Seth is an Ethereum client tool—like a "MetaMask for the command line"—maintained by the DappHub collective.
👵 If you're a command-line hacker, Seth will make you go "It's a Unix system—I know this!"
📠 If you're doing blockchain automation, Seth is an excellent base for deploy scripts, integration tests, and bots.
💸 If you love open source finance, Seth is a sci-fi future where you can manage funds from the command line.
seth supports signing transactions with Ledger Nano S or Trezor hardware wallets—even if you use a remote RPC node like Infura's.
"One indicator I look for in a healthy open source project is how many useful tools come out of its team as a side effect of their efforts." —
@danfinlay
"Looks like a great set of CLI tools, very devopsy." —Andreas Antonopolous
"The Unix approach you've taken is perfect." —
immutability
- Installing
- Configuration
- Basic usage: a tutorial
- Commands
seth --abi-decode
seth --calldata-decode
seth --from-ascii
seth --from-bin
seth --from-fix
seth --from-wei
seth --max-int
seth --max-uint
seth --min-int
seth --to-address
seth --to-ascii
seth --to-bytes32
seth --to-dec
seth --to-fix
seth --to-hex
seth --to-int256
seth --to-uint256
seth --to-wei
seth 4byte
seth 4byte-decode
seth 4byte-event
seth abi-encode
seth age
seth balance
seth basefee
seth block
seth block-number
seth bundle-source
seth call
seth calldata
seth chain
seth chain-id
seth code
seth debug
seth estimate
seth etherscan-source
seth events
seth gas-price
seth index
seth keccak
seth logs
seth lookup-address
seth ls
seth mktx
seth namehash
seth nonce
seth publish
seth receipt
seth resolve-name
seth run-tx
seth send
seth sign
seth storage
seth tx
Seth is distributed as part of the Dapp tools suite.
Seth has options that can be specified via command-line flags or environment variables.
Seth looks in the following places for configuration, in descending order of precedence:
./.sethrc
XDG_CONFIG_HOME/seth/sethrc
~/.sethrc
The configuration is loaded as a shell script (Bash 4 syntax). This is a convenient place to set default options by exporting environment variables.
# Use Infura's mainnet node for all RPC calls
export SETH_CHAIN=ethlive
# Set an address as the default sender
export ETH_FROM=0xd08f67044c53d723686e002c5b880f73674e164c
# Look for my key files in a custom directory
export ETH_KEYSTORE=~/secrets/ethereum
# Use Infura's Kovan testnet node for all RPC calls
export ETH_RPC_URL=https://kovan.infura.io/v3/<API-KEY>
# Set an address as the default sender
export ETH_FROM=0xd08f67044c53d723686e002c5b880f73674e164c
Note that flags given to the seth
command will override
these settings.
By default, Seth assumes a local RPC node on the standard port.
You can specify another RPC URL using the variable ETH_RPC_URL
or the flag --rpc-url
.
Alternatively, you can use a default remote node (operated by
Infura) using the variable SETH_CHAIN
or the flag --chain
(or
-C
). Allowed values: ethlive
(aka mainnet
), ropsten
, kovan
, rinkeby
, and goerli
.
Note: If you frequently use Seth with the Infura nodes, you should sign up for an Infura API key and use your custom URL:
export ETH_RPC_URL=https://mainnet.infura.io/<API-KEY>
By default, Seth does not use the RPC node for key management or signing transactions. Instead, it uses keys stored on your machine, as well as your Ledger Nano S hardware wallet (if present). Thus, you do not need to "unlock" your account in Geth or Parity.
Seth looks for keys in the standard directories of Geth and Parity.
To configure a custom location for your key files, use the
ETH_KEYSTORE
variable or the --keystore
flag. The
ETH_KEYSTORE
variable should point to a directory containing JSON keystore wallet files.
If you would like to use an existing private key that you do not have a keystore file for,
you may use ethsign import
.
Use seth accounts
or seth ls
to list out all wallets in the directory.
If your key is protected with a password, Seth will prompt you each
time you make a transaction. If you are confident in your computer
security, and you want to (say) run a bot script, you can set the
ETH_PASSWORD
variable (flag: --password
) to point to a file
containing your password.
If you do want to use the RPC node for key management and signing, set
the ETH_RPC_ACCOUNTS
variable or use the --rpc-accounts
flag.
This probably means you need to use Geth's or Parity's account
management tools to "unlock" your account.
