Nansen Wallet Manager

Wallet management — create (local or Privy server-side), list, show, export, send, delete. Use when creating wallets, checking balances, or sending tokens.

Wallet

Auth Setup

bash

# Save API key (non-interactive)
nansen login --api-key <key>
# Or via env var:
NANSEN_API_KEY=<key> nansen login

# Verify
nansen research profiler labels --address 0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045 --chain ethereum

Wallet Providers

The CLI supports two wallet providers:

	Local (default)	Privy (server-side)
Key storage	Encrypted on disk	Server-side via Privy API
Password required	Yes (min 12 chars)	No
Export private keys	Yes (wallet export)	No — keys are managed by Privy
Best for	Human users, manual trading	Agents, automated workflows
Flag	--provider local (default)	--provider privy
Required env vars	NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD	PRIVY_APP_ID + PRIVY_APP_SECRET

Privy Wallet Creation

Privy wallets are server-side wallets managed by the Privy API. No password is needed — keys never touch the local machine.

Prerequisites

The following environment variables must be set:

Var	Purpose
PRIVY_APP_ID	Privy application ID
PRIVY_APP_SECRET	Privy application secret

Create a Privy wallet

bash

nansen wallet create --provider privy
# Or with a custom name:
nansen wallet create --name agent-wallet --provider privy

Critical rules for agents (Privy)

• No password needed — Privy manages keys server-side
• Cannot export keys — wallet export only works for local wallets
• All other operations (list, show, send, delete, default) work identically for both providers

Local Wallet Creation (Two-Step Agent Flow)

This section covers local wallet creation. For Privy server-side wallets, see the Privy Wallet Creation section above — no password is needed.

Wallet creation requires a password from the human user. The agent must NOT generate or store the password itself.

Step 1 (Agent → Human): Ask the user to provide a wallet password (minimum 12 characters).

Step 2 (Agent executes): Run the create command with the password the user gave you.

bash

NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD="<password_from_user>" nansen wallet create

After creation, the CLI automatically saves the password:

• OS keychain (macOS Keychain, Linux secret-tool, Windows Credential Manager) — secure, preferred
• ~/.nansen/wallets/.credentials file — insecure fallback when no keychain is available (e.g. containers, CI)

All future wallet operations retrieve the password automatically — no env var or human input needed.

If the .credentials file fallback is used, the CLI prints a warning on every operation. To migrate to secure storage later, run nansen wallet secure.

Password resolution order (automatic)

1. NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD env var (if set)
2. OS keychain (saved automatically on wallet create)
3. ~/.nansen/wallets/.credentials file (insecure fallback, with warning)
4. Structured JSON error with instructions (if none available)

Critical rules for agents

• NEVER generate a password yourself — always ask the human user
• NEVER store the password in files, memory, logs, or conversation history
• NEVER use --human flag — that enables interactive prompts which agents cannot handle
• After wallet creation, you do NOT need the password for future operations — the keychain handles it
• If you get a PASSWORD_REQUIRED error, ask the user to provide their password again

Create

Privy (server-side, no password)

bash

nansen wallet create --provider privy
# Or with a custom name:
nansen wallet create --name trading --provider privy

Requires PRIVY_APP_ID + PRIVY_APP_SECRET env vars. No password needed.

Local (encrypted on disk, password required)

bash

# Ask the user for a password first, then:
NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD="<password_from_user>" nansen wallet create
# Or with a custom name:
NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD="<password_from_user>" nansen wallet create --name trading

List & Show

bash

nansen wallet list
nansen wallet show <name>
nansen wallet default <name>

Send

bash

# Send native token (SOL, ETH) — password auto-resolved from keychain
nansen wallet send --to <addr> --amount 1.5 --chain solana

# Send entire balance
nansen wallet send --to <addr> --chain evm --max

# Dry run (preview, no broadcast)
nansen wallet send --to <addr> --amount 1.0 --chain evm --dry-run

Export & Delete

bash

# Password auto-resolved from keychain
nansen wallet export <name>
nansen wallet delete <name>

Forget Password

bash

# Remove saved password from all stores (keychain + .credentials file)
nansen wallet forget-password

Migrate to Secure Storage

bash

nansen wallet secure

For detailed migration steps (from ~/.nansen/.env, .credentials, or env-var-only setups), see the nansen-wallet-migration skill.

Flags

Flag	Purpose
--to	Recipient address
--amount	Amount to send
--chain	evm or solana
--max	Send entire balance
--dry-run	Preview without broadcasting
--provider	Wallet provider: local (default, encrypted on disk) or privy (server-side via Privy API)
--human	Enable interactive prompts (human terminal use only — agents must NOT use this)
--unsafe-no-password	Skip encryption (keys stored in plaintext — NOT recommended)

Environment Variables

Var	Purpose
NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD	Wallet encryption password — only needed for initial wallet create. After that, the OS keychain handles it.
NANSEN_API_KEY	API key (also set via nansen login --api-key <key>)
PRIVY_APP_ID	Privy application ID (required for --provider privy)
PRIVY_APP_SECRET	Privy application secret (required for --provider privy)
NANSEN_WALLET_PROVIDER	Default provider for wallet create — local or privy
NANSEN_EVM_RPC	Custom EVM RPC endpoint
NANSEN_SOLANA_RPC	Custom Solana RPC endpoint