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Build a Transaction with the Flow CLI

The Flow CLI provides a command to build a transactions with options to specify authorizer accounts, payer account and proposer account.

The build command doesn't produce any signatures and instead is designed to be used with the sign and send-signed commands.

Use this functionality in the following order:

  1. Use this command (build) to build the transaction.
  2. Use the sign command to sign with each account specified in the build process.
  3. Use the send-signed command to submit the signed transaction to the Flow network.

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flow transactions build <code filename> [<argument> <argument>...] [flags]

Example Usage​


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> flow transactions build ./transaction.cdc "Meow" \
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--authorizer alice \
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--proposer bob \
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--payer charlie \
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--filter payload --save built.rlp
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ID e8c0a69952fbe50a66703985e220307c8d44b8fa36c76cbca03f8c43d0167847
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Payer e03daebed8ca0615
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Authorizers [f3fcd2c1a78f5eee]
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Proposal Key:
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Address 179b6b1cb6755e31
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Index 0
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Sequence 1
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No Payload Signatures
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No Envelope Signatures
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Arguments (1):
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- Argument 0: {"type":"String","value":"Meow"}
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Code
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transaction(greeting: String) {
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let guest: Address
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prepare(authorizer: AuthAccount) {
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self.guest = authorizer.address
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}
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execute {
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log(greeting.concat(",").concat(self.guest.toString()))
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}
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}
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Payload:
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f9013df90138b8d17472616e...73616374696f6e286eeec0c0

JSON arguments from a file example:


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> flow transactions build tx1.cdc --args-json "$(cat args.json)"

Arguments​

Code Filename​

  • Name: filename
  • Valid inputs: Any filename and path valid on the system.

The first argument is a path to a Cadence file containing the transaction to be executed.

Arguments​

  • Name: argument
  • Valid inputs: valid cadence values matching argument type in transaction code.

Input arguments values matching corresponding types in the source code and passed in the same order. For passing complex argument values see send transaction document.

Flags​

Payer​

  • Flag: --payer
  • Valid Inputs: Flow address or account name from configuration.
  • Default: service account

Specify account address that will be paying for the transaction. Read more about payers here.

Proposer​

  • Flag: --proposer
  • Valid inputs: Flow address or account name from configuration.
  • Default: service account

Specify a name of the account that is proposing the transaction. Account must be defined in flow configuration.

Proposer Key Index​

  • Flag: --proposer-key-index
  • Valid inputs: number of existing key index
  • Default: 0

Specify key index for the proposer account.

Authorizer​

  • Flag: --authorizer
  • Valid Inputs: Flow address or account name from configuration.
  • Default: service account

Additional authorizer addresses to add to the transaction. Read more about authorizers here.

Arguments JSON​

  • Flag: --args-json
  • Valid inputs: arguments in JSON-Cadence form.
  • Example: flow transactions build ./tx.cdc '[{"type": "String", "value": "Hello World"}]'

Arguments passed to the Cadence transaction in Cadence JSON format. Cadence JSON format contains type and value keys and is documented here.

Gas Limit​

  • Flag: --gas-limit
  • Valid inputs: an integer greater than zero.
  • Default: 1000

Specify the gas limit for this transaction.

Host​

  • Flag: --host
  • Valid inputs: an IP address or hostname.
  • Default: 127.0.0.1:3569 (Flow Emulator)

Specify the hostname of the Access API that will be used to execute the commands.

Network Key​

  • Flag: --network-key
  • Valid inputs: A valid network public key of the host in hex string format

Specify the network public key of the Access API that will be used to create a secure GRPC client when executing the command.

Network​

  • Flag: --network
  • Short Flag: -n
  • Valid inputs: the name of a network defined in the configuration (flow.json)
  • Default: emulator

Specify which network you want the command to use for execution.

Include Fields​

  • Flag: --include
  • Valid inputs: code, payload, signatures

Specify fields to include in the result output. Applies only to the text output.

Filter​

  • Flag: --filter
  • Short Flag: -x
  • Valid inputs: case-sensitive name of the result property.

Specify any property name from the result you want to return as the only value.

Output​

  • Flag: --output
  • Short Flag: -o
  • Valid inputs: json, inline

Specify in which format you want to display the result.

Save​

  • Flag: --save
  • Short Flag: -s
  • Valid inputs: valid filename

Specify the filename where you want the result to be saved.

Log​

  • Flag: --log
  • Short Flag: -l
  • Valid inputs: none, error, debug
  • Default: info

Specify the log level. Control how much output you want to see while command execution.

Configuration​

  • Flag: --config-path
  • Short Flag: -f
  • Valid inputs: valid filename

Specify a filename for the configuration files, you can provide multiple configuration files by using -f flag multiple times.

Version Check​

  • Flag: --skip-version-check
  • Default: false

Skip version check during start up to speed up process for slow connections.