Shelby Network Devnet Walkthrough

A well-detailed step-by-step guide to walk you through the Shelby servers CLI setup using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

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What You Will Learn

• Install dependencies
• Set up the Shelby CLI
• Create an account
• Fund it with test tokens
• Upload blobs
• Download blobs
• Avoid overwriting files
• Manage expiration

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Requirements

• Linux or WSL
• Node.js v22+

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1. Install Node.js

Shelby requires Node 22 or newer. On Debian/Ubuntu/WSL, run:

curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

If you use a different distro, install Node.js v22+ using your distro's package manager or nvm.

2. Verify Node Installation

node -v
npm -v

3. Install Shelby CLI

npm install -g @shelby-protocol/cli

4. Verify Shelby Installation

shelby --version

5. Create or Select an Account

List accounts:

shelby account list

Create a new account (if needed):

shelby account create myacct

Set the default account:

shelby config set default_account myacct

6. Switch to Devnet Context

shelby context list
shelby context switch shelbynet

7. Fund Your Account

You need APT to pay gas fees on devnet. Request test tokens from the faucet:

shelby faucet

7.1 Verify Account Balance

shelby account balance

8. Upload Your First Blob

Create a test file:

echo "Hello" > test.txt

Upload it:

shelby upload ./test.txt files/test.txt -e "tomorrow" --assume-yes

9. Upload Another Blob

Blob names must be unique. Create another file:

echo "Second" > test2.txt

Upload it:

shelby upload ./test2.txt files/test2.txt -e "tomorrow" --assume-yes

10. Avoid Name Collisions (Recommended)

Use timestamps to guarantee uniqueness:

shelby upload ./file.txt files/file-$(date +%s).txt -e "in 7 days" --assume-yes

11. List Blobs

shelby account blobs

12. Download a Blob

Download:

shelby download files/test2.txt ./downloaded.txt

View contents:

cat downloaded.txt

13. Where Keys Are Stored

Shelby stores private keys locally at:

~/.shelby/config.yaml

⚠️ Back this up securely and never commit it to GitHub.