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cli: Name the real Bitcoin Core requirement when it is missing #84

Description

@BenWestgate

When bitcoin-cli is not installed, every ms32 command that connects to Bitcoin Core fails with:

Install a reviewed bitcoin-cli before creating a backup.

That includes ms32 secret, ms32 share, ms32 correct and ms32 wallet, and none of them creates a backup. A tester without Core read the message as "I can't create" and didn't understand the codex32 <command> hint printed after it.

  • Say what the command uses Core for. secret, share and correct use it to show the master fingerprint and rank corrections. create and wallet give Core the key.
  • Say that Bitcoin Core 32 or newer must be running with RPC enabled, and that an unsynced regtest or signet node is enough for practice.
  • Keep the codex32 <command> hint and say what that command leaves out, which is the master fingerprint. codex32 has no create, so ms32 create gets no hint.
  • ms32 correct connects only after its search finishes, which can take up to ten seconds, and then discards the result. Connect before searching.

Reproduced with no bitcoin-cli on PATH, both on reviewability-v1 @ e5b957a and on a disposable tip that stacks #42, #57, #46, #80 and #81. ms32 secret, ms32 correct (with damaged input), ms32 wallet and ms32 create 2 all print the message above. It comes from BitcoinCore.connect() in _bitcoin_core.py, and the fallback hint comes from _connected_core() in cli.py.

This touches the Core connection path that #57 and #81 also change, so it fits after #81.

Activity

  1. added
    bugSomething isn't working
    area: cliCommand-line interface behavior.
    on Oct 1, 2026
  2. added 3 commits that reference this issue on Oct 2, 2026
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    e3e8f5e
    2ae07bf
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