---
title: "dev"
description: "Generated low-level access to every daemon gRPC method, built automatically from the daemon proto descriptors."
canonical: https://wavelength.lightning.engineering/cli/dev/
---

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

# dev

`dev` is a generated low-level command tree that exposes every daemon gRPC method directly. Unlike the curated wallet verbs, its structure is not hand-written: it is built at startup from the daemon proto descriptors compiled into the binary (the `devrpc` registry), so it always mirrors the exact RPC surface the daemon ships. Method flags are generated from each request message’s fields, and each leaf accepts `--json` for a raw request payload.

Run `dev` with no arguments to print a JSON summary of the available services and their methods. The command tree is three levels deep: `dev <grpc_service> <call>`, where the service is a fully-qualified proto name (with a short alias) and the call is a method on that service.

```bash
wavecli dev
wavecli dev waverpc.DaemonService GetInfo
wavecli dev daemon get-info --describe
```

> **Prefer schema for the everyday surface**
>
> For the curated CLI surface, [`schema`](/cli/schema/) is the friendlier introspection command: it lists the everyday methods with their parameters, required fields, and enum values. `dev --describe` is the equivalent for a generated RPC method: it emits that method’s input-field schema as JSON without dispatching the call.

## Flags

`dev` itself takes no bespoke flags beyond `--help` and the global connection flags (`--rpcserver`, `--tlscertpath`, `--no-tls`); each generated method leaf takes flags derived from its own request message, or `--json` for a raw payload.

## Example

Run with no arguments to print a JSON summary of the available services:

```bash
wavecli dev
```

## Services

The generated tree currently exposes these proto services (each has a short alias for terser invocation):

- `waverpc.DaemonService` (alias `daemon`): the daemon’s own API (info, wallet init, VTXO and round operations, sends, sweeps, fees, recovery).
- `swapclientrpc.SwapClientService`: the Lightning swap client service.
- `wavewalletrpc.WalletService` and `wavewalletrpc.WalletInspectionService`: the wallet API the curated verbs are built on.
- `walletrpc.VersionService` and `walletrpc.WalletService`: the embedded backing-wallet services.

```bash
wavecli dev daemon
```

Running a service with no call prints a JSON summary of its methods, each with its request and response proto type and whether it is server-streaming.

## Invoking a method

Each method leaf takes flags generated from its request message fields, or a `--json` raw payload. Server-streaming methods print one JSON object per message until the stream ends; client-streaming methods are not supported.

```bash
wavecli dev waverpc.DaemonService GetInfo
wavecli dev waverpc.DaemonService GetInfo --describe
```

`--describe` short-circuits dispatch and dumps the method’s input-field schema, teaching an agent the exact request shape before the first real call.