cosmos-sdk/docs/guide/key-management.md

Key Management

Here we explain a bit how to work with your keys, using the basecli keys subcommand.

Note: This keys tooling is not considered production ready and is for dev only.

We'll look at what you can do using the six sub-commands of basecli keys:

new
list
get
delete
recover
update

Create keys

basecli keys new has two inputs (name, password) and two outputs (address, seed).

First, we name our key:

basecli keys new alice

This will prompt (10 character minimum) password entry which must be re-typed. You'll see:

Enter a passphrase:
Repeat the passphrase:
alice		A159C96AE911F68913E715ED889D211C02EC7D70
**Important** write this seed phrase in a safe place.
It is the only way to recover your account if you ever forget your password.

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which shows the address of your key named alice, and its recovery seed. We'll use these shortly.

Adding the --output json flag to the above command would give this output:

Enter a passphrase:
Repeat the passphrase:
{
  "key": {
    "name": "alice",
    "address": "A159C96AE911F68913E715ED889D211C02EC7D70",
    "pubkey": {
      "type": "ed25519",
      "data": "4BF22554B0F0BF2181187E5E5456E3BF3D96DB4C416A91F07F03A9C36F712B77"
    }
  },
  "seed": "pelican amateur empower assist awkward claim brave process cliff save album pigeon intact asset"
}

To avoid the prompt, it's possible to pipe the password into the command, e.g.:

echo 1234567890 | basecli keys new fred --output json

After trying each of the three ways to create a key, look at them, use:

basecli keys list

to list all the keys:

All keys:
alice		6FEA9C99E2565B44FCC3C539A293A1378CDA7609
bob		A159C96AE911F68913E715ED889D211C02EC7D70
charlie		784D623E0C15DE79043C126FA6449B68311339E5

Again, we can use the --output json flag:

[
  {
    "name": "alice",
    "address": "6FEA9C99E2565B44FCC3C539A293A1378CDA7609",
    "pubkey": {
      "type": "ed25519",
      "data": "878B297F1E863CC30CAD71E04A8B3C23DB71C18F449F39E35B954EDB2276D32D"
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "bob",
    "address": "A159C96AE911F68913E715ED889D211C02EC7D70",
    "pubkey": {
      "type": "ed25519",
      "data": "2127CAAB96C08E3042C5B33C8B5A820079AAE8DD50642DCFCC1E8B74821B2BB9"
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "charlie",
    "address": "784D623E0C15DE79043C126FA6449B68311339E5",
    "pubkey": {
      "type": "ed25519",
      "data": "4BF22554B0F0BF2181187E5E5456E3BF3D96DB4C416A91F07F03A9C36F712B77"
    }
  },
]

to get machine readable output.

If we want information about one specific key, then:

basecli keys get charlie --output json

will, for example, return the info for only the "charlie" key returned from the previous basecoin keys list command.

The keys tooling can support different types of keys with a flag:

basecli keys new bit --type secp256k1

and you'll see the difference in the "type": field from basecli keys get`

Before moving on, let's set an enviroment variable to make --output json the default.

Either run or put in your ~/.bash_profile the following line:

export BC_OUTPUT=json

Recover a key

Let's say, for whatever reason, you lose a key or forget the password. On creation, you were given a seed. We'll use it to recover a lost key.

First, let's simulate the loss by deleting a key:

basecli keys delete alice

which prompts for your current password, now rendered obsolete, and gives a warning message. The only way you can recover your key now is using the 12 word seed given on initial creation of the key. Let's try it:

basecli keys recover alice-again

which prompts for a new password then the seed:

Enter the new passphrase:
Enter your recovery seed phrase:
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alice-again	CBF5D9CE6DDCC32806162979495D07B851C53451

and voila! You've recovered your key. Note that the seed can be typed our, pasted in, or piped into the command alongside the password.

To change the password of a key, we can:

basecli keys update alice-again

and follow the prompts.

That covers most features of the keys sub command.