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5-Minute Quickstart

This guide will take you from zero to executing a deterministically verified transaction in the HardKAS Simulator.

We use the Simulator for the quickstart because it requires zero external dependencies (no Docker, no Kaspa nodes) and executes instantly, allowing you to focus purely on the HardKAS workflow: Plan → Sign → Send → Verify.

1. Initialize a Workspace​

If you haven't already, install HardKAS and initialize a workspace:

npm install -g @hardkas/cli
hardkas init my-first-project
cd my-first-project

What this does: Scaffolds a project and automatically funds deterministic development accounts (like alice and bob) inside the local Simulator state.

2. Plan the Transaction​

Generate the deterministic execution intent:

hardkas tx plan --from alice --to bob --amount 10 --out plan.json

What this does: Selects UTXOs, calculates fees, and produces a TxPlanArtifact representing the exact mutations to be made, saved to plan.json.

3. Sign the Plan​

Approve the payload using Alice's development account:

hardkas tx sign plan.json --account alice --out signed.json

What this does: Signs the UTXOs consumed in the plan and produces a SignedTxArtifact saved to signed.json.

Warning: The alice account is a deterministic local development account. Never use development keys for production key management.

4. Send the Transaction​

Submit the signed artifact to the execution environment (Simulator):

hardkas tx send signed.json

What you should see: A success message outputting the internal Tx ID and the file path where the Receipt artifact was written.

  ✔ Transaction simulated successfully

  Artifact Written
    C:\path\to\.hardkas\artifacts\receipts\txReceipt-<hash>.json

5. Inspect the Evidence​

HardKAS enforces extreme accountability. Let's ask HardKAS to explain exactly what just happened by reading the receipt artifact generated in the previous step:

hardkas explain .hardkas/artifacts/receipts/txReceipt-<hash>.json

(Replace <hash> with the actual hash printed in Step 4).

What this does: HardKAS reads the receipt, traverses the Evidence DAG backward to the signature and the plan, and provides a human-readable explanation of the cryptographic causality.

Next Steps​

You have successfully completed the core HardKAS transaction lifecycle!

To understand why we do it this way and what these artifacts represent, continue to the First Transaction Deep Dive.