---
title: "create"
description: "Create a new wallet from a fresh seed, or recover an existing wallet from a mnemonic."
canonical: https://wavelength.lightning.engineering/cli/create/
---

> Docs index: https://wavelength.lightning.engineering/llms.txt

# create

Initializes a new wallet. The daemon generates a 24-word aezeed mnemonic, prints it to stderr so you can record it offline, and encrypts the seed with the supplied password. Pass `--recover` with a `--mnemonic-file` to import an existing mnemonic and rebuild Ark wallet state instead.

The wallet password is never read from the command line. It comes from stdin, the `WAVED_WALLET_PASSWORD` environment variable, or `--wallet_password_file`; the interactive prompt asks for confirmation. The optional aezeed seed passphrase comes from `WAVED_SEED_PASSPHRASE` or `--seed_passphrase_file`.

```bash
echo -n 'hunter2hunter2' | wavecli create
```

> **The mnemonic is shown once**
>
> On a fresh create the 24-word mnemonic is written to stderr exactly once and is NOT included in the JSON response on stdout. Capture it from stderr, or pass `--print-mnemonic-json` to opt into the machine-consumable form. Losing it makes the wallet unrecoverable.

## Flags

| Flag                     | Default | Description                                                                                           |
| ------------------------ | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `--wallet_password_file` | (none)  | Path to a file containing the wallet password.                                                        |
| `--seed_passphrase_file` | (none)  | Path to a file containing the optional aezeed passphrase.                                             |
| `--print-mnemonic-json`  | `false` | Include the mnemonic in the JSON response on stdout (default: stderr only).                           |
| `--recover`              | `false` | Import an existing mnemonic and recover Ark wallet state.                                             |
| `--mnemonic-file`        | (none)  | Path to a file containing an existing 24-word aezeed mnemonic. Requires `--recover`.                  |
| `--recovery-window`      | `0`     | Number of key indexes to scan per recovery family. Requires `--recover`; `0` uses the daemon default. |

## Example

```bash
echo -n 'hunter2hunter2' | wavecli --no-tls create
```

The mnemonic goes to stderr; stdout carries the identity and recovery summary:

```json
{
  "identity_pubkey": "02a1b2c3d4e5f60718293a4b5c6d7e8f90a1b2c3d4e5f60718293a4b5c6d7e8f90",
  "recovery_ran": false,
  "recovered_boarding_addresses": 0,
  "recovered_boarding_utxos": 0,
  "recovered_vtxos": 0,
  "recovered_oor_receive_scripts": 0,
  "recovered_oor_events": 0
}
```

## Underlying RPC

Calls [`WalletService.Create`](/api/wallet/create/), which proxies the daemon’s seed generation and wallet initialization.