CLI

filecoin stores a file or a folder as one copy on one storage provider and returns retrieval links. It runs on the calibration network unless you choose mainnet. It needs Node.js 24 or newer:

npm install -g filecoin

Or run it without installing, as npx -y filecoin.

This page explains how filecoin works. The CLI describes its own commands, which always match the installed version:

filecoin --help lists the commands, and filecoin <command> --help shows examples and flags.
filecoin schema <command> prints the command's input and output as JSON Schema, and what each error code means. filecoin schema --list lists every command with its side effects.

Log in

filecoin login

filecoin login makes a session key and saves it on your machine. It then opens the filecoin-app setup page with the key's address. The wallet owner reviews the request there and approves it with their wallet. The CLI finds the approval on chain, so there is nothing to copy back.

By default, filecoin login asks for the createDataSet, addPieces, and schedulePieceRemovals permissions for 30 days, under the name filecoin-cli. Repeat --scopes to ask for others. --name sets the name the owner sees, which is recorded on chain, and --days sets the expiry. The owner can change all three on the page before approving.

The session key signs each request, the provider submits the transactions, and the wallet pays for storage.

In a terminal, filecoin login opens the browser and waits for approval. An agent, or any run without a terminal, gets a login_pending error instead and never waits. The error's next steps are the approval link for the user and filecoin login --check for the agent to run after the user approves. --check only confirms the saved key and never makes a new one.

Running filecoin login again never changes a saved key's request: flags you leave out keep its scopes, name, and expiry. An interrupted login resumes with the same key, and an approved key is reused when it has the requested permissions. filecoin login replaces a saved key on its own only when the key has expired. If --scopes asks for more than a pending or valid key has, you get a session_conflict error and the key stays, because the owner may already have approved it. Pass --fresh to replace it.

For CI or a cloud agent, set FILECOIN_SESSION_KEY and FILECOIN_ROOT_ADDRESS instead of running filecoin login.

Check the account

The session key cannot fund the account. filecoin status reports when each permission expires, the USDFC funds, and the Warm Storage approval. When the account needs a deposit, it also returns a prefilled funding link to the filecoin-app setup page.

filecoin doctor shows the network, RPC, filecoin-app and filecoin-api origins, and state directory that filecoin uses, with where each value came from.

Store and retrieve

filecoin put ./report.pdf          # a file, stored as its exact bytes
filecoin put ./site                # a folder, packed into a UnixFS CAR
filecoin put ./site --dry-run      # size, provider, cost, and authorization; stores nothing
filecoin publish ./site            # same as put
filecoin get res_… --output ./copy # verifies the PieceCID and extracts folders
filecoin ls                        # add --all to include content pending removal
filecoin inspect res_… --check     # checks that the piece link answers
filecoin delete res_… --yes        # same as rm; schedules removal

put returns urls.browser, the link to share, and urls.piece, the exact stored bytes. Retrieve and verify explains what each link and filecoin get check.

Packing skips dotfiles and rejects symlinks. The file, or the packed folder, must be between 127 bytes and 1,065,353,216 bytes (1016 MiB).

delete schedules removal, and the provider then deletes the stored copy. The content's state becomes removal_pending. Without --yes, delete asks a person at a terminal to confirm. Everyone else, including agents, gets confirmation_required with a step for the user.

Resume an interrupted put or delete

filecoin operations ls --incomplete
filecoin operations inspect op_…
filecoin operations resume op_…

Each put and delete saves an operation before it changes anything, and prints its ID to stderr at once. An error from a put or a delete carries a filecoin operations resume <id> step. Run that step instead of the original command, which would start a new paid operation.

A resumed put never stores or pays twice:

It skips the upload when the provider already has the piece.
It checks on chain whether the commit landed before it sends it again.
It fails with source_changed when the source file changed.
It returns the saved result of an operation that already completed.

Ctrl+C stops the work at the next step and returns an interrupted result with the resume step.

Output and errors

When an agent runs filecoin, or when you pass --json or redirect stdout, filecoin writes one JSON object to stdout: data on success or error on failure, then optional next steps. The exit code is 0 with data and 1 with error. Progress goes to stderr.

Each error has a stable code, and filecoin schema <command> lists the codes the command returns and what they mean. Errors that need a person, such as login_pending and insufficient_funds, carry a next step with a filecoin-app link for the user.

Configuration

Variable	Purpose
`FILECOIN_NETWORK`	`mainnet` or `calibration`. `--network` wins, then `FILECOIN_NETWORK`, then the config file, then `calibration`
`FILECOIN_SESSION_KEY`, `FILECOIN_ROOT_ADDRESS`	Session key and wallet address, used instead of `filecoin login`
`FILECOIN_CONFIG_DIR`	Config directory. Default: the platform config directory for `filecoin`
`FILECOIN_STATE_DIR`	Local state and staged folders. Default: the platform data directory for `filecoin`
`FILECOIN_RPC_URL`	RPC endpoint
`FILECOIN_CONSOLE_URL`	filecoin-app origin for approval and funding links. Default: `https://poc.filecoin.cloud`
`FILECOIN_API_URL`	filecoin-api origin for retrieval links. Default: `https://api.filecoin.cloud`
`FILECOIN_OUTPUT`, `FILECOIN_AGENT`	Override the output mode and agent detection

The prototype saves the session key in the config file, readable only by its owner. filecoin logout deletes the local key. The key stays authorized on chain until it expires or you revoke it on the filecoin-app session keys page.