CLI Reference

Complete reference for the chainlaunch command-line interface (open-source / chaindeploy build).

Pro builds add commands not listed here — chainlaunch install (system service registration), chainlaunch nodesharing, chainlaunch encrypt, and others. See the Pro CLI reference for those.

Global Flags

--help, -h     Show help
--version, -v  Show version

Top-level command tree

chainlaunch
├── serve          Start the ChainLaunch HTTP server
├── version        Print version
├── fabric         Hyperledger Fabric chaincode and node operations
├── fabricx        Hyperledger Fabric-X (Arma) network operations
├── besu           Hyperledger Besu network operations
├── networks       Cross-platform network management (create / update / fabric / besu)
├── keys           Key management (create / get)
├── backup         Backup and restore (currently: restore subcommand)
├── testnet        One-shot test network provisioning
└── metrics        Enable/disable Prometheus metrics

Run any command with --help for the full flag list. The sections below cover the most-used commands.

serve

Start the ChainLaunch server.

chainlaunch serve [flags]

Flag	Description	Default
--port	HTTP server port	8100
--db	SQLite database path	chainlaunch.db
--data	Data directory for node configs and certs	./data
--tls-cert	TLS certificate file path	(none)
--tls-key	TLS private key file path	(none)

Environment variables:

• CHAINLAUNCH_USER — admin username, required on first start (no default)
• CHAINLAUNCH_PASSWORD — admin password, required on first start (no default). Re-setting it on a later start resets that user's password.
• CHAINLAUNCH_FABRICX_LOCAL_DEV — set to true on macOS/Windows Docker Desktop so Fabric-X containers can dial the host
• KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY — encryption key for keys at rest (auto-generated if not set)
• SESSION_ENCRYPTION_KEY — session encryption key (auto-generated if not set)
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY — Claude AI integration
• OPENAI_API_KEY — OpenAI integration

Without CHAINLAUNCH_USER and CHAINLAUNCH_PASSWORD on first start, the server aborts with: "No users found in database…". The deploy.sh installer sets these for you.

version

Print the ChainLaunch version.

chainlaunch version

---

fabricx (new in 0.4.0)

fabricx quickstart

Provision a complete N-party Fabric-X network in one shot — same flow as the web UI's Quick Start wizard.

# macOS / Windows Docker Desktop:
export CHAINLAUNCH_FABRICX_LOCAL_DEV=true

chainlaunch fabricx quickstart [flags]

Flag	Description	Default
--network-name	Network name	fabricx-quickstart
--parties	Number of parties (1–10)	4
--mode	single (one MSP shared) or multi (MSP per party)	single
--single-msp	MSPID used by --mode=single	AcmeMSP
--external-ip	External IP/host for node endpoints	platform setting
--base-port	First port in the reserved range	(see --help)
--slot-size	Ports reserved per party	(see --help)
--postgres-port	Host port for the shared Postgres container	15432
--channel	Channel ID (FabricX locks to arma)	arma
--namespace	Health-check namespace name (empty to skip)	quickstart
--namespace-timeout	Committer finality timeout for the health-check namespace	60s
--clean	Wipe any prior bundle with this network name first	false
--data-path	Server --data directory; with --clean, purges fabricx bind-mounts	(none)
--keep-going	Continue joining nodes through transient Docker errors	true
--http-timeout	Per-HTTP-request deadline	(see --help)
--join-retries	Retry count for transient Docker errors during join	(see --help)
--join-retry-backoff	Delay between join retries (doubles each retry)	(see --help)

Example — single-MSP 4-party network:

chainlaunch fabricx quickstart --network-name demo --parties 4

Example — production-shape multi-MSP, 3 parties:

chainlaunch fabricx quickstart --network-name prod --parties 3 --mode multi

See the Fabric-X Quickstart guide for what gets created and post-provisioning verification.

---

fabric

Fabric-specific operations for chaincode and nodes.

chainlaunch fabric <subcommand>

Subcommand	Purpose
install	Install a chaincode package on peers (Fabric chaincode lifecycle)
query	Query a chaincode
invoke	Invoke a chaincode
nc	Network config helpers
org	Organization helpers
peer	Peer helpers
orderer	Orderer helpers

fabric install

Install a chaincode package on one or more peers.

chainlaunch fabric install [flags]

Use chainlaunch fabric install --help for the current flag set (path to chaincode package, target peer names, MSP context).

---

besu

Besu-specific operations.

chainlaunch besu <subcommand>

Run chainlaunch besu --help for available subcommands. For most users the networks besu subtree (below) is the higher-level entry point.

---

networks

Cross-platform network management.

chainlaunch networks <subcommand>

Subcommand	Purpose
create	Create a network (Fabric or Besu)
update	Update a network
fabric	Fabric-specific subcommands (join, join-all, join-orderer, join-all-orderers, list, update, create)
besu	Besu-specific subcommands (create, list, update)

Example — join all peers to a Fabric channel:

chainlaunch networks fabric join-all --network-id 12

---

keys

Key management (used for organization signing keys, TLS material, etc.).

chainlaunch keys <subcommand>

Subcommand	Purpose
create	Create a new key
get [key-id]	Print a key's metadata

Run chainlaunch keys create --help for the full flag set (key type, provider, organization linkage).

---

backup

Backup and restore operations. (0.4.0 ships only the restore subcommand at the CLI; create / schedule backups via the API or web UI.)

chainlaunch backup restore [flags]

See Restore from a Backup for the end-to-end restore flow.

---

testnet

One-shot test network provisioning. Wraps the network and node creation API calls into a single command.

testnet fabric

chainlaunch testnet fabric [flags]

Flag	Description	Example
--name	Network name	my-fabric
--org	Comma-separated organization MSP IDs	Org1MSP,Org2MSP
--peerOrgs	Orgs that will have peers	Org1MSP,Org2MSP
--ordererOrgs	Orgs that will have orderers	OrdererOrg
--channels	Channel names	mychannel
--peerCounts	Peers per org	Org1MSP=2,Org2MSP=1
--ordererCounts	Orderers per org	OrdererOrg=3

Example:

chainlaunch testnet fabric \
  --name demo \
  --org "Org1MSP,Org2MSP" \
  --peerOrgs "Org1MSP,Org2MSP" \
  --ordererOrgs "Org1MSP" \
  --channels mychannel \
  --peerCounts "Org1MSP=1,Org2MSP=1" \
  --ordererCounts "Org1MSP=3"

testnet besu

chainlaunch testnet besu [flags]

Flag	Description	Default
--name	Network name	(required)
--nodes	Number of validator nodes	4
--mode	Deployment mode	docker

---

metrics

Manage the Prometheus integration.

metrics enable

Provision Prometheus and start scraping every node's /metrics endpoint.

chainlaunch metrics enable [flags]

Flag	Description	Default
--version	Prometheus version	v3.4.0
--port	Metrics port	9091

metrics disable

chainlaunch metrics disable

---

Pro-only commands

The following commands ship in ChainLaunch Pro, not in the open-source build:

• chainlaunch install — register ChainLaunch as a systemd/launchd service
• chainlaunch nodesharing generate-node-invitation / accept-node-invitation / sync-external-nodes — peer-to-peer instance federation
• chainlaunch encrypt — re-encrypt secrets at rest after key rotation

For the open-source build, set up systemd manually as shown in the Quick Start guide.

Next Steps

• Quick Start for your first deployment
• API Reference for the REST API
• Terraform Provider for infrastructure as code
• Fabric-X Quickstart — the headline 0.4.0 feature