, ask the user to back out to the dashboard and re-run.

Ambiguous requests — ask, don't guess. If a required parameter is missing or unclear (no recipient for send, no network for account discover, an amount with no ticker), stop and ask. A wrong guess on a hardware wallet flow can mean irreversible fund loss.

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Intent map

Map informal phrasings to commands. Account references use a session label (e.g. ethereum-1).

User says	Command
"show me my wallet", "what do I have", "let's get started", no specific task	session view (run immediately, before asking anything)
"find my accounts", "scan my wallet", "import my wallet", "set up Ethereum/Bitcoin"	account discover <network>
"where do I send funds to", "give me my address", "deposit address"	receive <account>
"how much do I have", "balance", "what's my ETH balance"	balances <account>
"what did I send", "transaction history", "recent activity"	operations <account>
"send X to Y", "transfer", "pay", "withdraw to an exchange"	send <account> --to <address> --amount '<amount> <ticker>'
"swap A to B", "convert", "trade ETH for BTC", "exchange"	swap quote -> swap execute -> swap status
"where can I earn", "staking rates", "yield/APY", "best return on my ETH/SOL"	earn yields [-n <network>]
"what am I staking", "my staking positions", "earn balance"	earn positions <account>
"stake my SOL", "deposit into a vault", "earn yield on my USDC", "delegate"	earn deposit <account> --product <id> --amount '<amount>'
"unstake", "withdraw my stake", "redeem from vault", "stop earning"	earn withdraw <account> …
"is this Ledger real", "verify authenticity", "I bought this off eBay"	genuine-check
"encrypt this file / these env vars / publish tokens", "GPG alternative", "secret manager", "decrypt anywhere with my Ledger"	ring init -> ring encrypt --key <name> / ring decrypt --key <name>
"what keys do I have on my ring", "list domains/projects I've encrypted under"	ring keys
"wipe my key ring", "destroy the ring", "tear down LKRP membership"	ring destroy
"start over", "clear my session", "I switched devices"

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Out of scope — say no, don't improvise

If the user asks for any of the following, surface that wallet-cli does not support it yet rather than constructing a command:

• NFTs (mint, transfer, view).
• OpenPGP-compatible output or key-share / multi-recipient encryption (the ring commands encrypt with a per-user Ledger Key Ring, not a sharable key).
• send, receive, operations, or swap execute on testnets and layer 2s (e.g. Base).
• Custom chains not listed in the Networks line above.

---

Session & labels

account discover persists accounts. Each gets a label: <network>[-derivation][-env]-<n> (e.g. ethereum-1, bitcoin-native-1, ethereum-sepolia-1).

All --account flags accept a session label (e.g. ethereum-1). Run account discover first to populate the session.

---

Commands

Command	Device	Sandbox	TTY†	Network
session view	No	No	No	No
session reset	No	No	No	No
account discover	Yes	Required	No	Yes
receive	Yes	Required	No	No
send	Yes*	Required	No	Yes
genuine-check	Yes	Required	No	Yes
balances	No	No	No	Yes
operations	No	No	No	Yes
swap quote	No	No	No	Yes
swap execute	Yes	Required	No	Yes
swap status	No	No	No	Yes
assets token	No	No	No	No
assets token-by-id	No	No	No	No
earn yields	No	No	No	Yes
earn positions	No	No	No	Yes
earn deposit	Yes*	Required	No	Yes
earn withdraw	Yes*	Required

*send, earn deposit, and earn withdraw with --dry-run need no device and no sandbox bypass.

†TTY: whether the command requires an interactive terminal for user input.

‡ring init requires a password to protect the ring. WALLET_PASS must already be provided in the environment by the developer/user before the command runs — the agent never sets or injects it (see Non-TTY password injection).