If both ETH_RPC_ACCOUNTS
and ETH_FROM
are set, seth
will first check if the
provided account can be found in the keystore, or in any connected hardware
wallet, and only use the RPC node's signer if the account does not exist.
Note: Seth uses the ethsign
tool for signing transactions.
This tool uses Geth as a library.
Seth will scan for Ledger Nano S hardware wallets by default.
The Ledger wallet is only available to Seth while it is unlocked, in the Ethereum app, and with browser mode off.
On Linux, you may have to enable some USB permissions. See the Ledger Wallet Linux instructions.
When you use a sending address that belongs to the hardware wallet, Seth will automatically use it for signing transactions.
Note: Seth currently only looks for the first four addresses
derived from your seed phrase. You may customize the hd derivation path
by setting the ETH_HDPATH
variable.
When making transactions or doing read-only calls, Seth takes the
sending address from the ETH_FROM
variable or the --from
flag.
This section assumes that you have something like the
example .sethrc
file specifying how to
connect to the blockchain and a default sender address.
Here is how you might use seth send
to send one
wei—the smallest possible amount of ether—to the Ethereum
Foundation's donation address:
$ seth send --value 1 0xfB6916095ca1df60bB79Ce92cE3Ea74c37c5d359
seth-send: warning: `ETH_GAS' not set; using default gas amount
Ethereum account passphrase (not echoed):
seth-send: Published transaction with 0 bytes of calldata.
seth-send: 0xe428d4bb148ded426777ae892578507e4f394f608ad9d3a9d0229e8348ba72e3
seth-send: Waiting for transaction receipt...
seth-send: Transaction included in block 4908738.
The $(...)
shell syntax for "command substitution" is very useful
with Seth. It allows the output of one command to become a parameter
to another. An example follows.
Generally, you don't transact in terms of wei amounts, but in
fractional amounts of ether. You can convert an ether amount into a
wei amount using seth --to-wei
. Here, we send 1.5
ETH:
$ fund=0xfB6916095ca1df60bB79Ce92cE3Ea74c37c5d359
$ seth send --value $(seth --to-wei 1.5 eth) $fund
There is also seth --from-wei
for converting wei amounts into a
more readable notation.
For more advanced blockchain interactions, the helpers seth --abi-decode
, seth --from-ascii
, and seth --from-bin
are
also useful.
You can use seth balance
to see how much is in the donation
fund:
$ seth balance 0xfB6916095ca1df60bB79Ce92cE3Ea74c37c5d359
4595456374254502385669
You can use seth ls
to check the ether balances of your own
accounts:
$ seth ls
0xCC41D9831E4857B4F16914A356306fBeA734183A 2412312951251268
0xD9ceccea2BEE9a367d78658aBbB2Fe979b3877Ef 142109
The basic tool to read information from a contract is seth call
,
which performs a call without publishing a transaction.
For example, you can read the total supply of the MakerDAO governance token using the ERC20 ABI:
$ MKR_TOKEN=0x9f8F72aA9304c8B593d555F12eF6589cC3A579A2
$ seth call $MKR_TOKEN "totalSupply()(uint)"
995238778286468792512963
If you want to send a string as an argument, you must surround the string in both single and double quotes. $ TOKEN=0x9f8F72aA9304c8B593d555F12eF6589cC3A579A2 $ seth call $TOKEN "getAddress(string)(address)" '"my_string"' 0x7Bb0b08587b8a6B8945e09F1Baca426558B0f06a
If the ABI function has parameters, you can supply them as additional arguments; for example, to check the balance of the MakerDAO fund:
$ MKR_FUND=0x7Bb0b08587b8a6B8945e09F1Baca426558B0f06a
$ seth call $MKR_TOKEN "balanceOf(address)(uint)" $MKR_FUND
0
(See also token
for a more convenient way to use ERC20 tokens.)
You can also use seth logs
to read event logs from a contract or
seth code
to get a contract's bytecode.
The seth send
tool is not only capable of sending ether, but also
of constructing, signing, and publishing contract transactions.
This requires that you know the exact ABI method to use.
For example, to approve access to some of your Dai for the OasisDEX decentralized exchange using the ERC20 approval interface:
$ DAI=0x89d24A6b4CcB1B6fAA2625fE562bDD9a23260359
$ OASIS=0x14FBCA95be7e99C15Cc2996c6C9d841e54B79425
$ amount=$(seth --to-wei 0.5 ether)
$ seth send $DAI "approve(address,uint256)" $OASIS $amount
(Again, see token
for a more convenient way to interact with
ERC20 tokens.)
