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ada-dev-cli — Agent Skill

You have access to Cardano through this tool, either as the ada CLI or as the ada-mcp MCP server. Read this once at the start of a session; use it as reference throughout.

Over MCP, prefer the tools: ada_status, ada_balance, ada_transfer_preview, ada_transfer + ada_confirm, and so on. Tool descriptions carry the same rules as this document and the annotations tell you what is safe to call unasked. The two-step send flow below is enforced there — ada_transfer cannot send on its own, whatever arguments you pass.

Over the CLI, every command takes --json. The rules are identical.

Scope note: everything below works — wallets, balances, funding, ADA transfers, native assets, two-party atomic swaps, the devnet lifecycle and chain inspection. Never invent a command. Ask the tool what it has:

ada help --json

If ada is not found, it has not been linked yet — the project is not on npm. From a clone: npm install && npm run build && npm link.

Every entry carries implemented: true|false. Trust that over this document if they ever disagree.

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The output contract

Always pass --json. Then every invocation returns exactly one JSON document on stdout, on success and on failure alike. ada tip --json | jq works either way.

Success:

{ "ok": true, "command": "tip", "height": 158, "slot": 758, "epoch": 1, "hash": "..." }

Failure:

{ "ok": false, "error": true, "command": "tip",
  "code": "devnet_not_running",
  "message": "cannot reach the devnet at http://localhost:8080/api/v1/blocks/latest",
  "hint": "start it with: ada localnet up" }

Rules that will not change:

• Branch on ok. error: true is also present on failures if you prefer that shape.
• code is the contract. Branch on it. message is prose and may be reworded — never pattern-match it.
• hint, when present, is the suggested next action. It is usually exactly what to do.
• command echoes what you asked for, so a result can be correlated.
• Stderr carries progress and chrome only. Ignore it unless diagnosing.
• Exit codes: 0 ok · 2 bad arguments · 3 config · 4 devnet not running · 5 network · 6 chain rejected · 7 a required tool is missing · 70 internal.