REPL

Start it

$ beam

Or with initial flags that seed the session state:

$ beam --chain base --from alice
$ beam --rpc https://my-rpc.example/base

--chain, --from, and --rpc only seed the initial REPL session. Use the bare shortcuts below to change them mid-session.

Bare shortcuts

wallets <name|address|ens>
chains <name|id>
rpc <url>
balance
tokens
privacy
help
exit

These set the active selection (wallet/chain/RPC) or print short, focused output. The balance shortcut prints the full tracked-token report for the current session owner.

Slash-prefixed REPL aliases (/balance) are not supported — use the bare shortcuts above or the normal clap command forms (wallets create ..., balance USDC).

Full command tree

The REPL also accepts the normal beam command set, including flags, nested subcommands, and clap help output. Both forms work:

beam ›  transfer alice.eth 0.01
beam ›  beam transfer alice.eth 0.01

The current wallet, chain, and RPC selections are used as defaults unless you override them on that command.

Auto-reconcile

If you change the selected wallet, chain, or current chain RPC through a normal subcommand (e.g. wallets use bob), Beam reconciles the in-memory REPL selection before rendering the next prompt — renamed or removed selectors fall back cleanly instead of killing the session.

Switching chains also resets to that chain's configured default RPC unless you also choose another RPC with rpc <url>.

History and autosuggestions

• Up / Down on an empty prompt cycles previously submitted commands.
• When you've typed part of a command, Up / Down search history entries with that prefix.
• Faded inline autosuggestions follow the same history.
• Tab completion follows the full command tree, also surfacing matching history values.

History scrubbing

The following are excluded from persisted history:

• Anything involving wallets import or wallets address (incl. mistyped /wallets import)
• Privacy claim artifacts and ephemeral sends
• Claim-link messages and memos
• Private-payment beam fetch commands

On startup Beam immediately rewrites ~/.beam/history.txt to scrub previously persisted sensitive entries.

The prompt

The prompt shows:

• Active wallet alias (or raw address override)
• Shortened address
• Active chain
• Current RPC endpoint

The chain segment is tinted per network brand in color-capable terminals. All Payy networks use #E0FF32.

Ctrl-C

• During a read-only RPC loader: cancels the request, returns to the prompt.
• During a write transaction wait: stops the wait, prints the submitted hash, returns to the prompt — does not exit Beam.
• Use Ctrl-D or exit to leave the REPL.

Update notice

Interactive startup only reads the cached update status from ~/.beam/update-status.json. If a previous background refresh found a newer GitHub Release, Beam prints a warning before entering the REPL and kicks off another background refresh when the cached check is older than 24 hours.

Running update from the REPL always relaunches Beam after a successful self-update, so you are immediately running the new binary. When the current session still matches the original startup flags, Beam reuses them; otherwise it falls back to a plain beam restart.