See seth send
for details on passing arguments, doing asynchronous
transactions, exit codes, and so on.
Strings can be used by enclosing them in double quotes within single quotes.
$ export RESULT=$(seth calldata "f(string)" '"Hello World"')
$ seth --calldata-decode "f(string)" $RESULT
Hello World
Arrays can be used by enclosing them in single or double quotes. Arrays
surrounded in single quotes will be inerpreted literally - you won't be able
to use variables ($FOO
) in them.
$ export AMOUNT=$(seth --to-wei 5 ether)
$ export TEST=$(seth calldata "f(uint256[])" "[$AMOUNT]")
$ seth --calldata-decode "f(uint256[])" $TEST
5000000000000000000
Extract return values from hex data.
seth --abi-decode "<name>(<in-types>)(<out-types>)" <hexdata>
Decodes <hexdata>
according to <out-types>
(<in-types>
are ignored).
Decodes a calldata bytestring into a list of input arguments.
seth --calldata-decode <signature> <hexstring>
Convert text data into hex data.
seth --from-ascii <text>...
Convert binary data into hex data.
seth --from-bin <data.bin >data.hex
Reads binary data from standard input and prints it as hex data.
Convert fixed point numbers into parsed integers with the specified number of decimals.
seth --from-fix <decimals> <value>
For example, use seth --to-fix 6 1
to convert 1 USDC into the parsed quantity of 1,000,000 USDC
Convert a wei amount into another unit (wei by default).
seth --from-wei <value> [<unit>]
The unit may be wei
, gwei
, eth
, or ether
.
Returns the max signed integer with the specified number of bits.
seth --max-int [<bits>]
Defaults to 256 bits.
Returns the max unsigned integer with the specified number of bits.
seth --max-uint [<bits>]
Defaults to 256 bits.
Returns the min signed integer with the specified number of bits.
seth --max-uint [<bits>]
Defaults to 256 bits.
Convert an address into a checksummed address.
seth --to-address <address>
Convert hex data into text data.
seth --to-ascii <hexdata>
Pad a hex string to the right with zeroes to 32 bytes.
seth --to-bytes32 <value>
Convert a hex value with 0x prefix into a decimal number.
seth --to-dec <hexvalue>
Convert parsed integers into fixed point with the specified number of decimals.
seth --to-fix <decimals> <value>
For example, use seth --to-fix 6 1000000
to convert the parsed amount of 1,000,000 USDC into a formatted amount of 1 USDC.
Convert a decimal number into a hex value.
seth --to-hex <value>
Convert a number into int256 hex string with 0x prefix.
seth --to-int256 <value>
Convert a number into uint256 hex string with 0x prefix.
seth --to-uint256 <value>
Convert an ETH amount into wei.
seth --to-wei <value> [<unit>]
The unit may be wei
, gwei
, eth
, or ether
.
Prints the response from querying 4byte.directory for a given function signature
seth 4byte <calldata> [<options>]
Any calldata appended after the function signature will be stripped before querying 4byte.directory.
By default, just the signatures will be printed, but the -v
flag can be used to print the full JSON response.
Queries 4byte.directory for matching function signatures, uses one to decode the calldata, and prints the decoded calldata.
seth 4byte-decode <calldata> [<options>]
By default, the user will be prompted to select a function signature to use for decoding the calldata.
The --id
flag can be passed to bypass interactive mode.
Use --id earliest
or --id latest
to use the oldest and newest functions in the 4byte.directory database, respectively.
Use --id <number>
to select a function signature by it's ID in the 4byte.directory database.
Prints the response from querying 4byte.directory for a given event topic
seth 4byte-event <topic> [<options>]
By default, just the signatures will be printed, but the -v
flag can be used to print the full JSON response.
Prints the ABI encoded values without the function signature
seth abi-encode <sig> [<args>]
ABI encode values based on a provided function signature, slice off the leading the function signature, and print the result. It does not matter what the name of the function is, as only the types and values affect the output.
Show the timestamp of a block (the latest block by default).
seth age [--block <block>]
Show the ether balance of an account.
seth balance [--block <block>] <account>
Show the basefee of a block (the latest block by default).
seth basefee [<block>]
If no <block>
number is given, defaults to latest
.
