wallet-cli message sign¶

Sign an arbitrary message (TIP-191/V2 · EIP-191).

Synopsis¶

wallet-cli message sign (--message <text> | --message-stdin) [options]

Description¶

Signs a message with the active account's key (or --account) using the personal-message scheme — TRON's TIP-191/V2 or Ethereum's EIP-191, which are the same construction over a different prefix. Signing only — nothing is broadcast, and no node is contacted.

The selected network decides which key signs and which address is reported: an account has one key per family, so --network nile signs with its TRON key and reports its base58 address, --network sepolia signs with its EVM key and reports its 0x address. --network is still optional, and with it omitted the config default network decides.

stdin has a single consumer (fd 0): --message-stdin and --password-stdin cannot both be used in one run (secret_source_error). In practice:

Ledger accounts confirm on the device and need no master password — fd 0 is free, so you can pipe the message via --message-stdin.
Software accounts need --password-stdin for non-interactive use — the message must then go inline via --message.

Watch-only accounts cannot sign (watch_only_no_signer).

Options¶

Option	Description
`--message <string>`	Message text to sign; exactly one of `--message` / `--message-stdin`
`--message-stdin`	Read the message from stdin (fd 0)
`--password-stdin`	Master password from stdin (software accounts)

Plus the global options.

Examples¶

In the examples, $PW is your master password (from an environment variable, password manager, etc.), fed on stdin via --password-stdin.

Software account — password via stdin, message inline:

echo "$PW" | wallet-cli message sign --message "hello" --password-stdin

✅ Signed
  Address    TMSgJxtPw29AFEHMXsjGo4kWV7UwbCToHJ
  Signature  0x9f3c...

echo "$PW" | wallet-cli message sign --message "hello" --password-stdin -o json

{"schema":"wallet-cli.result.v1","success":true,"command":"message.sign","data":{"address":"TMSgJxtPw29AFEHMXsjGo4kWV7UwbCToHJ","message":"hello","signature":"0x9f3c..."},"meta":{"durationMs":15,"warnings":[]},"chain":{"family":"tron","network":"tron:728126428","chainId":"728126428"}}

Ledger account — message via stdin, confirm on device:

cat challenge.txt | wallet-cli message sign --message-stdin --network tron:3448148188

The same message signed on an EVM network produces a different signature from a different key:

echo "$PW" | wallet-cli message sign --message "hello" --network eip155:11155111 --password-stdin

Output¶

Field	Type	Meaning
`address`	string	Signer's address, in the selected network's format
`message`	string	The message that was signed
`signature`	string	Signature, 0x-prefixed hex

Exit status¶

0 signed · 1 execution failure (watch_only_no_signer, auth_failed; two stdin flags → secret_source_error) · 2 usage error (both or neither message source → invalid_option / missing_option).