Command line interface for Blockstream Green wallet (GDK)

green-cli is a command line interface for the Blockstream Green wallet

Getting Started
Hardware device capabilities
Interactive transaction creation

Getting Started

Using docker

Rather than installing green-cli locally you may find it easier to build and run it as a docker image. First build the image and optionally tag it for convenience:

docker build -t green-cli .

And then run like this:

docker run -it --rm green-cli ....

We pass -it to run in an interactive terminal. Sometimes green-cli requires interaction with the user. We pass --rm to delete the container once it has run to avoid having lots of redundant containers lying around. This is optional.

For example, to create a new testnet wallet:

docker run -it --rm green-cli --network testnet create

As this is creating a new docker container each time it's invoked it's not generally very useful as the mnemonic will be written inside the container and will not persist across invocations. To persist the wallet state mount a docker volume at /config inside the container. This can either be a named docker volume, e.g. -v green-cli:/config, or some local directory e.g. -v /path/to/config/dir:/config. Care must be taken to manage the volume or bind mount directory as it will be used to store the plaintext mnemonic (unless you set a pin, in which case it only stores the mnemonic encrypted with a key held by the pinserver).

Putting this altogether, using a testnet wallet and a named docker volume green-cli for the config, we have:

docker run -it --rm -v green-cli:/config green-cli --network testnet ...

This command is now quite unwieldy so it's useful to define a shell alias:

alias green-cli="docker run -it --rm -v green-cli:/config green-cli --network testnet"

With the alias defined green-cli can be invoked simply as:

green-cli create

green-cli getbalance

etc.

You can also avail yourself of the repl command and avoid repeatedly creating new containers for each command:

green-cli repl

> getnewaddress

Basic installation

green-cli itself is a python package which requires installation of the Green Deveopment Kit (GDK) as part of its requirements.

It's recommended that you first create and activate a python3 virtualenv and use that to install the green-cli. Instructions for that will depend on your platform, but might look something like this:

python3 -m virtualenv /path/to/venv/green-cli

Activate the virtualenv before proceeding with the installation steps below

. /path/to/venv/green-cli

Install the requirements:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Install green-cli itself:

$ pip install .

Optional: enable bash completion

$ eval "$(_GREEN_CLI_COMPLETE=source green-cli)"

Installing Blockstream Jade support

To enable support for the Blockstream Jade hardware wallet (via the --auth jade option) additional dependencies must be installed from requirements-jade.txt.

Install libudev and libusb. This is platform specific but for debian-based systems:

$ sudo apt-get install libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev

Install extra requirements

$ pip install -r requirements-jade.txt

NOTE: this must be two separate invocations, as the jade python api is installed from github sources, and does not have a sha hash.

You can now run green-cli (or green-liquid-cli) passing the --auth jade option.

Installing Generic hardware wallet support

Support for various hardware wallets can be enabled via hwi.

Install libudev and libusb. This is platform specific but for debian-based systems:

$ sudo apt-get install libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev

Install extra requirements

$ pip install -r requirements-hwi.txt

You can now run green-cli (or green-liquid-cli) passing the --auth hardware option.

Example usage

$ green-cli --network testnet set mnemonic -f /file/containing/testnet/mnemonics
$ green-cli --network testnet getbalance

$ green-cli --network mainnet set mnemonic "mainnet mnemonic here ..."
$ green-cli --network mainnet sendtoaddress $ADDR 0.1

$ green-cli --network liquid set mnemonic "liquid mnemonic here ..."
$ green-cli --network liquid sendtoaddress

For now wallet creation is disabled on use on mainnet/liquid mainnet

Hardware device capabilities

If using the options --auth hardware or --auth wally it is possible to override the default device capabilities sent to the GDK, using the --auth-config option and the device key.

eg:

--auth hardware --auth-config '{"device": {"supports_low_r": true}}'

Note --auth-config json data can also be passed in a text file:

--auth wally --auth-config hw_liquid_lowr.json

where the file contents are, eg:

{
    "device": {
        "supports_low_r": true,
        "supports_liquid": 1
    }
}

Interactive transaction creation

WARNING: Please note that green-cli in general and the tx/coin selection functions in particular are alpha software and not currently recommended for mainnet use. Loss of funds may occur.

You can create, inspect and modify a transaction using the tx command. Although you can issue individual tx commands directly from the shell it can be easier to use the green-cli's inbuilt repl shell when interactively building transactions as it avoids the overhead of logging in to green each time. Use the repl command to start a repl session. ctrl-d exits the session.

$ green-cli --network testnet repl

Create a new transaction

First, create a new 'scratch' transaction using the tx command

> tx new

This creates a new temporary local transaction. At any time you can start again by running tx new which will discard the scratch tx and create a new one.

