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Interacting with Gaiad (CLI)

Gaia Daemon​

gaiad is the tool that enables you to interact with the node that runs on the Cosmos Hub network, whether you run it yourself or not. Let us set it up properly. In order to install it, follow the installation procedure.

Setting up gaiad​

The main command used to set up gaiad is the following:

gaiad config <flag> <value>

It allows you to set a default value for each given flag.

First, set up the address of the full-node you want to connect to:

gaiad config node <host>:<port>

# example: gaiad config node https://77.87.106.33:26657

If you run your own full-node, just use tcp://localhost:26657 as the address.

Finally, let us set the chain-id of the blockchain we want to interact with:

gaiad config chain-id cosmoshub-2

Keys​

Keyring​

The keyring holds the private/public keypairs used to interact with a node. For instance, a validator key needs to be set up before running the blockchain node, so that blocks can be correctly signed. The private key can be stored in different locations, called "backends", such as a file or the operating system's own key storage.

Headless environments are recommended to use either the file or pass backends. More information is available at the SDK documentation page.

Key Types​

There are three types of key representations that are used:

  • cosmos

    • Derived from account keys generated by gaiad keys add
    • Used to receive funds
    • e.g. cosmos15h6vd5f0wqps26zjlwrc6chah08ryu4hzzdwhc

  • cosmosvaloper

    • Used to associate a validator to its operator
    • Used to invoke staking commands
    • e.g. cosmosvaloper1carzvgq3e6y3z5kz5y6gxp3wpy3qdrv928vyah

  • cosmospub

    • Derived from account keys generated by gaiad keys add
    • e.g. cosmospub1zcjduc3q7fu03jnlu2xpl75s2nkt7krm6grh4cc5aqth73v0zwmea25wj2hsqhlqzm

  • cosmosvalconspub

    • Generated when the node is created with gaiad init.
    • Get this value with gaiad tendermint show-validator
    • e.g. cosmosvalconspub1zcjduepq0ms2738680y72v44tfyqm3c9ppduku8fs6sr73fx7m666sjztznqzp2emf

Migrate Keys From Legacy On-Disk Keybase To OS Built-in Secret Store​

Older versions of gaiad used store keys in the user's home directory. If you are migrating from an old version of gaiad you will need to migrate your old keys into your operating system's credentials storage by running the following command:

gaiad keys migrate

The command will prompt for every passphrase. If a passphrase is incorrect, it will skip the respective key.

Generate Keys​

You'll need an account private and public key pair (a.k.a. sk, pk respectively) to be able to receive funds, send txs, bond tx, etc.

To generate a new secp256k1 key:

gaiad keys add <account_name>

The output of the above command will contain a seed phrase. It is recommended to save the seed phrase in a safe place so that in case you forget the password of the operating system's credentials store, you could eventually regenerate the key from the seed phrase with the following command:

gaiad keys add --recover

If you check your private keys, you'll now see <account_name>:

gaiad keys show <account_name>

View the validator operator's address via:

gaiad keys show <account_name> --bech=val

You can see all your available keys by typing:

gaiad keys list

View the validator pubkey for your node by typing:

gaiad tendermint show-validator

Note that this is the Tendermint signing key, not the operator key you will use in delegation transactions.

Generate Multisig Public Keys​

You can generate and print a multisig public key by typing:

gaiad keys add --multisig=name1,name2,name3[...] --multisig-threshold=K new_key_name

K is the minimum number of private keys that must have signed the transactions that carry the public key's address as signer.

The --multisig flag must contain the name of public keys that will be combined into a public key that will be generated and stored as new_key_name in the local database. All names supplied through --multisig must already exist in the local database. Unless the flag --nosort is set, the order in which the keys are supplied on the command line does not matter, i.e. the following commands generate two identical keys:

gaiad keys add --multisig=foo,bar,baz --multisig-threshold=2 multisig_address
gaiad keys add --multisig=baz,foo,bar --multisig-threshold=2 multisig_address

Multisig addresses can also be generated on-the-fly and printed through the which command:

gaiad keys show --multisig-threshold K name1 name2 name3 [...]

For more information regarding how to generate, sign and broadcast transactions with a multi signature account see Multisig Transactions.

