satsignal-cli

Customer-facing CLI for Satsignal — anchor and verify files against the BSV-anchored notary.

Status: maintained — current release 0.5.0 (pip install satsignal-cli). Standard-mode anchor + verify work end-to-end, including SPV chain-confirmation against a validated header store with TSC Merkle proofs (no single-explorer trust). Sealed bundles verify from the CLI. Sealed-mode anchoring and multi-proof (content_canonical, chunk_merkle) verification remain web-only — see scope limits.

Install

pip install satsignal-cli                # Python 3.11+
pip install 'satsignal-cli[toml-py39]'   # Python 3.9 / 3.10

Quickstart

satsignal login                       # paste your API key (sk_…)
satsignal anchor report.pdf           # dry-run preview
satsignal anchor report.pdf --broadcast
# → writes report.pdf.mbnt next to the file
satsignal verify report.pdf
# → chain-confirms by default; exit 0 on success

Commands

Compatibility note (legacy matter vocabulary): folder is the canonical name everywhere — --folder, SATSIGNAL_FOLDER, config folder, wire key folder_slug. The legacy spellings still work but are no longer documented: --matter is a hidden alias of --folder (same destination; last flag wins), SATSIGNAL_MATTER and the config matter key are fallbacks read only when the canonical name is unset, and satsignal matters is a hidden alias of satsignal folders. JSON / jsonl output carries both canonical and legacy keys (folder/matter, proof_id/bundle_id, proof/receipt) so existing output parsers keep working. Since 0.5.0 the HTTP request sends the canonical folder_slug key and the canonical /api/v1/folders route; response parsing still falls back to legacy keys, so self-hosted servers from the 2026-05 vocabulary-alias release onward work unchanged — older self-hosted servers need CLI ≤ 0.4.x.

Sidecar convention

satsignal anchor writes <file>.mbnt next to the source by default. Override with -o. satsignal verify looks for the sidecar in this order:

1. <file>.mbnt directly next to the source
2. .satsignal/<single-bundle>.mbnt in the source's parent directory (only if there's exactly one — otherwise pass --bundle explicitly)

This convention mirrors GPG's .asc / RFC 3161's .tsr — one file in, one receipt out, same directory.

Configuration

Reads (in order, first wins):

1. Environment: SATSIGNAL_API_KEY, SATSIGNAL_BASE_URL, SATSIGNAL_FOLDER, SATSIGNAL_PROOF_URL
2. ~/.config/satsignal/credentials.toml (mode 600)
3. Defaults: base_url = https://app.satsignal.cloud, proof_url = https://proof.satsignal.cloud, folder = inbox

The credentials file is plain TOML. folder is the canonical key (satsignal login writes it since 0.5.0; a legacy matter key in an existing file is still read as a fallback):

api_key  = "sk_..."
base_url = "https://app.satsignal.cloud"
folder   = "inbox"

Verify semantics

satsignal verify implements the conformant procedure from bundle-v1.md §7 in order:

1. Open ZIP, parse manifest.json / canonical.json / proofs.json (if present)
2. Cryptographic check (standard: SHA-256; sealed: HMAC-SHA256 with master salt)
3. doc_hash consistency via JCS-canonical SHA-256
4. Chain confirmation — fetch raw tx, parse OP_RETURN MBNT payload, compare doc_hash

Exit codes match bundle-v1.md §8:

PENDING returning exit 0 is intentional — satsignal verify && cp report.pdf out/ should succeed the moment the anchor is broadcast. Opt into stricter gating with --min-confirmations N.

Offline mode

satsignal verify --offline skips the chain check. The warning ("locally-fabricated bundles pass crypto-only checks") is non-suppressible — --quiet does not silence it. This matches the chain-confirm-by-default rule from the spec; making the chain check opt-in by default would invert the safety property the protocol exists to provide.

Current scope limits

• Sealed-mode anchoring. The CLI can verify sealed bundles, but can't produce them (requires client-side HKDF + HMAC + bundle assembly). Use sealed.satsignal.cloud to produce sealed bundles.
• content_canonical / chunk_merkle verification. These require porting the verifier.html canonicalizers (text-norm-v1, json-jcs-v1, csv-norm-v1, etc.) to Python. The CLI flags their presence and points to the web verifier for now.
• Manifest mode. Out of scope for the CLI; use the API or web UI.
• --watch / --bulk. Single-file anchors only.

See also

• Bundle format spec: https://proof.satsignal.cloud/spec-bundle
• LangChain integration: https://github.com/Steleet/langchain-satsignal
• API docs: https://app.satsignal.cloud/docs