Adding outputs

Add an output to the transaction.

> tx outputs add mkHS9ne12qx9pS9VojpwU5xtRd4T7X7ZUt 1000

Use tx outputs to show the current outputs

> tx outputs
1000 mkHS9ne12qx9pS9VojpwU5xtRd4T7X7ZUt

By default tx outputs does not show change outputs. Pass -a to show all outputs, including change, or '-c' to show only change outputs. Change outputs are shown in green.

> tx outputs -a
996380 2N1txpptYbDvCd5RF8jR3ERzRdEWyWVyWZB
1000 mkHS9ne12qx9pS9VojpwU5xtRd4T7X7ZUt

> tx outputs -c
996380 2N1txpptYbDvCd5RF8jR3ERzRdEWyWVyWZB

Transaction summary

At any point you can print a summary of the using the tx command.

> tx
send all: False
utxo strategy: default
available inputs: 1787590
selected inputs: 997590
total outputs: 1000
change: 996380
size: 381
vsize: 210
weight: 837
fee: 210
fee rate: 1000 sat/kb

Coin selection

Note that 'utxo strategy' is 'default', which means the transaction inputs have been automatically selected. Use tx inputs to see the selected inputs.

> tx inputs
997590 86b29eeed79ad3fe977f49c37fd7cc415887b422892ad943187196fec019e5c4:1 csv 1005 confs 2N9aB1hjFrQrauVxDqwugVqtFeQNgHd8ptN

Pass -u to see available unused inputs, or -a to see all inputs, selected and available. Unselected inputs show in red.

> tx inputs -u
660000 bbe2c68e8af9e777988823682f4ecc59ab3c94bcaf42c50aba99016f868f0ebd:0 csv 205 confs 2N1VynvdyXKadB8fWLmmKbEQe46n1YALHmj
30000 c6b84a5ab4fbd6ee963e165aed36bd5a40c7aadede818be79b8445f3992f0031:1 csv 205 confs 2N3cq3JVs7RZrVqpHUnk8VFRsZPV7iYr5qT
100000 0c0863f5ab4e11c6844b25b2883a4056be8f245aa2da09e34b54d8a61b840d26:1 csv 205 confs 2NDky839U4fqR19y6Lz7xLSGEitHjqJvSqA

Automatic coin selection can be overridden using the tx inputs command. Use tx inputs clear to remove all selected inputs.

> tx inputs clear
> tx inputs

Use tx inputs add to add inputs. You can pass either an address, or a transaction id, or a transaction id + vout. If you pass an address all utxos for that address will be selected. If you pass a transaction id without a vout index any utxos from that transaction will be selected. You can also use '*' as a wildcard.

> tx inputs add 86b29eeed79ad3fe977f49c37fd7cc415887b422892ad943187196fec019e5c4
> tx inputs add bbe2c68e8af9e777988823682f4ecc59ab3c94bcaf42c50aba99016f868f0ebd:0
> tx inputs add 2NDky839U4fqR19y6Lz7xLSGEitHjqJvSqA
> tx inputs add *

tx inputs and outputs can be cleared using tx inputs clear and tx outputs clear, or individually removed using tx inputs rm and tx outputs rm

Sending all outputs with no change

You can add an output which consumes all of the available inputs, less the fee, by specifying 'all' as the amount. Before doing so, if necessary either create a new transaction or use tx outputs clear. Once an 'all' output is set the inputs can be manually selected as usual and the amount paid to the output will automatically adjust such that there is no change.

> tx outputs clear
> tx outputs add mkHS9ne12qx9pS9VojpwU5xtRd4T7X7ZUt all

Using tx outputs -a shows there are no change outputs, and this confirmed by the summary.

> tx outputs -a
1757147 mkHS9ne12qx9pS9VojpwU5xtRd4T7X7ZUt
> tx
user signed: False
server signed: False
send all: True
utxo strategy: manual
available inputs: 1757590
selected inputs: 1757590
total outputs: 1757147
change: 0
size: 955
vsize: 443
weight: 1771
fee: 443
fee rate: 1000 sat/kb

Setting the feerate

You can set the feerate by calling tx setfeerate. The fee rate is specified in satoshis per kilobyte.

Signing and sending the transaction

When the transaction is ready, use tx sign and tx send. Before signing and sending a transaction it is strongly recommended that you use tx raw and inspect the raw transaction, for example by passing it to bitcoin-cli decoderawtransaction, to ensure the details are as expected.

> tx sign
> tx send
d425b376ab69969668011a29638bcf3aad507da3d9adecd4a241cb2b1f6684ba

Blockstream / green_cli