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Getting Started

This guide walks through first-time setup: install Heat, create an account, understand funding, and run your first protocol commands.

1. Install Heat

# One-command install (recommended)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dzmbs/heat-cli/main/install.sh | bash
 
# Or install with cargo
cargo install --git https://github.com/dzmbs/heat-cli --bin heat

Confirm it works:

heat --version
heat --help

See Installation for other methods and platform details.

2. Create a Heat account

Heat uses named accounts to manage keys. Each account has encrypted local key material plus account metadata under ~/.heat/.

Option A: Generate a new Heat account locally

heat accounts create trading --generate --persist-password ~/.heat/secrets/trading.password

This is the recommended path for both humans and agents:

  • Heat generates the key locally
  • Heat generates the encryption password locally
  • Heat stores the password at the path you chose
  • future signing commands can reuse that stored password path automatically

Option B: Create from an existing private key

heat accounts create trading --key-file /path/to/private-key.txt --persist-password ~/.heat/secrets/trading.password

Option C: Import an existing keystore

If you already have an Ethereum V3 keystore file:

heat accounts import trading --keystore /path/to/keystore.json

3. Set a default account

heat accounts use trading

Override per-command with --account:

heat hl balance --account other-account

4. Verify account details

heat accounts list
heat accounts get trading
heat config

The address shown by heat accounts get trading is important for onboarding.

  • Hyperliquid funding is currently done externally to that account address.
  • Polymarket uses the same Heat account for signing, but may derive a different effective Polymarket wallet depending on signature type.
  • Aave and LI.FI use the same Heat EVM account model directly.
  • DefiLlama is read-only market data and does not require an account for normal usage.

5. Understand funding today

Hyperliquid

Heat does not currently include a Hyperliquid deposit or bridge command.

Current flow:

  1. get your account address with heat accounts get trading
  2. fund that address externally for Hyperliquid
  3. return to Heat and verify with heat hl balance

Polymarket

Heat can fetch Polymarket deposit addresses, but it does not send the transfer itself.

Current flow:

  1. run heat pm bridge deposit
  2. send funds externally to the returned deposit address
  3. check status with heat pm bridge status
  4. run approvals with heat pm approve check and heat pm approve set

Aave

Aave does not need a special onboarding flow beyond having funds on the target EVM chain.

Current flow:

  1. make sure your Heat EVM account has funds on Ethereum, Arbitrum, or Base
  2. inspect available reserves with heat aave markets --chain <chain>
  3. preview with --dry-run before supply or withdraw

LI.FI

LI.FI is Heat's EVM bridge layer.

Current flow:

  1. fund your source-chain Heat account
  2. preview route execution with heat lifi bridge ... --dry-run
  3. execute the bridge when ready
  4. check progress with heat lifi status

6. Run your first read-only commands

Hyperliquid

heat hl price BTC
heat hl perps
heat hl spot

Polymarket

heat pm markets list --limit 5
heat pm markets search "election"
heat pm price <token_id> --side buy

Aave

heat aave markets --chain ethereum
heat aave positions --chain arbitrum --account trading
heat aave health --chain base --account trading

LI.FI

heat lifi chains
heat lifi tokens --chain ethereum
heat lifi routes --from-chain ethereum --to-chain arbitrum --from-token USDC --to-token USDC --amount 1000000 --from-address 0x...

DefiLlama

heat llama protocols list --limit 5
heat llama chains list --limit 5
heat llama fees overview --chain Ethereum

7. Verify funded accounts

Hyperliquid

heat hl balance
heat hl positions
heat hl orders

Polymarket

heat pm bridge status
heat pm approve check
heat pm balance
heat pm positions

Aave

heat aave positions --chain ethereum
heat aave health --chain ethereum

LI.FI

heat lifi bridge 100 USDC --from ethereum --to base --account trading --dry-run

8. Preview dangerous commands first

Use --dry-run before any action that could move money, place an order, bridge funds, or execute a lending action.

Hyperliquid

heat hl buy ETH 0.1 --price 3500 --dry-run

Polymarket

heat pm buy <token_id> --price 0.55 --size 100 --dry-run

Aave

heat aave supply USDC 1000 --chain ethereum --account trading --dry-run

LI.FI

heat lifi bridge 100 USDC --from ethereum --to arbitrum --account trading --dry-run

9. Agent workflow guidance

If you are building an agent on top of Heat, use this pattern:

  1. resolve or confirm the active account
  2. inspect addresses and balances
  3. if funding is missing, ask the human to fund externally or bridge with LI.FI if appropriate
  4. re-check balances or deposit status
  5. use --dry-run before proposing a live action
  6. require explicit confirmation before real-money writes

Recommended agent wording for Hyperliquid

Your Heat account is configured, but Heat does not yet support Hyperliquid funding inside the CLI. Please fund address <ADDRESS> externally, then tell me when to continue.

Recommended agent wording for Polymarket

Your Heat account is configured, but Heat does not yet move funds on your behalf into Polymarket directly. Please send funds to the deposit address returned by heat pm bridge deposit, then tell me when to continue.

Recommended agent wording for LI.FI

I can bridge supported EVM assets with heat lifi bridge, but I will first show you a dry-run preview and wait for explicit confirmation before executing.

10. Account resolution order

Heat resolves which account to use in this order:

  1. --account flag
  2. HEAT_ACCOUNT environment variable
  3. default_account in ~/.heat/config.toml
  4. ~/.heat/default-account file set by heat accounts use

If none are set, commands that require an account fail with an auth error and a hint.

Next steps