Tx Broadcasting​

When broadcasting transactions, gaiad accepts a --broadcast-mode flag. This flag can have a value of sync (default), async, or block, where sync makes the client return a CheckTx response, async makes the client return immediately, and block makes the client wait for the tx to be committed (or timing out).

It is important to note that the block mode should not be used in most circumstances. This is because broadcasting can timeout but the tx may still be included in a block. This can result in many undesirable situations. Therefore, it is best to use sync or async and query by tx hash to determine when the tx is included in a block.

Fees & Gas​

The Cosmos Hub uses the x/feemarket module to dynamically vary the gas price based on demand.

You need to specify a sufficient gas price or total fees to ensure that your transaction is included in a block, e.g.

gaiad tx bank send ... --fees=50000uatom

or

gaiad tx bank send ... --gas-prices=0.0025uatom

To find out more about the current minimal gas price, you can query the feemarket module:

gaiad q feemarket gas-prices

or

gaiad q feemarket gas-prices uatom

which will output the current gas price similar to this:

price:  
  amount: "0.005"  
  denom: uatom

For more information, check out how to query the feemarket, or check out the feemarket integration guide.

Account​

Get Tokens​

On a testnet, getting tokens is usually done via a faucet.

Query Account Balance​

After receiving tokens to your address, you can view your account's balance by typing:

gaiad query account account_cosmos
Note

When you query an account balance with zero tokens, you will get this error: No account with address <account_cosmos> was found in the state. This can also happen if you fund the account before your node has fully synced with the chain. These are both normal.

Send Tokens​

The following command could be used to send coins from one account to another:

gaiad tx bank send sender_key_name_or_address recipient_address 10faucetToken \
  --chain-id=chain_id
You may want to cap the maximum gas that can be consumed by the transaction via the `--gas` flag. If you pass `--gas=auto`, the gas supply will be automatically estimated before executing the transaction. Gas estimate might be inaccurate as state changes could occur in between the end of the simulation and the actual execution of a transaction, thus an adjustment is applied on top of the original estimate in order to ensure the transaction is broadcasted successfully. The adjustment can be controlled via the `--gas-adjustment` flag, whose default value is 1.0.

Now, view the updated balances of the origin and destination accounts:

gaiad query account account_cosmos
gaiad query account destination_cosmos

You can also check your balance at a given block by using the --block flag:

gaiad query account account_cosmos --block=<block_height>

You can simulate a transaction without actually broadcasting it by appending the --dry-run flag to the command line:

gaiad tx bank send <sender_key_name_or_address> <destination_cosmosaccaddr> 10faucetToken \
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --dry-run

Furthermore, you can build a transaction and print its JSON format to STDOUT by appending --generate-only to the list of the command line arguments:

gaiad tx bank send <sender_address> <recipient_address> 10faucetToken \
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --generate-only > unsignedSendTx.json
gaiad tx sign \
  --chain-id=<chain_id> \
  --from=<key_name> \
  unsignedSendTx.json > signedSendTx.json
The `--generate-only` flag prevents `gaiad` from accessing the local keybase. Thus when such flag is supplied `sender_key_name_or_address` must be an address.

You can validate the transaction's signatures by typing the following:

gaiad tx sign --validate-signatures signedSendTx.json

You can broadcast the signed transaction to a node by providing the JSON file to the following command:

gaiad tx broadcast --node=<node> signedSendTx.json

Query Transactions​

Matching a Set of Events​

You can use the transaction search command to query for transactions that match a specific set of events, which are added on every transaction.

Each event is composed by a key-value pair in the form of {eventType}.{eventAttribute}={value}. Events can also be combined to query for a more specific result using the & symbol.

You can query transactions by events as follows:

gaiad query txs --events='message.sender=cosmos1...'

And for using multiple events:

gaiad query txs --events='message.sender=cosmos1...&message.action=withdraw_delegator_reward'

The pagination is supported as well via page and limit:

gaiad query txs --events='message.sender=cosmos1...' --page=1 --limit=20
The action tag always equals the message type returned by the `Type()` function of the relevant message.

