Setup Veramo CLI for cheqd

Setup your Veramo CLI to start using cheqd's identity functionality, including Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs), Verifiable Credentials and DID-Linked Resources (DLRs).

If you're looking to use the Veramo CLI with cheqd or develop a proof-of-concept application, use the official Veramo CLI setup guide.

Step 1: Install requisite packages

Node version recommended Nodev20 or later. You can install Node here.

1.1. Install Veramo CLI

This step is exactly as described in Veramo CLI docs:

npm i @veramo/cli@latest -g

Note: Depending on your system permissions, you might be prompted for additional permissions. Add sudo to the beginning of the command in case that happens.

Verify the installation was correct. Command below should output latest version of Veramo you installed.

veramo -v
x.x.x

1.2. Install the did-provider-cheqd package

Install the did-provider-cheqd NPM package in a similar fashion:

npm install @cheqd/did-provider-cheqd@latest -g

You can check all of your NPM package versions by running the command:

npm list -g

Step 2: Modify the cheqd plugin Agent configuration file

2.1. Get the agent.yml configuration file

Download the agent.yml file that contains the configuration for cheqd network to be used with Veramo CLI.

You can do this in terminal through:

wget -c https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cheqd/did-provider-cheqd/main/agent.yml

Note: Alternatively, you can also fetch this by cloning the did-provider-cheqd repository.

2.2. Open the agent.yml file in an editor to customise the config

You can open the agent.yml in a text editor/IDE of your choice to edit a few mandatory settings.

In terminal, you can edit the agent.yml file using an editor like nano:

nano <path/to/>agent.yml

Make sure you provide the actual relative/absolute path to the file.

2.3. Generate a new local database encryption key

By default, the did-provider-cheqd package has a default SQLite database password, but it's a good idea to modify and change this to a new key unique to your install.

$ veramo config gen-key

X25519 raw private key (hex encoded):

4a5aeb56c7956dd6f3312e7094130a03afc060b95621fa3a86577aaf2b67cc1d

You can use this key with @veramo/kms-local#SecretBox
or replace the default agent.yml 'dbEncryptionKey' constant

Take the key generated and replace the value under dbEncryptionKey in the agent.yml file.

2.4. Set your DID Resolver endpoint

In order to be able to read/query did:cheqd entries from the ledger, you need to configure a REST API endpoint for a cheqd DID Resolver instance.

did-cheqd-resolver:
    $require: '@cheqd/did-provider-cheqd?t=function&p=/cheqd#getResolver'
    $args:
        - url: 'https://resolver.cheqd.net/1.0/identifiers/'

The default value is set to resolver.cheqd.net, which is an instance of the cheqd DID Resolver hosted by the cheqd team. This DID Resolver instance can handle requests for did:cheqd:mainnet as well as did:cheqd:testnet namespaces.

If you want, you can replace the url property with a different REST API endpoint for a different instance of the cheqd DID Resolver.

Alternative/Optional: Use Universal Resolver instead

Note: This configuration is an advanced step and not recommended for most users. Skip it and continue to the next step in most cases, unless you know why you want to switch the resolver interface.

If you plan on interacting with multiple DID methods using Veramo CLI, you can alternatively query did:cheqd using a Universal Resolver instance instead. This allows your CLI configuration to handle any DID method supported by Universal Resolver.

Firstly, comment out the custom did-cheqd-resolver entry and uncomment the universal-resolver entry. This tells Veramo CLI to use the Universal Resolver interface for did:cheqd.

# DID resolvers
didResolver:
    $require: '@veramo/did-resolver#DIDResolverPlugin'
    $args:
        - resolver:
              $require: did-resolver#Resolver
              $args:
                  - key:
                        $ref: /did-key-resolver
                    # cheqd:
                    #  $ref: /did-cheqd-resolver
                    cheqd:
                        $ref: /universal-resolver

Also comment out this section for the did-cheqd-resolver:

# did-cheqd-resolver:
#   $require: '@cheqd/did-provider-cheqd?t=function&p=/cheqd#getResolver'
#   $args:
#     - url: 'https://resolver.cheqd.net/1.0/identifiers/'

Finally, uncomment and configure the universal-resolver interface:

universal-resolver:
    $require: '@veramo/did-resolver#UniversalResolver'
    $args:
        - url: https://dev.uniresolver.io/1.0/identifiers/

2.5. Add cheqd Testnet to your Leap wallet

In order to add cheqd Testnet to your Leap extension, please follow the following tutorial:

Configure cheqd Testnet for Leap

Set up a cheqd testnet account using your Leap Wallet.

2.6. Configure your cheqd/Cosmos account keys and RPC endpoints

While reading/querying from the cheqd ledger incurs no cost, if you want to create/update a DID to cheqd ledger, you need to pay transaction fees for the ledger writes.

# DID Manager
didManager:
---
defaultProvider: did:cheqd:testnet
providers:
    did:cheqd:mainnet:
        $require: '@cheqd/did-provider-cheqd#CheqdDIDProvider'
        $args:
            - defaultKms: local
              cosmosPayerMnemonic: <your_cosmos_mnemonic_paying_for_did_txs>
              networkType: mainnet
              rpcUrl: 'https://rpc.cheqd.net'
    did:cheqd:testnet:
        $require: '@cheqd/did-provider-cheqd#CheqdDIDProvider'
        $args:
            - defaultKms: local
              cosmosPayerMnemonic: <your_cosmos_mnemonic_paying_for_did_txs>
              networkType: testnet
              rpcUrl: 'https://rpc.cheqd.network'

You need to configure this in under didManager section as shown above, where you'll need to edit:

1. cosmosPayerMnemonic: Mnemonic associated with your cheqd/Cosmos SDK account. This is only stored locally, and the mnemonic is used to reconstitute the account address and keys used to pay for the transaction.
2. rpcUrl: For both did:cheqd:mainnet: as well as did:cheqd:testnet: sections, you can specify a Cosmos SDK RPC endpoint. This endpoint is where transactions are sent to. By default, this is populated with rpc.cheqd.net (for mainnet) and rpc.cheqd.network (for testnet), but you can can modify this to a different hosted RPC endpoint for cheqd or even your own local/private RPC endpoint.
3. defaultProvider: The default cheqd network is set to did:cheqd:testnet to allow developers to test out network functionality. However, if you prefer, you can switch this out to did:cheqd:mainnet instead.

2.7. Save the agent.yml file and exit

Make sure all your edits above are persisted and saved to a file that you can access.

Step 3: Verify your configuration file is correct

Once you've completed Step 2 above, verify that your Veramo configuration is accurate using the following command. If your configuration is correct, you should get a success message like the one below.

$ veramo config check -f <path/to/>agent.yml

Your Veramo configuration seems fine. An agent can be created and the 'agent.execute()' method can be called on it.

If the config check throws an error, check out our troubleshooting guide for Veramo CLI setup to see common errors and fixes.

Next steps

Now that your Veramo CLI installation is successfully set up to work with cheqd, try following our tutorials for:

Create a DID

Create a Decentralized Identifier (DID) on cheqd using Veramo.

Issue a Verifiable Credential

Issue a Verifiable Credential, signed by a did:cheqd Decentralized Identifier (DID), using Veramo.