Print a table of information about a specific block.
seth block [--json] <block> [<field>]
If <field>
is given, print only the value of that field.
The <block>
may be either latest
, a block hash, or a block number.
Returns the latest block number.
seth block-number
Fetch a contract source from etherscan and compile it
with the appropriate Solidity version. Useful to
provide source maps in calls to seth run-tx
or hevm exec --debug --rpc
.
seth bundle-source <address>
Requires the ETHERSCAN_API_KEY
environment variable to be set.
Use --dir
to control the directory in which compilation occurs (defaults to current working directory)
Call a contract without updating the blockchain.
seth call [<options>] <to> <sig> [<args>...]
seth call [<options>] <to> [<calldata>]
seth call [<options>] --create <code> <sig> [<args>]
seth call [<options>] --create <code> [<data>]
When given <sig>
of the form <name>(<types>)
, perform ABI encoding
to infer the calldata.
When <sig>
also includes a return type, as
name(<in-types>)(<out-types>)
, then also decode the return value.
Otherwise <calldata>
should be hex data.
When --create
is passed, read the <code>
to use in a creation call,
optionally passing additional hex <data>
or structured <sig>
and
<args>
.
Flag | Variable | Default | Synopsis |
---|---|---|---|
--block |
ETH_BLOCK |
latest |
block number |
--from |
ETH_FROM |
n/a | simulated sender |
--gas |
ETH_GAS |
200000 |
simulated gas quantity |
--value |
ETH_VALUE |
0 |
simulated ether value |
By default, calls are made to the defined RPC node. With --hevm
, calls
are evaluated locally with hevm
.
If --debug
is passed, the call will be displayed interactively in the
hevm
debugger.
If --code <code>
is passed, the <to>
address will have its runtime
bytecode overwritten with <code>
, against which the call will then be
evaluated.
Pack a signature and an argument list into hexadecimal calldata.
seth calldata <sig> [<args>...]
seth calldata <file>
seth calldata <data>
When called with <sig>
of the form <name>(<types>...)
, then
perform ABI encoding to produce the hexadecimal calldata.
If <file>
is given—containing at least one slash character—then
treat it as a file name to read, and proceed as if the contents were
passed as <data>
.
Given <data>
, ensure it is hexadecimal calldata starting with 0x
and normalize it to lowercase.
Print the symbolic name of the current blockchain by checking the genesis block hash.
Outputs one of ethlive
, etclive
, kovan
, ropsten
, goerli
, morden
,
rinkeby
, optimism-mainnet
, optimism-kovan
, arbitrum-mainnet
, bsc
, bsctest
, kotti
, polygon
, or unknown
.
Print the ethereum chain id. 1
for Mainnet, 42
for Kovan, etc.
Print the bytecode of a contract.
seth code [--block <block>] <address>
If <block>
is not given, the default is latest
.
Step through a transaction in the interactive debugger.
Executes all prior transactions in the block to ensure correct
state. This may take a while.
If you are in a hurry or don't expect the relevant state to be changed
by other transactions in the block, use seth run-tx
instead.
seth debug <txhash> [<options>]
Unless --no-src
is given, seth will try to fetch the source code for
the target of the transaction for better debugging xp.
Estimate how much gas a transaction is likely to use, using the RPC node's gas estimation.
seth estimate [<options>] <to> <sig> [<args>]
seth estimate [<options>] <to> <sig> [<args>]
seth estimate [<options>] --create <code> <sig> [<args>]
seth estimate [<options>] --create <code> <data>
Options are similar to seth send
, but no transaction is published.
Fetch the source of a contract from etherscan. Requires etherscan api key.
seth etherscan-source <address> [<options>
Returns a json with source and options. For just the source, try:
seth etherscan-source <address> | jq .SourceCode -r
Print the decoded events of a contract.
seth events [--block <block>] [--follow] <address>
To use this command, you need to set the SETH_ABI
variable:
export SETH_ABI=$(seth abi "event Foo(uint bar)")
To use a JSON ABI file:
export SETH_ABI=$(seth --decorate-abi $(cat abi.json))
With --follow
, the command blocks waiting for new events (like tail -f
).
See also seth logs
which does not decode events.
Reads the current gas price at target chain.
Prints the slot number for the specified mapping type and input data
seth index <fromtype> <totype> <fromvalue> <slot> [<lang>]
lang
will default to Solidity when not specified.
