Accounts

A Quip account is a keystore file holding a 32-byte master seed in plain text. Keystores live at two levels, as git keeps config: a project level in the nearest .quip/ directory above the working directory, and a user level in ~/.quip/. Each level also holds an account preference naming the keystore to sign with. Accounts on the Quip Network page covers the layout and the full signer order; this page covers the commands.

The outputs on this page were captured on 2026-10-26 in a fresh project directory with a throwaway account, against aglais at specVersion 119.

Levels

account new, account import and account use act on one level:

--project acts on the project level, creating .quip/ in the working directory when none is found.
--global acts on the user level.
With neither, the level is the project when the working directory is inside one, else the user.

Anything created under a project .quip/ also writes a .quip/.gitignore of * when there is none, so keystores stay out of version control.

account list

xquad quip account list

Lists every keystore found, the order that decides which one signs, and how to change it. It reads local files only:

Keystores found:

* default  project  .quip/keystores/default.json
           5FXRydTJYE4cPGBH9CSf3dyGvaJNnYATEZJMyFqMiLPHv9oc

Resolution order (the first match signs):

  1  QUIP_SIGNER_SEED     unset
  2  QUIP_KEYSTORE        unset
* 3  project preference   default (.quip/config.toml)
  4  user preference      unset
  5  default              ~/.quip/keystore.json

Setting the account:

  xquad quip account use <name>             prefer <name> in this project, else for your user
  xquad quip account use <name> --global    prefer <name> for your user
  xquad quip account use --unset [--global] clear the preference at that level
  --keystore PATH, QUIP_KEYSTORE, QUIP_SIGNER_SEED override the preferences

* marks the keystore that signs and the step that chose it. A keystore that cannot be read, or a preference naming one that does not exist, is listed with a ! line saying why, rather than failing the listing. With --keystore PATH, the keystore list marks that file * with an (override) suffix, as a - row when it is not one of the listed keystores, and no step of the resolution order is marked.

account show

xquad quip --network aglais account show

The setup check: the account in effect, where it came from, and what it holds on the network.

Account   5FXRydTJYE4cPGBH9CSf3dyGvaJNnYATEZJMyFqMiLPHv9oc
Source    project preference default
Balance   0.000000000000 AGLS
Reserved  0.000000000000 AGLS
Orders    0 of 32 slots used

Balance is the free balance an order’s reward and fee are paid from. Reserved is the reward still held by orders not yet closed, plus anything else the runtime reserves. Orders counts the slots the account’s unclosed orders hold against the runtime’s MaxOrdersPerProposer; each order holds a slot until a claim or a reclaim closes it, and the line reads unlimited when the runtime sets no cap.

With --json:

{
  "account": "5FXRydTJYE4cPGBH9CSf3dyGvaJNnYATEZJMyFqMiLPHv9oc",
  "source": "project",
  "balance": 0,
  "reserved": 0,
  "order_slots": {
    "used": 0,
    "limit": 32
  }
}

With no usable account, it prints the account list guidance on stderr, creates nothing, and exits 1:

Error: No Quip account is set up.

No keystores found. Create one with `xquad quip account new`, or bring a seed with `xquad quip account import`.
...

When nothing at all is set up (no seed, no override, no preference and no default keystore) and the command runs at a terminal without --json, it first offers to create one: new, import or skip (the default), then the level and the name. After creating it, it shows the new account when a network is named; without --network, --url or QUIP_RPC_URL, the keystore is still created and the command then exits 1 with the missing-network error. Skipping exits 1. A broken step, such as a preference naming a missing keystore, gets an error naming the fix instead of the offer.

account new and account import

xquad quip account new [--name NAME] [--project | --global] [--force] [--no-use]
xquad quip account import [--name NAME] [--project | --global] [--no-use]

account new writes a keystore from a fresh seed; account import writes one from a seed you already have, as 32 bytes of hex. The seed is read from a hidden prompt at a terminal, else from the first line of stdin, and has no flag, so it never lands in shell history:

xquad quip account import --name work < seed.txt

--name defaults to default. Names are lowercase letters, digits, _ and -, at most 64 characters, starting with a letter or digit.

$ xquad quip account new --project
created default at the project level: .quip/keystores/default.json
  5FXRydTJYE4cPGBH9CSf3dyGvaJNnYATEZJMyFqMiLPHv9oc
now in use at the project level; change it with `xquad quip account use`

The new account becomes the preference at its level, unless --no-use is given or it is the user-level default, which signs when nothing else is set and needs no preference. Neither command replaces an existing keystore of the same name: account new --force replaces it and names the account it replaced, and account import asks for another --name.

account use

xquad quip account use NAME [--project | --global]
xquad quip account use --unset [--project | --global]

Sets the preference at a level to the keystore NAME, or clears it with --unset. A project preference may name a project or a user keystore; a user preference applies in every directory, so it names a user keystore. Pass a name or --unset, not both. --keystore, QUIP_KEYSTORE and QUIP_SIGNER_SEED still override any preference.

Here a user keystore work, made with account new --name work --global --no-use, is chosen for the project, then the preference is cleared again:

$ xquad quip account use work
work is now in use at the project level: 5FRkgm6s4rddCTdMWGU4aPm3Uu642r96oCXLZmcwp184ByNp
$ xquad quip account use --unset
cleared the project account preference

account new, account import and account use take --json too, before the command (xquad quip --json account use work --global), printing the account, its name, the level and the keystore path (here with the home directory shortened):

{
  "account": "5FRkgm6s4rddCTdMWGU4aPm3Uu642r96oCXLZmcwp184ByNp",
  "name": "work",
  "level": "user",
  "path": "/home/me/.quip/keystores/work.json"
}

account use --unset prints null for the account and name, and the cleared config.toml as the path. account list --json prints the keystores, the resolution steps and the step in effect.