BDK-CLI

A Command-line Bitcoin Wallet App in pure rust using BDK

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About

EXPERIMENTAL This crate has been updated to use bdk_wallet 1.x. Only use for testing on test networks.

This project provides a command-line Bitcoin wallet application using the latest BDK Wallet APIs and chain sources (RPC, Electrum, Esplora, Kyoto). This might look tiny and innocent, but by harnessing the power of BDK it provides a powerful generic descriptor based command line wallet tool. And yes, it can do Taproot!!

This crate can be used for the following purposes:

• Instantly create a miniscript based wallet and connect to your backend of choice (Electrum, Esplora, Core RPC, Kyoto etc) and quickly play around with your own complex bitcoin scripting workflow. With one or many wallets, connected with one or many backends.
• The tests/integration.rs module is used to document high level complex workflows between BDK and different Bitcoin infrastructure systems, like Core, Electrum and Lightning(soon TM).
• (Planned) Expose the basic command handler via wasm to integrate bdk-cli functionality natively into the web platform. See also the playground page.

If you are considering using BDK in your own wallet project bdk-cli is a nice playground to get started with. It allows easy testnet and regtest wallet operations, to try out what's possible with descriptors, miniscript, and BDK APIs. For more information on BDK refer to the website and the rust docs

bdk-cli can be compiled with different features to suit your experimental needs.

• Database Options
  • sqlite : Sets the wallet database to a sqlite3 db.
• Blockchain Client Options
  • esplora : Connects the wallet to an esplora server.
  • electrum : Connects the wallet to an electrum server.
  • kyoto: Connects the wallet to a kyoto client and server.
  • rpc: Connects the wallet to Bitcoind server.
• Extra Utility Tools
  • repl : use bdk-cli as a REPL shell (useful for quick manual testing of wallet operations).
  • compiler : opens up bdk-cli policy compiler commands.

The default feature set is repl and sqlite. With the default features, bdk-cli can be used as an air-gapped wallet, and can do everything that doesn't require a network connection.

Install bdk-cli

From source

To install a dev version of bdk-cli from a local git repo with the electrum blockchain client enabled:

cd <bdk-cli git repo directory>
cargo install --path . --features electrum
bdk-cli help # to verify it worked

If no blockchain client feature is enabled online wallet commands sync and broadcast will be disabled. To enable these commands a blockchain client feature such as electrum or another blockchain client feature must be enabled. Below is an example of how to run the bdk-cli binary with the electrum blockchain client feature.

RUST_LOG=debug cargo run --features electrum -- --network testnet4 wallet --wallet testnetwallet --ext-descriptor "wpkh(tpubEBr4i6yk5nf5DAaJpsi9N2pPYBeJ7fZ5Z9rmN4977iYLCGco1VyjB9tvvuvYtfZzjD5A8igzgw3HeWeeKFmanHYqksqZXYXGsw5zjnj7KM9/*)" --client-type electrum --database-type sqlite --url "ssl://mempool.space:40002" sync

Available blockchain client features are: electrum, esplora, kyoto, rpc.

From crates.io

You can install the binary for the latest tag of bdk-cli with online wallet features directly from crates.io with a command as below:

cargo install bdk-cli --features electrum

bdk-cli bin usage examples

To get usage information for the bdk-cli binary use the below command which returns a list of available wallet options and commands:

cargo run

To sync a wallet to the default electrum server:

cargo run --features electrum -- --network testnet4 wallet --wallet sample_wallet --ext-descriptor "wpkh(tpubEBr4i6yk5nf5DAaJpsi9N2pPYBeJ7fZ5Z9rmN4977iYLCGco1VyjB9tvvuvYtfZzjD5A8igzgw3HeWeeKFmanHYqksqZXYXGsw5zjnj7KM9/*)" --database-type sqlite --client-type electrum --url "ssl://mempool.space:40002" sync

To get a wallet balance with customized logging:

RUST_LOG=debug,rusqlite=info,rustls=info cargo run -- wallet --external-descriptor "wpkh(tpubEBr4i6yk5nf5DAaJpsi9N2pPYBeJ7fZ5Z9rmN4977iYLCGco1VyjB9tvvuvYtfZzjD5A8igzgw3HeWeeKFmanHYqksqZXYXGsw5zjnj7KM9/*)" balance

To generate a new extended master key, suitable for use in a descriptor:

cargo run -- key generate

Justfile

We have added the just command runner to help you with common commands (during development) and running regtest bitcoind if you are using the rpc feature. Visit the just page for setup instructions.

The below are some of the commands included:

just # list all available recipes
just test # test the project
just build # build the project

Using Justfile to run bitcoind as a Client

If you are testing bdk-cli in regtest mode and wants to use your bitcoind node as a blockchain client, the Justfile can help you to quickly do so. Below are the steps to use your bitcoind node in regtest mode with bdk-cli:

Note: You can modify the Justfile to reflect your nodes' configuration values. These values are the default values used in bdk-cli

• default wallet: The set default wallet name is regtest_default_wallet
• default data directory: The set default data directory is ~/.bdk-bitcoin
• RPC username: The set RPC username is user
• RPC password: The set RPC password is password

Steps

1. Start bitcoind

   just start
   

2. Create or load a bitcoind wallet with default wallet name

   just create
   

   or

   just load
   

3. Generate a bitcoind wallet address to send regtest bitcoins to.

   just address
   

4. Mine 101 blocks on regtest to bitcoind wallet address

   just generate 101 $(just address)
   

5. Check the bitcoind wallet balance

   just balance
   

6. Setup your bdk-cli wallet config and connect it to your regtest node to perform a sync

   export NETWORK=regtest
   export EXT_DESCRIPTOR='wpkh(tprv8ZgxMBicQKsPdMzWj9KHvoExKJDqfZFuT5D8o9XVZ3wfyUcnPNPJKncq5df8kpDWnMxoKbGrpS44VawHG17ZSwTkdhEtVRzSYXd14vDYXKw/0/*)'
   export INT_DESCRIPTOR='wpkh(tprv8ZgxMBicQKsPdMzWj9KHvoExKJDqfZFuT5D8o9XVZ3wfyUcnPNPJKncq5df8kpDWnMxoKbGrpS44VawHG17ZSwTkdhEtVRzSYXd14vDYXKw/1/*)'
   export DATABASE_TYPE=sqlite
   cargo run --features rpc -- wallet -u "127.0.0.1:18443" -c rpc -a user:password sync
   

7. Generate an address from your bdk-cli wallet and fund it with 10 bitcoins from your bitcoind node's wallet

   export address=$(cargo run --features rpc -- wallet -u "127.0.0.1:18443" -c rpc -a user:password new_address | jq '.address')
   just send 10 $address
   

8. Mine 6 more blocks to the bitcoind wallet

   just generate 6 $(just address)
   

9. You can sync your bdk-cli wallet now and the balance should reflect the regtest bitcoin you received

   cargo run --features rpc -- wallet -u "127.0.0.1:18443" -c rpc -a user:password sync
   cargo run --features rpc -- wallet -u "127.0.0.1:18443" -c rpc -a user:password balance
   

Formatting Responses using --pretty flag

You can optionally return outputs of commands in human-readable, tabular format instead of JSON. To enable this option, simply add the --pretty flag as a top level flag. For instance, you wallet's balance in a pretty format, you can run:

cargo run --pretty -n signet wallet -w {wallet_name} -d sqlite balance

This is available for wallet, key, repl and compile features. When ommitted, outputs default to JSON.