CLI Reference

The zair CLI is organized into five command groups that mirror the airdrop pipeline:

Command group	Role	Purpose
`key`	Anyone	Derive seed and viewing keys from a mnemonic
`setup`	Organizer	Generate proving/verifying parameters
`config`	Organizer	Build snapshot configuration from chain data
`claim`	Prover	Prepare, prove, and sign airdrop claims
`verify`	Verifier	Verify proofs and signatures

Step-by-step Guide

Below is a step-by-step guide for the full workflow:

0. Prerequisites

You need to have built the CLI tool, and a Zcash testnet wallet with shielded funds confirmed before or at the snapshot height. Use any Zcash wallet (e.g. zcash-cli or zingo-cli) to:

Generate a new testnet account and export the mnemonic and birthday height.
Obtain test notes from a faucet, for example testnet.zecfaucet.com.
Obtain a few shielded Sapling or Orchard notes (or both).
Wait for confirmation and note the confirmation height.

The tools will need the wallet birthday and the wallet mnemonic (with optional passphrase). For generating a snapshot, you need a snapshot height after the confirmed note height e.g. current.

1. Derive keys

Extract the seed from your mnemonic (sensitive!):

zair key derive-seed --mnemonic-file mnemonic.txt --no-passphrase

2. Generate parameters

Generate the trusted Sapling setup (required once per scheme):

zair setup sapling

Orchard setup is generated automatically during proving, but you may precompute it:

zair setup orchard

3. Build configuration

Build the airdrop snapshot configuration against a testnet height:

zair config build \
  --network testnet \
  --height <SNAPSHOT_HEIGHT>

This produces config.json, snapshot files, and gap-tree files.

4. Claim

Run the full claim pipeline (prepare, prove, sign) in one step:

zair claim run \
  --config config.json \
  --seed seed.txt \
  --birthday <WALLET_BIRTHDAY> \
  --message claim-message.bin

This produces:

claim-prepared.json: prepared proof inputs (sensitive!)
claim-proofs.json: generated proofs and public outputs
claim-proofs-secrets.json: local-only secrets (sensitive!)
claim-submission.json: signed submission for the target chain

5. Verify

Run the full verification pipeline to verify the submission (proofs + signatures):

zair verify run \
  --config config.json \
  --message claim-message.bin

The individual steps (claim prepare, claim prove, claim sign, verify proof, verify signature) can also be run separately. See their respective reference pages for details.

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