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.

Security Scan

The skill mostly matches a wallet-management purpose, but its runtime instructions require additional secrets and local key storage behavior that are not declared in the metadata — this mismatch plus the ability to export private keys is a meaningful risk you should understand before installing.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description, required binary (nansen), and primary env (NANSEN_API_KEY) align with a CLI-based wallet manager. However, the SKILL.md documents additional required credentials and behaviors (PRIVY_APP_ID, PRIVY_APP_SECRET, NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD, use of OS keychain and ~/.nansen/.credentials) that are not declared in the registry metadata. The ability to export private keys from local wallets is also part of the documented functionality and is sensitive.

Instruction Scope

The SKILL.md instructs the agent to run CLI commands that create, export, send, and delete wallets and to use Privy (server-side) or local encrypted storage. It explicitly documents exporting private keys for local wallets and the CLI fallback to an on-disk credentials file. The instructions reference env vars and secrets (PRIVY_*, NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD) that were not declared. Commands the agent will run can produce private keys and perform network operations — reasonable for a wallet manager but high-risk and the scope is broader than the declared metadata.

Install Mechanism

Install spec is a node/npm package (nansen-cli) that provides the 'nansen' binary. This is an expected and common install method for a CLI skill; moderate trust is required (npm package provenance should be verified), but there are no raw URL downloads or archive extraction in the spec.

Credentials

Registry metadata only lists NANSEN_API_KEY (primaryEnv), but the SKILL.md requires or references additional secrets: NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD, PRIVY_APP_ID, PRIVY_APP_SECRET, and possibly others. The skill also relies on OS keychain access and may fall back to an insecure ~/.nansen/.credentials file. Requesting undisclosed secrets and implicit file access is disproportionate and should have been declared.

Persistence & Privilege

always:false and agent invocation is normal. The skill does not request forced always-on presence. However, runtime behavior interacts with system secret stores (OS keychain) and may create ~/.nansen files (including an insecure fallback). That persistence is operationally significant for secrets handling, but not a metadata privilege misconfiguration on its own.

What to consider before installing

This skill appears to be a real CLI wrapper for wallet actions, but it has important inconsistencies and sensitive behavior you should review before installing: - The registry metadata only lists NANSEN_API_KEY, yet the instructions require additional secrets (PRIVY_APP_ID, PRIVY_APP_SECRET) and an optional NANSEN_WALLET_PASSWORD. Ask the publisher to update metadata to list all required env vars. - The CLI can export private keys for local wallets and may store passwords in a plaintext fallback at ~/.nansen/wallets/.credentials. If you install this, be aware that exporting keys or using the insecure fallback can expose funds. - The installer is an npm package (nansen-cli). Verify the package source, publisher identity, and review the package on the public npm registry or its GitHub repo before installing. - For agent use, prefer Privy (server-side keys) for automation if you trust Privy; otherwise require explicit human confirmation for any 'wallet export', 'send', or 'delete' operations. - If you cannot verify the upstream package or the publisher, avoid installing or restrict the skill so it cannot run sensitive commands automatically. Request the skill's homepage/repo and a full list of required env vars from the publisher; that information would materially change this assessment.

Wallet

Auth Setup

# 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

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.

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)

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)

# 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

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

Send

# 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

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

Forget Password

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

Migrate to Secure Storage

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