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Feature request: encrypted keystore for signing, alternative to .env private key

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#569 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
go
Domain
cli, security

Research direction

Start by tracing how cre-cli currently reads CRE_ETH_PRIVATE_KEY from .env or the environment, then review the proposed cre wallet import, cre wallet list, and workflow simulate --account entry points. Done would include encrypted local account storage, password prompts for use, account listing without key exposure, and no plaintext private key requirement.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Right now the CLI reads the signing key from CRE_ETH_PRIVATE_KEY in .env (or a raw env var). That means the key sits unencrypted on disk for as long as the project exists, which isn't great even for testnet work.

Foundry solved this a while back with cast wallet import <name> --interactive - it prompts for the key + a password once, encrypts it (ERC-2335), and after that you just do --account <name> and get a password prompt instead of a plaintext key anywhere in the project.

Would be great if cre-cli had something similar, e.g.

  • cre wallet import <name> - prompt for pk + password, store encrypted locally
  • cre workflow simulate ... --account <name> - password prompt instead of reading .env
  • cre wallet list - list configured accounts, obviously without exposing the keys

Since a lot of us are coming from Foundry, this would match a pattern people already expect and cut down on keys ending up in .env files, shell history, or accidentally committed.

Not attached to ERC-2335 specifically if there's a preferred format on your end - just flagging the gap. Happy to help implement once there's agreement on direction.

Dominant language
Go
Stars
24
Forks
25
Avg merge
10h 10m
Merged PRs (30d)
13

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  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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