Bitcoin Inq

bitcoin-inq is a small CLI for working with Bitcoin Core / Bitcoin Inquisition releases, local nodes, and chain detection.

Commands

• bitcoin-inq detect-network — detect the active chain from an RPC connection or local cookie files.
• bitcoin-inq node start — start bitcoind or bitcoin-qt with chain-aware defaults.
• bitcoin-inq node stop — stop a local node over RPC.
• bitcoin-inq node mine — mine spendable regtest blocks to a wallet or supplied address.
• bitcoin-inq inquisition — list releases or install an Inquisition release asset.
• bitcoin-inq kill — terminate a process by name or PID.
• bitcoin-inq list-processes — print running processes, optionally filtered by name.

Notes

• node start defaults to regtest because Inquisition builds reject unsupported networks like mainnet/testnet.
• --chain signet uses .bitcoin/signet/bitcoin.conf by default and accepts --signetchallenge for custom signets.
• node mine is regtest-only; signet still requires a real miner.
• inquisition --install accepts a release tag like v29.4-inq or 29.4-inq. Omit the value to print the available releases.
• inquisition --path installs bitcoin-qt-inq, bitcoind-inq, and bitcoin-cli-inq into the first writable directory on PATH.

Release flow

This repo uses cargo-dist for tagged releases (v*.*.*):

1. plan runs dist host --steps=create to compute the release manifest and matrix.
2. build-local-artifacts builds per-platform archives and updater assets.
3. macos-signing signs and notarizes the macOS binary, then repacks the macOS .tar.xz so the packaged binary stays signed too.
4. build-global-artifacts finishes the cross-platform assets and checksums.
5. host runs dist host --steps=upload --steps=release and publishes the GitHub Release.
6. publish-homebrew-formula updates the tap when the release is eligible.

Published release assets are the packaged archives, checksums, update bundles, and installer scripts. The release job edits and re-uploads on reruns, so it is safe to retry a failed release tag without manually deleting the release first.

GitHub Actions requirements

• Repository Actions permissions: contents: write
• MACOS_DEV_CERTIFICATE: Base64-encoded Developer ID .p12
• MACOS_DEV_CERTIFICATE_PWD: .p12 password
• APPLE_ID: Apple Developer email
• APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD: Apple app-specific password
• APPLE_TEAM_ID: Apple Developer Team ID
• HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN: token with write access to the Homebrew tap repo

The release workflow uses the built-in github.token for GitHub Releases; no extra release PAT is needed unless you replace that token on purpose.

Examples

cargo run -- node start --chain regtest
cargo run -- node start --chain signet --signetchallenge <hex>
cargo run -- node mine --blocks 101
cargo run -- inquisition --install v29.4-inq -f
cargo run -- detect-network