quill
The quill is a minimalistic ledger and governance toolkit for cold wallets.
You can use the quill parent command with different flags and subcommands to perform different types of operations.
Basic usage
The basic syntax for running quill commands is:
quill [option] [subcommand] [flag]
To see the available subcommands, please refer to the index page of the quill reference.
Flags
You can use the following optional flags with the quill parent command or with any of the quill subcommands.
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
-h, --help | Displays usage information. |
--hsm | Enables HSM functionality. |
--insecure-local-dev-mode | Enter local testing mode. |
--qr | Output the result(s) as UTF-8 QR codes. |
-V, --version | Displays version information. |
--ledger | Authenticate using a Ledger hardware wallet |
Options
You can use the following options with the quill command.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--hsm-id <HSM_ID> | Specifies the HSM key identifier. |
--hsm-libpath <HSM_LIBPATH> | Specifies the path to the HSM library. |
--hsm-slot <HSM_SLOT> | Specifies the HSM slot to use. |
--pem-file <PEM_FILE> | Path to your PEM file (use "-" for STDIN). |
--password-file <PASSWORD_FILE> | If the PEM file is encrypted, read the password from this file (use "-" for STDIN) |
Examples
Quill authentication can be performed either via a key file, or a hardware key. A principal is controlled by exactly one key; don't lose it!
See quill generate to generate a new key file, though Quill should be compatible with any secp256k1 (aka K-256) key in the SEC1 format or ed25519 key in the PKCS#8 format. To authenticate using the key identity.pem:
quill list-neurons --pem-file identity.pem
This file can be specified to come from stdin:
cat identity.pem | quill list-neurons --pem-file -
If the PEM file is password-protected, this will prompt for the password interactively. To use it in a script, specify a password file:
quill list-neurons --pem-file identity.pem --password-file password.txt
Some commands that do not require your key will still be more useful with it; for example, quill account-balance doesn't require authentication, but providing your key prevents you from having to provide your principal or account ID:
quill account-balance --pem-file identity.pem
Previous versions of Quill could also be used with a seed phrase directly; it must now be converted to a PEM file. To authenticate using a seed.txt file containing your seed phrase:
quill generate --pem-file identity.pem --phrase "$(cat seed.txt)"
quill list-neurons --pem-file identity.pem
Quill can also sign transactions using a hardware key (HSM) such as Nitrokey or Yubikey. It will need to have been configured beforehand with a secp256r1 (aka P-256) key, and you will need OpenSC or an equivalent installed. Assuming the HSM is in slot 0 (pkcs11-tool --list-slots), and you are signing with the first key it holds, such a signing command might look like:
quill list-neurons --hsm-slot 0 --hsm-id 01
Other PKCS#11 modules than OpenSC can be used as well. For example, to make use of Yubikey slots other than its default four, you would need yubico-piv-tool. A command to make use of this might look like:
quill list-neurons --hsm-slot 0 --hsm-id 05 --hsm-libpath /usr/local/lib/libykcs11.so
Quill can use a Ledger device such as the Ledger Nano, allowing you to use the same principal and account with Quill that you use with the NNS website.
quill list-neurons --ledger
The Ledger device can be signaled to display the principal Quill uses with it:
quill public-ids --ledger --display-on-ledger
Note that PKCS#11 is not supported on the linux-musl build and Ledger is not supported on either linux-musl or linux-arm32. The latter is to preserve compatibility with armv6; if you have an armv7 device you can build Quill from source.
Remarks
HSM commands ask for your PIN interactively, and for security cannot be piped. To use them in a script, you can instead pass the PIN via the QUILL_HSM_PIN environment variable. The other three flags can also be specified via QUILL_HSM_SLOT, QUILL_HSM_LIBPATH, and QUILL_HSM_ID.
Quill will by default use the well-known public key of the Internet Computer. However, for local development of canisters, Quill, or the IC, you may want to run it against a local replica. In such a case, you can use the --insecure-local-dev-mode flag to fetch the root key and trust it. Never use this flag if attempting a real transaction; never use this flag with your real keys. The URL that sent messages go to can be set via the IC_URL environment variable.
For a description of --qr, see quill qr-code.