ZecTools

Watch Zcash from your terminal.

npm i -g zectools

zec watch --alert

Every command is a gRPC read against a public lightwalletd, the same endpoint a wallet talks to. No key, no account, no server, no telemetry.

Commands

zec watch             live tail of every block: transactions, shielded notes
                       per pool, spacing. --alert on big shielded blocks
zec info              the network right now: height, consensus branch, pending
                       upgrade, subsidy, next halving, the server
zec pools             the shielded pools by their own commitment trees, how
                       fast each grew, and how much ZEC each holds
zec block [height]    one block, transaction by transaction, per pool
zec mempool           what is waiting, shielded against transparent
zec upgrades          every network upgrade, which rules are live, what is next
zec supply            block subsidy, issuance so far, halvings past and next
zec check <address>   transparent: balance and unspent outputs.
                       shielded: an honest answer about why there is none

Options

--alert            desktop notification (watch)
--min <notes>      shielded notes in one block that trigger an alert, default 200
--poll <seconds>   poll interval, default 20 (watch)
--window <blocks>  how far back pools looks, default 200 (about 4 hours)
--limit <n>        rows to print (block, check)
--lwd <host:port>  another lightwalletd, or set ZEC_LWD
--json             machine-readable output
NO_COLOR=1         plain text, for pipes and CI

How it reads the chain

A compact block is what a light wallet downloads: for every transaction, the nullifiers, note commitments and ephemeral keys of its shielded components, plus its transparent inputs and outputs. It does not carry amounts, addresses or memos for anything shielded, and neither does this CLI. What it does carry is enough to count: how many transactions touched a pool, how many notes each pool gained, and, from the chain metadata on each block, the size of every note commitment tree.

zec pools checks its own reading: the tree must grow by exactly the number of outputs the blocks in between carried. If it does not, the row says so.

Pool balances in ZEC need a full node. zec pools and zec supply ask a public one (getblockchaininfo via the Nighthawk explorer, then the Tatum gateway) and say "no node answered" rather than guess.

What it is not

It holds no keys and reads no shielded balance: zec check on a shielded address explains that and stops. Zcash's point is that this is impossible, and a tool that pretended otherwise would be lying.

MIT.