quill generate
Generate a mnemonic seed phrase and generate or recover PEM.
Basic usage
The basic syntax for running quill generate commands is:
quill generate [option]
Flags
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
-h, --help | Displays usage information. |
--overwrite-pem-file | Overwrite any existing PEM file |
--overwrite-seed-file | Overwrite any existing seed file. |
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--pem-file <PEM_FILE> | File to write the PEM to. |
--phrase <PHRASE> | A seed phrase in quotes to use to generate the PEM file. |
--seed-file <SEED_FILE> | File to write the seed phrase to [default: seed.txt]. |
--words <WORDS> | Number of words: 12 or 24 [default: 12]. |
Examples
The quill generate command has two primary uses - generating a new key, or recovering a key from a seed phrase.
To generate a new key, and output it to a PEM file:
quill generate --pem-file identity.pem
This will generate a new key that you can use to sign IC transactions with quill, or any other IC tool that supports secp256k1, like dfx. It will also output a seed.txt file containing a seed phrase which can be used to recover this key - write it down in a safe place!
To recover a key from a seed phrase stored in phrase.txt:
quill generate --phrase "$(< phrase.txt)" --pem-file identity.pem
Remarks
Most quill commands take --pem-file and --seed-file parameters, for the key used to sign the messages. Only one of these parameters is needed at a time.