Setup

To run the recipes in this book (not just read them) you need the tx-manifest-wallet CLI, a wallet, and a connection to a Liquid testnet Esplora server.

tx-manifest-wallet is an example implementation of a wallet. It is a reference tool that consumes manifests and walks through the full build-and-sign lifecycle so the recipes in this book are runnable. It is not the only way to consume a manifest — any wallet can implement the same lifecycle. If you are building your own wallet, see the Wallet implementation guide for the execution lifecycle a wallet follows when executing an action.

Get the CLI

The wallet binary is tx-manifest-wallet. There are four ways to get it; pick whichever suits you. Option 1 (the codespace) is the quickest way to try the recipes — nothing to install.

This book aliases the binary to txw purely to keep the commands short and readable. Every command below is written as txw <subcommand> — read that as tx-manifest-wallet <subcommand> if you prefer the full name. The Blockstream codespace ships the txw alias already; with the other options, add it yourself:

alias txw=tx-manifest-wallet

Option 1 — Blockstream Simplicity codespace (no install)

The Blockstream Simplicity codespace comes with the example wallet preinstalled and already aliased to txw, alongside the SimplicityHL toolchain. Open it in GitHub Codespaces and you can run the recipes immediately — no local setup:

txw --help

Option 2 — download a release binary

If you don't want to compile, grab a prebuilt binary from the releases page. Builds are published for Linux (x86_64), macOS (Apple Silicon), and Windows (x86_64). Download the archive for your platform, unpack it, and put tx-manifest-wallet on your PATH:

# Example: Linux x86_64, release v0.1.0 (substitute the current version)
curl -LO https://github.com/stringhandler/txmanifest-wallet/releases/download/v0.1.0/tx-manifest-wallet-v0.1.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar xzf tx-manifest-wallet-v0.1.0-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
sudo mv tx-manifest-wallet /usr/local/bin/
txw --help

Asset names are version-stamped. The macOS Apple Silicon and Windows builds are tx-manifest-wallet-<version>-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz and tx-manifest-wallet-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip. Check the releases page for the exact file name of the latest version.

Option 3 — asdf

The asdf plugin installs prebuilt release binaries (Linux x86_64 and macOS Apple Silicon; asdf is shell-based, so Windows isn't supported):

asdf plugin add tx-manifest-wallet https://github.com/stringhandler/asdf-tx-manifest-wallet.git
asdf install tx-manifest-wallet latest
asdf set -u tx-manifest-wallet latest
txw --help

Option 4 — build from source

The CLI is the txmanifest_wallet crate of a standard Cargo workspace. From a clone of the repository:

cargo build --release          # binary at ./target/release/tx-manifest-wallet
alias txw="$(pwd)/target/release/tx-manifest-wallet"
txw --help

Throughout the book, commands are written as txw <subcommand>. Manifest paths like examples/p2pk/txmanifest.json are relative to your current directory — run from a clone of the repository (or the codespace) to use the bundled examples.

Configure the network and backend

The CLI keeps a small config file with two keys: the default network and the default Esplora URL. Set them once:

txw config default_network testnet
txw config default_esplora https://blockstream.info/liquidtestnet/api

Run config with no arguments to print the current values:

txw config

Most subcommands also accept --network and --esplora flags to override the defaults per-invocation.

Create a wallet

txw create-wallet --out wallet.json

This writes a new HD wallet to wallet.json. Add --mainnet true for a mainnet wallet; by default it follows your configured default_network.

Inspect it — fingerprint, master xpub, oracle key, and a receive address:

txw info --wallet wallet.json

The wallet derives keys on the BIP86 (taproot) paths the spec expects:

A compile_params entry with source: { "type": "wallet_key" } is auto-filled from the first path; oracle_key from the second. (More on this in Parameters & validations.)

Fund and sync

Your new wallet is empty. Fund it with Liquid testnet L-BTC from the faucet:

1. Get your receive address. Run info and copy the receive address it prints:

   txw info --wallet wallet.json
   

   Among the output (fingerprint, xpub, oracle key) is a receive address — copy that value.

2. Request coins from the faucet. Open the Liquid testnet faucet, paste your receive address into the address field, and request the funds. The faucet broadcasts a small amount of testnet L-BTC to your wallet.

3. Sync the wallet once the faucet transaction has been broadcast, so the CLI picks up the new UTXO from Esplora:

   txw sync --wallet wallet.json
   

sync scans the chain, updates the persisted wallet state, and prints your balance. To re-print the last known balance without hitting the network:

txw get-balance --wallet wallet.json

Prepare UTXOs for an action

Many actions need several separate UTXOs (one per input). The prepare subcommand inspects an action and, if the wallet doesn't have enough discrete UTXOs, builds and broadcasts a split transaction to create them:

txw prepare examples/p2pk/txmanifest.json Pay --wallet wallet.json

You can also split manually:

txw split -n 4 --asset lbtc --amount-each 10000 --wallet wallet.json

With a funded, synced wallet you're ready for the first recipe: Hello World: Pay-to-Public-Key.