‡‡ring destroy prompts for typed confirmation ("destroy"). Pipe it in non-interactive shells: echo "destroy" | wallet-cli ring destroy. If a password was set, WALLET_PASS must already be present in the environment (provided by the developer, not the agent).

session view / reset

wallet-cli session view
wallet-cli session reset

account discover

wallet-cli account discover ethereum
wallet-cli account discover bitcoin
wallet-cli account discover ethereum:sepolia

Networks: bitcoin (mainnet), ethereum, solana, ethereum:sepolia, bitcoin:testnet, solana:devnet.

receive

wallet-cli receive ethereum-1
wallet-cli receive ethereum-1 --no-verify  # skip device confirmation

If the on-screen address differs from the terminal address: do not share or use the address. Have the user disconnect the device and run genuine-check before retrying. See references/business-logic.md § Receive-address verification for context.

genuine-check

wallet-cli genuine-check
wallet-cli genuine-check --output json  # only if a downstream caller needs to parse the result

Preconditions: device unlocked and on the dashboard (exit any open app); host has internet access (the secure channel reaches Ledger's backend — offline runs fail).

balances

wallet-cli balances ethereum-1
wallet-cli balances ethereum-1 --output json

operations

wallet-cli operations ethereum-1
wallet-cli operations ethereum-1 --limit 20 --cursor <cursor>

Pagination: next cursor on stderr (human) or nextCursor in JSON.

send

wallet-cli send ethereum-1 --to 0xDEF... --amount '0.5 ETH'
wallet-cli send ethereum-1 --to 0xDEF... --amount '100 USDT'  # ERC-20
wallet-cli send bitcoin-native-1 --to bc1q... --amount '0.001 BTC' --fee-per-byte 15 --rbf
wallet-cli send ethereum-1 --to 0xDEF... --amount '0.5 ETH' --dry-run

Ticker is mandatory in --amount. No --token flag — ticker drives asset resolution.

Bitcoin flags: --fee-per-byte <sats>, --rbf

Solana flags: --mode send|stake.createAccount|stake.delegate|stake.undelegate|stake.withdraw, --validator <addr>, --stake-account <addr>, --memo <text>

swap quote

Fetches quotes in parallel from the built-in provider list (no device required; addresses are resolved from session accounts).

Currencies: --from / -f and --to / -t are Ledger currency IDs — native assets (e.g. ethereum, bitcoin, solana) or token IDs when the token’s parent chain is a supported native swap currency (same IDs the CLI allows for swap). They are not session account labels — use --from-account / --to-account for accounts.

Default providers queried by swap quote and usable by swap execute: changelly, changelly_v2, cic, cic_v2, exodus, lifi, nearintents, okx, oneinch, swapsxyz, uniswap, velora. Some are CEX/aggregators run through the legacy Exchange-app pipeline; the DEX providers (uniswap, oneinch, velora, okx) execute in the partner's embedded coin app — see swap execute — DEX providers.

Accounts: --from-account and --to-account accept a session label only; the CLI resolves a fresh receive address from the account like receive.

wallet-cli swap quote --from ethereum --to bitcoin --amount 0.1 --from-account ethereum-1 --to-account bitcoin-native-1
wallet-cli swap quote -f ethereum -t bitcoin --amount 0.1 --from-account ethereum-1 --to-account bitcoin-native-1 --output json

Required: --from, --to, --from-account, --to-account, --amount.

swap execute

Currencies: --from / -f and --to / -t are Ledger currency IDs (same as swap quote): native assets or tokens on an allowed parent chain. They must match the asset of the source --account and of --to-account respectively.

Providers: Valid --provider values are changelly, changelly_v2, cic, cic_v2, exodus, lifi, nearintents, okx, oneinch, swapsxyz, uniswap, velora. Aliases: changelly → changelly_v2, 1inch → oneinch. Use the provider id shown on the quote line you pick from swap quote.

DEX providers (uniswap, oneinch, velora, okx): these run end-to-end in the partner's embedded coin app on the device (via the Device Intent Executor), not the legacy Exchange app. The flow re-fetches a quote for the chosen provider, then drives an on-device approval + swap sequence (sign-approval / sign-permit2 / sign-swap / broadcast), switching device apps as needed — confirm each Open <app> and signing prompt on the device.

• EVM only. DEX execution requires an EVM source account (e.g. ethereum); a non-EVM --account falls through to the legacy pipeline.
• RFQ quotes are not supported in the CLI. If the picked quote resolves to an RFQ plan (rfq-order / approval-then-rfq-order), the embedded flow is skipped and execution falls back to the legacy Exchange-app pipeline (you'll see a falling back to legacy Exchange-app pipeline progress line).

