Quickstart

Get from zero to your first on-chain transfer on The DevNet Grid in about five minutes. You’ll install the CLI, point it at the network, fund a wallet from the faucet, send GEN to a second address, and confirm both the activation and the resulting balance.

Prerequisites

macOS or Linux
A terminal you’re comfortable with

Step 1: Install the CLI

Download the gen binary for your platform and put it on your PATH.

mv ./gen /usr/local/bin/gen
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/gen

Verify the install:

gen --help

You should see the top-level command list (wallet, client, config, service, and others). If that prints, you’re ready.

Step 2: Connect to a network

DevNet access. DevNet requires a bearer token issued by Gen Labs. Ask your contact for one and substitute it for <your-jwt> in the commands below.

The CLI reaches networks through named environments. Create one for DevNet, attach your JWT, and make it active so you don’t have to pass --env or --rpc-url on every call. DevNet requires a bearer token on every request, so persist your JWT as an Authorization header:

gen config env new --name devnet --rpc https://devnet.genlabs.co/rpc/
gen config env set devnet --header "authorization: Bearer <your-jwt>"
gen config env switch devnet

Confirm the effective config:

gen config show

Expected output — a Global settings section plus an Environments list, with the active env marked *:

Global settings:
  wallet root:  (default: ~/.gen/wallets)

Environments:
  local                 http://127.0.0.1:30001
* devnet                https://devnet.genlabs.co/rpc/
  Run `gen config env show <name>` to see an environment's full configuration.

To see one environment’s full detail, including headers, run gen config env show devnet (header values are redacted by default; add --show-secrets to reveal them):

name:          devnet [active]
rpc_url:       https://devnet.genlabs.co/rpc/
rpc_transport: jsonrpc (default)
headers:
  authorization: <redacted>
  (header values hidden; use --show-secrets to reveal)

You can hit a different endpoint for a single command with --env <name>, override the URL with --rpc-url <URL>, and add or override headers with --header "name: value". To remove the environment later, run gen config env delete devnet.

Step 3: Create a wallet

Create a new wallet called alice. This becomes your active wallet automatically:

gen wallet create alice

The CLI prints a 32-byte hex private key once, along with the wallet’s address (a grd@... bech32m string). Save the key somewhere safe. There is no way to recover it later. (If you’d rather have a BIP-39 recovery phrase, pass --mnemonic.) Expected output (abridged):

Created wallet 'alice'
  account: grd@1qgqqqqqgcte6a...
  public key: 0x...

Seed (write this down. It will not be shown again):
  0x...

Grab the account’s address into a shell variable so the next steps are copy-paste:

ALICE=$(gen wallet --json show alice --account-address-only | jq -r .result.account)

Step 4: Fund the wallet from the faucet

Ask the DevNet faucet to fund Alice. The faucet auto-creates the account on first use:

gen wallet faucet --amount 1000000000

Expected output:

Faucet transfer submitted

Recipient: grd@1zjm8wamf3nz...
Token contract: grd@1ma475ve...
Amount: 1000000000
Mode: with confirmation

Status: success
Activation ID: 0xf0f37be6...aff3

In --json mode the result looks like:

{
  "ok": true,
  "command": "faucet",
  "result": {
    "activation_id": "0xf0f37be6...aff3",
    "status": "success"
  }
}

Note: The DevNet faucet has a per-account rate limit. If a request fails with RateLimited, wait a minute and retry. If the faucet returns InsufficientFunds, it has been drained. Refills happen periodically.

Step 5: Send a transfer

Pick a recipient. For this walk-through, create a second wallet so you have somewhere to send to:

gen wallet create bob
BOB=$(gen wallet --json show bob --account-address-only | jq -r .result.account)

gen wallet create bob makes bob the active wallet, so the next command pins the source explicitly with --wallet alice. Send 1,000 subunits, pass --yes to skip the confirmation prompt, and capture the activation ID from the JSON envelope for the next step.

TXN=$(gen wallet --json transfer --wallet alice --to "$BOB" --amount 1000 --yes | jq -r .result.activation_id)

The transfer envelope looks like this in --json mode:

{
  "ok": true,
  "command": "transfer",
  "result": {
    "activation_id": "0x57dfbf81...aff3",
    "status": "success"
  }
}

Step 6: Confirm the activation

Fetch the activation you just submitted to see how it played out on the network:

gen client --json get-activation --activation-id "$TXN"

The result includes the events the activation emitted and the block it finalized in (end_block). This is useful for tracing and debugging. For a simple yes/no that the transfer landed, the most direct check is the recipient’s balance in Step 7.

Step 7: Verify the recipient balance

Query Bob’s balance to confirm the funds arrived. Pass the wallet name to query a specific stored wallet:

gen wallet balance bob

Expected output:

Balance

Wallet: bob
Account: grd@1cxyrpe2q7uh...

TOKEN  BALANCE  NAME       CONTRACT
GEN       1000  Gen Token  grd@1ma475ve...

Or in JSON:

gen wallet --json balance bob

{
  "ok": true,
  "command": "wallet-balance",
  "result": {
    "account": "grd@1cxyrpe2q7uh...",
    "balance": "1000",
    "name": "Gen Token",
    "symbol": "GEN",
    "token_contract": "grd@1ma475ve..."
  }
}

That’s it. You’ve sent and confirmed your first transfer on the Grid.

What’s next

What is The Grid?: the platform in one page.
Activations explained: what you just submitted, in detail.
RPC reference: every endpoint the CLI talks to.

​Prerequisites

​Step 1: Install the CLI

​Step 2: Connect to a network

​Step 3: Create a wallet

​Step 4: Fund the wallet from the faucet

​Step 5: Send a transfer

​Step 6: Confirm the activation

​Step 7: Verify the recipient balance

​What’s next

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install the CLI

Step 2: Connect to a network

Step 3: Create a wallet

Step 4: Fund the wallet from the faucet

Step 5: Send a transfer

Step 6: Confirm the activation

Step 7: Verify the recipient balance

What’s next