Import key

Running sedge import-key will import validator keys from a directory following the EIP-2335: BLS12-381 Keystore standard. This command needs to be run on an already initialized sedge setup containing a validator client.

Help

To know more about the command options, run sedge import-key --help:

$ sedge import-key --help

Import validator client keys, use the 'from' flag to specify the keys location,
and make sure that follows the EIP-2335: BLS12-381 Keystore standard. This command
assumes that the validator client container exists, stopped or not.

This command stops the validator client during the importing process due to the
validator database being locked while it's running but leaves the validator client
in the same state in which it was found. That means if the validator is running/stopped
before the import, then the validator will be running/stopped after the command
is executed, regardless of whether the export fails or not. To force a different
behavior use --start-validator and --stop-validator flags.

The [validator] is a required argument used to specify which validator client, from
all supported by Sedge (lighthouse, lodestar, prysm or teku), is used to import the
validator keys. This is necessary because each client has its own way to achieve
the importation.

Usage:
  sedge import-key [flags] [validator]

Flags:
      --container-tag string         Container tag to use. If defined, sedge will add to each container and the network, a suffix with the tag. e.g. sedge-validator-client -> sedge-validator-client-<tag>.
      --custom-config string         file path or url to use as custom network config.
      --custom-deploy-block string   custom network deploy block.
      --custom-genesis string        file path or url to use as custom network genesis.
      --from string                  path to the validator keys, must follow the EIP-2335: BLS12-381 Keystore standard (default "[WORK_DIR]/sedge-data/keystore")
  -h, --help                         help for import-key
  -n, --network string               network (default "mainnet")
  -p, --path string                  path to the generation directory (default "[WORK_DIR]/sedge-data")
      --start-validator              starts the validator client after import, regardless of the state the validator was in before
      --stop-validator               stops the validator client after import, regardless of the state the validator was in before

Global Flags:
      --log-level string   Set Log Level, e.g panic, fatal, error, warn, warning, info, debug, trace (default "info")

Execution examples

In this example we will import validator keys from a non default directory into a sedge setup with a stopped validator client (Prysm in this case). This is the folder structure:

.
├── keystore
│   ├── deposit_data.json
│   ├── keystore_password.txt
│   └── validator_keys
│       └── keystore-m_12381_3600_0_0_0.json
└── sedge-data
    ├── docker-compose.yml
    ├── .env
    └── jwtsecret

The keystore folder contains the validator keys, the sedge-data folder contains the sedge setup. The keystore_password.txt file contains the password to unlock the validator keys.

To import the validator keys, and start the validator client after the import, run:

$ sedge import-key --from keystore -n sepolia --start-validator prysm
2023-01-26 11:59:34 -- [INFO] [Logger Init] Log level: info
2023-01-26 11:59:34 -- [INFO] You are running the latest version of sedge. Version:  v1.7.2
2023-01-26 11:59:34 -- [WARN] The keys path is not the default one, copying the keys to the default path /root/sedge/example/sedge-data/keystore
2023-01-26 11:59:34 -- [INFO] Importing validator keys
2023-01-26 11:59:34 -- [INFO] The keys import container is starting
2023-01-26 11:59:35 -- [INFO] The validator container is being restarted
2023-01-26 11:59:36 -- [INFO] Validator keys imported successfully

Notice the warning message, this is because the --from flag is not the default path for the validator keys. Sedge will copy the keys to the default path, and then import them.

Notice also that the validator client is restarted after the import, this is because the --start-validator flag was used.

The resulted folder structure is:

.
├── keystore
│   ├── deposit_data.json
│   ├── keystore_password.txt
│   └── validator_keys
│       └── keystore-m_12381_3600_0_0_0.json
└── sedge-data
    ├── docker-compose.yml
    ├── .env
    ├── jwtsecret
    ├── keystore/
    └── validator-data/

note

If you have to import your keys to nimbus, you will need to manually type the password when loading the keys, since the nimbus client does not support non interactive password loading.

Importing keys on Nimbus is done using the consensus client container instead of the validator client container.

Notice the new folder keystore inside the sedge-data folder, this is where the validator keys are copied to. Also notice the new folder validator-data, this is where the validator client stores its data.