All other providers (changelly, cic, exodus, nearintents, swapsxyz, lifi, …) run the legacy Exchange-app pipeline (nonce → payload → complete exchange → sign/broadcast).

Fee strategy: --fee-strategy accepts slow, medium (default), or fast. On the legacy pipeline it sets the refund-chain transaction fee.

wallet-cli swap execute --from ethereum --to bitcoin --account ethereum-1 --to-account bitcoin-native-1 --provider changelly --amount 0.1
wallet-cli swap execute -f ethereum -t bitcoin --account ethereum-1 --to-account bitcoin-native-1 --provider changelly --amount 0.1 --fee-strategy fast
wallet-cli swap execute --from ethereum --to bitcoin --account ethereum-1 --to-account bitcoin-native-1 --provider changelly --amount 0.1 --output json
# DEX (embedded coin app): EVM-only, source and destination on an EVM chain
wallet-cli swap execute --from ethereum --to ethereum/erc20/usd_tether__erc20_ --account ethereum-1 --to-account ethereum-1 --provider uniswap --amount 0.1

Required flags: --from, --to, --account, --to-account, --provider, --amount. Use a --provider value that matches the provider id on the quote line you pick from swap quote.

swap status

wallet-cli swap status --swap-id <swapId> --provider changelly
wallet-cli swap status --swap-id <swapId> --provider changelly --output json

Required flags: --swap-id, --provider

assets token / token-by-id

Resolve token metadata from the cryptoassets store. No device, no session.

wallet-cli assets token ethereum 0xdac17f958d2ee523a2206206994597c13d831ec7
wallet-cli assets token-by-id ethereum/erc20/usd_tether__erc20_

Use token when you have the contract address; use token-by-id when you have the id. Exits non-zero if not found.

For non-EVM chains pass --identifier.

The id printed here is the same id accepted by swap quote --from / --to and swap execute --from / --to.

ring — Ledger Key Ring (LKRP)

Trustless, hardware-rooted encryption for files and text. The key ring is provisioned once on your Ledger via the Ledger Sync app; afterwards encrypt/decrypt run without the device — keys derive deterministically via HKDF-SHA256 from the LKRP-shared root and never leave AES-256-GCM. encrypt/decrypt still call the LKRP backend to restore the trustchain on each invocation, so network access is required. The ring is recoverable from your seed on any new machine.

# One-time provisioning (device required). Password comes from WALLET_PASS in the environment (see below); name the machine with --name.
wallet-cli ring init
wallet-cli ring init --name my-laptop

# File round-trip (no device after init):
wallet-cli ring encrypt --key my-oss-project -i .publish-tokens -o .publish-tokens.enc
wallet-cli ring decrypt --key my-oss-project -i .publish-tokens.enc -o .publish-tokens

# Text via stdin/stdout (clipboard pattern):
pbpaste | wallet-cli ring encrypt --key personal-notes | pbcopy
pbpaste | wallet-cli ring decrypt --key personal-notes | pbcopy

# List the keys this machine has used; tear down the ring:
wallet-cli ring keys
wallet-cli ring destroy

Always provision with a password. The ring must be protected by a password. The user provides it via WALLET_PASS in the environment before running ring init (see Non-TTY password injection) — the agent never provisions a ring without one.

Decrypted output is sensitive. ring decrypt emits secrets — never print them to the terminal, cat a decrypted file, or otherwise surface the decrypted contents, since they land in the agent transcript, logs, and scrollback. Pipe decrypt straight to its destination (a file via -o, another process, or the clipboard as shown above) or capture it into an env var; avoid --output/logging sinks that could echo it back.

--key <name> derives a per-name AES-256-GCM key; matching name at decrypt time is mandatory. Names are free-form (max 253 chars, no whitespace) — common patterns: project slugs (my-oss-project), env tags (openClaw-prod), notebooks (personal-notes).

Non-TTY (CI / agentic) password injection: the ring commands read the password from the WALLET_PASS env var when there is no TTY. The password itself must be provisioned by the developer/user (exported in the environment or stored in the OS keychain) — the agent never chooses, types, or otherwise handles the secret value; it only references what the user has already provisioned.

