Crate: kinetic-cli

Stage: 14 — The User-Facing Terminal Interface

Reading Time: 30 mins

What Is This?

The kinetic binary is the user’s command center. It doesn’t run any background services itself — it talks to the already-running kinetic-daemon over HTTP (with Bearer token auth) and delegates process management to other binaries (kinetic-daemon, kinetic-node, etc.).

Command Map

kinetic
├── setup [firefox]          # First-run wizard: generates seed + identity
├── seed init | restore      # BIP-39 seed phrase management
├── name
│   ├── register <name>      # Two-phase PoW + VDF + ML-DSA registration
│   ├── renew <name>         # Renew expiring name
│   ├── publish <name>       # Publish/update DNS zone records
│   └── query <name>         # Resolve a name via daemon API
├── identity
│   ├── create               # Generate ML-DSA-65 KID keypair
│   ├── publish              # Publish KID + capability manifest
│   ├── resolve <did>        # Resolve a did:kin from the network
│   ├── revoke               # Revoke a KID
│   └── rotate-key           # Rotate a KID's controller key
├── governance broadcast     # Broadcast a pre-signed governance JSON
├── dns-tree generate        # Build Merkle DNS tree zone file
├── clock [-l]               # Show Kinetic Network Time (daemon or offline)
├── daemon  install|start|stop|status|logs  # Manage kinetic-daemon
├── host    install|start|stop|status|logs  # Manage kinetic-host
├── node    install|start|stop|status|logs  # Manage kinetic-node
├── dns     install|start|stop|status|logs  # Manage kinetic-dns (sudo)
└── pac     install|start|stop|status|logs  # Manage kinetic-pac

Architecture

Important

Auth: All daemon API calls use a Bearer token read from <base_dir>/tokens/admin.token.

• HTTP client: Built once per command in utils::build_client(timeout_secs), pre-seeded with the Bearer header.

Note

No service logic: The CLI never manages P2P, storage, or cryptographic state directly — it delegates everything to the daemon API or shells out to the right binary.

Files

• 02_main_utils.md — Entry point, command dispatch, utils.rs helpers
• 03_seed_setup.md — BIP-39 seed phrase init/restore, setup wizard, Firefox CA injection
• 04_name.md — Name registration (two-phase commitment + VDF), renew, publish, query
• 05_identity.md — KID creation, publish, revoke, rotate
• 06_service_governance_misc.md — Service delegator, governance broadcast, clock, dns-tree