You can find a list of available events on each of the SDK modules:

Matching a Transaction's Hash​

You can also query a single transaction by its hash using the following command:

gaiad query tx [hash]

Slashing​

Unjailing​

To unjail your jailed validator

gaiad tx slashing unjail --from <validator-operator-addr>

Signing Info​

To retrieve a validator's signing info:

gaiad query slashing signing-info <validator-pubkey>

Query Parameters​

You can get the current slashing parameters via:

gaiad query slashing params

Minting​

You can query for the minting/inflation parameters via:

gaiad query mint params

To query for the current inflation value:

gaiad query mint inflation

To query for the current annual provisions value:

gaiad query mint annual-provisions

Staking​

Set up a Validator​

Please refer to the Validator Setup section for a more complete guide on how to set up a validator-candidate.

Delegate to a Validator​

On the upcoming mainnet, you can delegate atom to a validator. These delegators can receive part of the validator's fee revenue. Read more about the Cosmos Token Model.

Query Validators​

You can query the list of all validators of a specific chain:

gaiad query staking validators

If you want to get the information of a single validator you can check it with:

gaiad query staking validator <account_cosmosval>

Bond Tokens​

On the Cosmos Hub mainnet, we delegate uatom, where 1atom = 1000000uatom. Here's how you can bond tokens to a testnet validator (i.e. delegate):

gaiad tx staking delegate \
  --amount=10000000uatom \
  --validator=<validator> \
  --from=<key_name> \
  --chain-id=<chain_id>

<validator> is the operator address of the validator to which you intend to delegate. If you are running a local testnet, you can find this with:

gaiad keys show [name] --bech val

where [name] is the name of the key you specified when you initialized gaiad.

While tokens are bonded, they are pooled with all the other bonded tokens in the network. Validators and delegators obtain a percentage of shares that equal their stake in this pool.

Query Delegations​

Once submitted a delegation to a validator, you can see its information by using the following command:

gaiad query staking delegation <delegator_addr> <validator_addr>

Or if you want to check all your current delegations with distinct validators:

gaiad query staking delegations <delegator_addr>

Unbond Tokens​

If for any reason the validator misbehaves, or you just want to unbond a certain amount of tokens, use the following command.

gaiad tx staking unbond \
  <validator_addr> \
  10atom \
  --from=<key_name> \
  --chain-id=<chain_id>

The unbonding will be automatically completed when the unbonding period has passed.

Query Unbonding-Delegations​

Once you begin an unbonding-delegation, you can see it's information by using the following command:

gaiad query staking unbonding-delegation <delegator_addr> <validator_addr>

Or if you want to check all your current unbonding-delegations with distinct validators:

gaiad query staking unbonding-delegations <account_cosmos>

Additionally, as you can get all the unbonding-delegations from a particular validator:

gaiad query staking unbonding-delegations-from <account_cosmosval>

Redelegate Tokens​

A redelegation is a type delegation that allows you to bond illiquid tokens from one validator to another:

gaiad tx staking redelegate \
  <src-validator-operator-addr> \
  <dst-validator-operator-addr> \
  10atom \
  --from=<key_name> \
  --chain-id=<chain_id>

Here you can also redelegate a specific shares-amount or a shares-fraction with the corresponding flags.

The redelegation will be automatically completed when the unbonding period has passed.

Query Redelegations​

Once you begin a redelegation, you can see its information by using the following command:

gaiad query staking redelegation <delegator_addr> <src_val_addr> <dst_val_addr>

Or if you want to check all your current unbonding-delegations with distinct validators:

gaiad query staking redelegations <account_cosmos>

Additionally, as you can get all the outgoing redelegations from a particular validator:

  gaiad query staking redelegations-from <account_cosmosval>

Query Parameters​

Parameters define high level settings for staking. You can get the current values by using:

gaiad query staking params

With the above command you will get the values for:

  • Unbonding time
  • Maximum numbers of validators
  • Coin denomination for staking

All these values will be subject to updates through a governance process by ParameterChange proposals.

Query Pool​

A staking Pool defines the dynamic parameters of the current state. You can query them with the following command:

gaiad query staking pool

With the pool command you will get the values for:

  • Not-bonded and bonded tokens
  • Token supply
  • Current annual inflation and the block in which the last inflation was processed
  • Last recorded bonded shares
Query Delegations To Validator​

You can also query all of the delegations to a particular validator:

  gaiad query delegations-to <account_cosmosval>

Governance​

Governance is the process from which users in the Cosmos Hub can come to consensus on software upgrades, parameters of the mainnet or signaling mechanisms through text proposals. This is done through voting on proposals, which will be submitted by ATOM holders on the mainnet.