• Never write the password literally into a command (e.g. WALLET_PASS=hunter2 wallet-cli …, or via a flag). A literal leaks into shell history, ps output, CI logs, and — when an agent runs the command — the agent transcript. This applies to throwaway/test passwords too: make it a habit, because the same command shape is reused with a real secret.
• Always inject via command substitution so the secret never appears in the command text you type:
  • macOS : WALLET_PASS=$(security find-generic-password -a default -s ledger-wallet-cli -w) wallet-cli ring encrypt …
  • Linux : WALLET_PASS=$(secret-tool lookup service ledger-wallet-cli account default) wallet-cli ring encrypt …
• Agents must not handle the secret at all. Ask the user to store the password once in their OS keychain, then reference only the $(…) substitution. If a test or ring init needs a password, store a throwaway value in the keychain first (security add-generic-password -a default -s ledger-wallet-cli -w) and inject it the same way — never type the literal into a tool call.
• Even via substitution the value lives in the child process environment (readable via ps eww by the same user) — acceptable, but prefer the keychain form and avoid --output json sinks or logs that could echo it back.

Rotation limitation: the domain key derives from the ring's wallet-sync encryption key, which the LKRP protocol rotates when a ring member is removed. After a rotation, data encrypted before it can no longer be decrypted (decrypt fails with a "wrong key name, corrupted data, or the Ledger Key Ring rotated" error, and the CLI prints a ⚠ Ledger Key Ring rotated warning). Re-encrypt the affected data under the new ring after a member is removed. ring destroy aborts (no changes) if you enter a wrong password, and also if WALLET_PASS is set but empty (a failed keychain lookup) — this is treated as a mistake, not a skip, so it never orphans the remote ring. To intentionally skip the remote teardown and wipe only local credentials, press Enter at the interactive password prompt.

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earn (staking & DeFi yield)

Earn covers two flows: Ethereum ERC-4626 DeFi vaults (deposit/redeem) and Solana native staking (delegate/undelegate). yields and positions are read-only (no device); deposit and withdraw sign on the device.

Only ethereum & solana support deposit/withdraw. Other networks appear in earn yields (informational) but cannot be deposited to via the CLI.

earn yields

Lists yield opportunities (no device). Without --network it prints every network's headline rate. With -n ethereum or -n solana it also prints the concrete deposit targets, each ending with the exact → --product <id> value to pass to earn deposit:

• ethereum → ERC-4626 vault ids (e.g. 1_0x7daeba3f217614e409f85d3014d33923a6b03630).
• solana → validator vote accounts. The CLI surfaces the Ledger-operated validators ("Ledger by Figment", "Ledger by Bitwise") as the recommended targets; any other valid vote account also works as --product.

wallet-cli earn yields
wallet-cli earn yields -n solana
wallet-cli earn yields -n ethereum --output json

There is no separate "list validators / vaults" command — earn yields -n <network> is how you discover a valid --product. In JSON, the value is the vaultId (ETH) or validator (SOL) field on each row.

earn positions

Lists active earn positions for an account (no device). Account-based networks only (solana, ethereum).

wallet-cli earn positions solana-1
wallet-cli earn positions solana-1 --fresh   # request a background refresh

--fresh flags stale rows for an async backend refresh; the refreshed data shows up on a re-run, not in the same response. Watch for the (stale) marker.

Solana stake accounts: for Solana accounts the command also reads on-chain stake accounts and prints each one's → --stake-account <address>, its state (active / inactive / activating / deactivating), balance, and validator. This is where you get the --stake-account value for earn withdraw. In JSON they're a top-level stakes[] array alongside positions (each entry: stakeAccount, validator, state, stakeBalance, withdrawable); the stakes key is omitted entirely when there are none. Stake accounts show up here right after a deposit even if the backend snapshot is still empty. (Requires a chain sync; if it can't be reached the backend snapshot still prints, with a warning.)

earn deposit

Stakes (Solana) or deposits into a vault (Ethereum). Touches the device to sign — bypass the sandbox. --product comes from earn yields -n <network> (see above). --amount requires a ticker.