To compute the slot for Vyper instead, specify v
, vy
, or vyper
.
Result is not guaranteed to be accurate for all Vyper versions since the Vyper storage layout is not yet stable.
Print the Keccak-256 hash of an arbitrary piece of data.
seth keccak <data>
Note: this uses the RPC node for hashing, which may be inefficient.
Print the undecoded transaction logs of a contract.
seth logs [--block <block>] [--follow] <address>
With --follow
, the command blocks waiting for new events
(like tail -f
).
See also seth events
which decodes logs using an
ABI specification.
Print the ENS name the provided address reverse resolves to. If the name is
not owned or does not have a resolver configured, an invalid data for function output
error will be thrown. An error will also be thrown
if the forward and reverse resolution do not match.
seth lookup-address <address>
Display a list of your accounts and their ether balances.
See Key management and signing for details on how Seth finds your accounts.
Make and signs a transaction without publishing it.
seth mktx [<options>] <to> <sig> [<args>]
seth mktx [<options>] <to> <calldata>
Options are as for seth send
but no transaction is published.
See also seth publish
for publishing a signed transaction.
Print the ENS namehash of the provided name.
seth namehash <name>
ENS names are converted to lowercase before hashing, but note this is not the complete normalization process, so users must ensure the ENS names they enter are properly formatted.
Show the number of transactions successfully sent from an address (its nonce).
seth nonce [--block <block>] <address>
Publish an already signed transaction to the blockchain.
seth publish [<txdata>]
If <txdata>
is not given, read it from standard input instead.
Wait for a transaction receipt to appear and print it in tabular form.
seth receipt [--async] <txhash> [<field>]
Print all fields of the transaction receipt unless <field>
is specified.
Unless --async
is given, wait indefinitely for the receipt
to appear.
Print the address the provided ENS name resolves to. If the name is not
owned or does not have a resolver configured, an invalid data for function output
error will be thrown.
seth resolve-name <name>
ENS names are converted to lowercase before hashing, but note this is not the complete normalization process, so users must ensure the ENS names they enter are properly formatted.
Run a transaction with hevm in the environment of the given transaction.
seth run-tx <tx-hash> [<options>]
Attempts to fetch contract source from etherscan if ETHERSCAN_API_KEY
is set.
With --state dir
, load and save state from dir
With --trace
, print the call trace of the transaction.
With --debug
, execute with hevm's interactive debugger
With --no-src
, do not attempt to fetch contract source from etherscan
With --source=<filename>
, manually supply a solc compiler output json (implies --no-src
)
Sign and publish a transaction to the blockchain.
seth send [<options>] <to> <sig> [<args>]
seth send [<options>] <to> [<data>]
seth send [<options>] --create <code> <sig> [<args>]
seth send [<options>] --create <code> [<data>]
Flag | Variable | Default | Synopsis |
---|---|---|---|
--block |
ETH_BLOCK |
latest |
block number |
--from |
ETH_FROM |
n/a | sender |
--gas |
ETH_GAS |
200000 |
gas quantity |
--gas-price |
ETH_GAS_PRICE |
gas price | |
--prio-fee |
ETH_PRIO_FEE |
EIP-1559 priority fee (miner tip) | |
--value |
ETH_VALUE |
0 |
ether value |
--create |
SETH_CREATE |
create contract | |
--resend |
SETH_RESEND |
reuse nonce | |
--async |
SETH_ASYNC |
don't wait | |
--status |
SETH_STATUS |
check success |
See Key management and signing for details on how Seth signs transactions.
With --async
, just print the transaction hash.
Otherwise, wait for the receipt and print as with seth receipt
.
With --status
(which excludes --async
), check the status field of
the transaction receipt and exit with an error code if the transaction
failed. This is a post-Byzantium feature and will soon become the
default behavior.
If --gas-price
is provided (or ETH_GAS_PRICE
) is set, legacy transactions will be used.
For dynamic fee transactions (EIP-1559), --prio-fee
is required.
seth sign <data>
Sign hexdata with the '\x19Ethereum Signed Message:\n'
prefix using the $ETH_FROM
account.
See ethsign
for more signing and key management options.
Show the raw value of a contract's storage slot.
seth storage [--block <block>] <address> <slot>
Print a table of information about a transaction.
seth tx <txhash> [<field>]
Show all fields unless <field>
is given.