Some considerations about the voting process:

  • Voting is done by bonded ATOM holders on a 1 bonded ATOM 1 vote basis
  • Delegators inherit the vote of their validator if they don't vote
  • Votes are tallied at the end of the voting period (2 weeks on mainnet) where each address can vote multiple times to update its Option value (paying the transaction fee each time), only the most recently cast vote will count as valid
  • Voters can choose between options Yes, No, NoWithVeto and Abstain
  • At the end of the voting period, a proposal is accepted iff:
    • (YesVotes / (YesVotes+NoVotes+NoWithVetoVotes)) > 1/2
    • (NoWithVetoVotes / (YesVotes+NoVotes+NoWithVetoVotes)) < 1/3
    • ((YesVotes+NoVotes+NoWithVetoVotes) / totalBondedStake) >= quorum

For more information about the governance process and how it works, please check out the Governance module specification.

Create a Governance Proposal​

In order to create a governance proposal, you must submit an initial deposit along with a title and description. Various modules outside of governance may implement their own proposal types and handlers (eg. parameter changes), where the governance module itself supports Text proposals. Any module outside of governance has its command mounted on top of submit-proposal.

To submit a Text proposal:

gaiad tx gov submit-proposal \
  --title=<title> \
  --description=<description> \
  --type="Text" \
  --deposit="1000000uatom" \
  --from=<name> \
  --chain-id=<chain_id>

You may also provide the proposal directly through the --proposal flag which points to a JSON file containing the proposal.

To submit a parameter change proposal, you must provide a proposal file as its contents are less friendly to CLI input:

gaiad tx gov submit-proposal param-change <path/to/proposal.json> \
  --from=<name> \
  --chain-id=<chain_id>

Where proposal.json contains the following:

{
  "title": "Param Change",
  "description": "Update max validators",
  "changes": [
    {
      "subspace": "staking",
      "key": "MaxValidators",
      "value": 105
    }
  ],
  "deposit": [
    {
      "denom": "stake",
      "amount": "10000000"
    }
  ]
}
Currently parameter changes are _evaluated_ but not _validated_, so it is very important that any `value` change is valid (ie. correct type and within bounds) for its respective parameter, eg. `MaxValidators` should be an integer and not a decimal.

Proper vetting of a parameter change proposal should prevent this from happening (no deposits should occur during the governance process), but it should be noted regardless.

The `SoftwareUpgrade` is currently not supported as it's not implemented and currently does not differ from the semantics of a `Text` proposal.
Query Proposals​

Once created, you can now query information of the proposal:

gaiad query gov proposal <proposal_id>

Or query all available proposals:

gaiad query gov proposals

You can also query proposals filtered by voter or depositor by using the corresponding flags.

To query for the proposer of a given governance proposal:

gaiad query gov proposer <proposal_id>

Increase Deposit​

In order for a proposal to be broadcasted to the network, the amount deposited must be above a minDeposit value (initial value: 512000000uatom). If the proposal you previously created didn't meet this requirement, you can still increase the total amount deposited to activate it. Once the minimum deposit is reached, the proposal enters voting period:

gaiad tx gov deposit <proposal_id> "10000000uatom" \
  --from=<name> \
  --chain-id=<chain_id>

NOTE: Proposals that don't meet this requirement will be deleted after MaxDepositPeriod is reached.

Query Deposits​

Once a new proposal is created, you can query all the deposits submitted to it:

gaiad query gov deposits <proposal_id>

You can also query a deposit submitted by a specific address:

gaiad query gov deposit <proposal_id> <depositor_address>

Vote on a Proposal​

After a proposal's deposit reaches the MinDeposit value, the voting period opens. Bonded Atom holders can then cast vote on it:

gaiad tx gov vote <proposal_id> <Yes/No/NoWithVeto/Abstain> \
  --from=<name> \
  --chain-id=<chain_id>
Query Votes​

Check the vote with the option you just submitted:

gaiad query gov vote <proposal_id> <voter_address>

You can also get all the previous votes submitted to the proposal with:

gaiad query gov votes <proposal_id>

Query proposal tally results​

To check the current tally of a given proposal you can use the tally command:

gaiad query gov tally <proposal_id>

Query Governance Parameters​

To check the current governance parameters run:

gaiad query gov params

To query subsets of the governance parameters run:

gaiad query gov param voting
gaiad query gov param tallying
gaiad query gov param deposit