# Solana: --product is a validator vote account
wallet-cli earn deposit solana-1 --product 26pV97Ce83ZQ6Kz9XT4td8tdoUFPTng8Fb8gPyc53dJx --amount '1.5 SOL'
# Ethereum: --product is a vault id
wallet-cli earn deposit ethereum-1 --product 1_0x7daeba3f217614e409f85d3014d33923a6b03630 --amount '100 USDC'
# Validate without signing (no device, no sandbox bypass)
wallet-cli earn deposit solana-1 --product 26pV97… --amount '1.5 SOL' --dry-run

Solana stake.createAccount creates and delegates the stake account in one transaction. Ethereum deposits may run two transactions (ERC-20 approve then deposit).

First-time ETH vault deposit — dry-run can't validate the deposit leg. A first deposit into a vault you've never used is approve → deposit, and the deposit can only be built once a non-zero allowance exists on-chain. In --dry-run nothing is broadcast, so when an approve is still required the CLI validates the approve and skips the deposit build (status not-simulated …, overall dry-run: approve validated; deposit needs an on-chain allowance to simulate) rather than surfacing the backend's opaque 500. This is expected — not a balance error. The only way to validate the deposit leg is the real run (broadcast approve, wait for confirmation, then deposit). Treat a clean dry-run here as "approve is fine"; confirm with the user before the live run since it's an irreversible on-device signature. Once the allowance exists, a re-run of --dry-run will simulate the deposit normally.

earn withdraw

Unstakes (Solana) or redeems from a vault (Ethereum). Touches the device — bypass the sandbox.

• Ethereum: --product <vault-id> required; --amount optional. The amount is in the vault's asset units (e.g. '50 USDC'); if a ticker is given it must match the vault asset. Omit --amount for a full exit: the CLI sends amount:"max" and the backend redeems the entire share balance, leaving no dust (don't compute the asset amount yourself for a full exit — the share→asset rate drifts).
• Solana: --stake-account <address> (required). Two-phase: run once to undelegate (deactivate), wait for the deactivation epoch boundary (~2–3 days), then re-run with --finalize to withdraw the now-inactive lamports back to the main account. coin-solana computes the withdrawable amount on-chain, so --amount is ignored on finalize.

# Ethereum vault redeem
wallet-cli earn withdraw ethereum-1 --product 1_0x7daeba3f… --amount '50 USDC'
# Solana phase 1: deactivate
wallet-cli earn withdraw solana-1 --stake-account <stakeAccountAddr>
# Solana phase 2 (after ~2–3 days): withdraw
wallet-cli earn withdraw solana-1 --stake-account <stakeAccountAddr> --finalize

Get the Solana --stake-account address from earn positions <account> (its stakes[] / → --stake-account lines) — that's the stake account created by your earlier earn deposit.

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Common errors

Error	Cause	Fix
Amount must include a ticker	--amount missing ticker	Ask the user which asset they mean — do not guess. Then pass the ticker inline, e.g. --amount '0.5 ETH'.
Ticker UNKN not found in account	ticker not in account balances	Run balances <account> and show the user the tickers held by this account. Ask the user which ticker to use, or whether they meant a different account — do not silently substitute another ticker.
[✖] Wrong app. Open Ledger dashboard. (exit code 4)	genuine-check invoked while a currency app is open. Unlike other device commands, genuine-check targets the dashboard and has no auto-launch path.	Ask the user to exit the foreground app on the device (short-press both buttons on the app's main screen until Quit shows, then confirm), then re-run genuine-check. Other device commands (account discover, receive, send, swap execute) don't hit this — they auto-prompt the correct app launch.
[✖] Rejected on device. No action taken.	user rejected a sign request on device	The rejection was deliberate. Ask the user whether to retry or abort — do not auto-retry. If they retry, have them review amount, recipient, and fees on the device screen before approving.
[✖] Rejected on device. App was not opened.	user rejected the app-open prompt on device	Ask the user to confirm the app-open prompt on the device and re-run the command.
[✖] Timed out talking to the Ledger over USB. The device may be busy or locked. Retry the command.	sandbox blocking USB, or device busy/locked	Surface to the user that the command needs dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true and ask for confirmation before re-running with the bypass. The bypass is expected for device commands (account discover, receive, send, genuine-check, swap execute); if this error fires on any other command, investigate before bypassing rather than disabling the sandbox by reflex.