Fee Distribution​

Query Distribution Parameters​

To check the current distribution parameters, run:

gaiad query distribution params

Query distribution Community Pool​

To query all coins in the community pool which is under Governance control:

gaiad query distribution community-pool

Query outstanding rewards​

To check the current outstanding (un-withdrawn) rewards, run:

gaiad query distribution outstanding-rewards

Query Validator Commission​

To check the current outstanding commission for a validator, run:

gaiad query distribution commission <validator_address>

Query Validator Slashes​

To check historical slashes for a validator, run:

gaiad query distribution slashes <validator_address> <start_height> <end_height>

Query Delegator Rewards​

To check current rewards for a delegation (were they to be withdrawn), run:

gaiad query distribution rewards <delegator_address> <validator_address>

Query All Delegator Rewards​

To check all current rewards for a delegation (were they to be withdrawn), run:

gaiad query distribution rewards <delegator_address>

Multisig Transactions​

Multisig transactions require signatures of multiple private keys. Thus, generating and signing a transaction from a multisig account involve cooperation among the parties involved. A multisig transaction can be initiated by any of the key holders, and at least one of them would need to import other parties' public keys into their Keybase and generate a multisig public key in order to finalize and broadcast the transaction.

For example, given a multisig key comprising the keys p1, p2, and p3, each of which is held by a distinct party, the user holding p1 would require to import both p2 and p3 in order to generate the multisig account public key:

gaiad keys add \
  p2 \
  --pubkey=cosmospub1addwnpepqtd28uwa0yxtwal5223qqr5aqf5y57tc7kk7z8qd4zplrdlk5ez5kdnlrj4

gaiad keys add \
  p3 \
  --pubkey=cosmospub1addwnpepqgj04jpm9wrdml5qnss9kjxkmxzywuklnkj0g3a3f8l5wx9z4ennz84ym5t

gaiad keys add \
  p1p2p3 \
  --multisig-threshold=2 \
  --multisig=p1,p2,p3

A new multisig public key p1p2p3 has been stored, and its address will be used as signer of multisig transactions:

gaiad keys show --address p1p2p3

You may also view multisig threshold, pubkey constituents and respective weights by viewing the JSON output of the key or passing the --show-multisig flag:

gaiad keys show p1p2p3 -o json

gaiad keys show p1p2p3 --show-multisig

The first step to create a multisig transaction is to initiate it on behalf of the multisig address created above:

gaiad tx bank send cosmos1570v2fq3twt0f0x02vhxpuzc9jc4yl30q2qned 1000000uatom \
  --from=<multisig_address> \
  --generate-only > unsignedTx.json

The file unsignedTx.json contains the unsigned transaction encoded in JSON. p1 can now sign the transaction with its own private key:

gaiad tx sign \
  unsignedTx.json \
  --multisig=<multisig_address> \
  --from=p1 \
  --output-document=p1signature.json

Once the signature is generated, p1 transmits both unsignedTx.json and p1signature.json to p2 or p3, which in turn will generate their respective signature:

gaiad tx sign \
  unsignedTx.json \
  --multisig=<multisig_address> \
  --from=p2 \
  --output-document=p2signature.json

p1p2p3 is a 2-of-3 multisig key, therefore one additional signature is sufficient. Any the key holders can now generate the multisig transaction by combining the required signature files:

gaiad tx multisign \
  unsignedTx.json \
  p1p2p3 \
  p1signature.json p2signature.json > signedTx.json

The transaction can now be sent to the node:

gaiad tx broadcast signedTx.json

Shells Completion Scripts​

Completion scripts for popular UNIX shell interpreters such as Bash and Zsh can be generated through the completion command, which is available for both gaiad and gaiad.

If you want to generate Bash completion scripts run the following command:

gaiad completion > gaiad_completion
gaiad completion > gaiacli_completion

If you want to generate Zsh completion scripts run the following command:

gaiad completion --zsh > gaiad_completion
gaiad completion --zsh > gaiacli_completion
On most UNIX systems, such scripts may be loaded in `.bashrc` or `.bash_profile` to enable Bash autocompletion:
echo '. gaiad_completion' >> ~/.bashrc
echo '. gaiacli_completion' >> ~/.bashrc

Refer to the user's manual of your interpreter provided by your operating system for information on how to enable shell autocompletion.