Personal Network Manager (PNM) CLI

The PNM CLI is a single-VTA client for managing a personal Verifiable Trust Agent (VTA). Unlike the CNM CLI which supports multiple communities and a personal VTA, PNM focuses on managing one VTA instance with a simpler non-interactive setup flow.

Table of Contents

• Feature Flags
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Authentication
• CLI Reference
• Additional Resources

Feature Flags

Feature	Description	Default
keyring	Store sessions in the OS keyring (macOS Keychain, Linux secret-service, Windows Credential Manager).	Yes
tsp	Round-trip TSP probe in pnm health -- opens a TSP websocket to the mediator and sends a Trust Task to the VTA. Without it pnm health still reports an advertised TSPTransport service but never exercises it.	Yes
config-session	Store sessions in ~/.config/pnm/sessions.json. Useful for containers and CI where no keyring is available. Warning: sessions are stored on disk unprotected -- do not use in production.	No
azure-secrets	Store sessions in Azure Key Vault, vault URL read from AZURE_KEYVAULT_URL. Only takes effect when keyring is disabled.	No

The session backend is chosen at compile time in the order keyring -> azure-secrets -> config-session -> plaintext fallback; the first enabled feature wins. Nothing enforces that one of them is enabled -- a build with none still stores sessions in plaintext at ~/.config/pnm/sessions.json, and prints WARNING: No secure session store — using plaintext file storage on every access. Pick one deliberately.

Build examples

--no-default-features drops tsp along with keyring, so re-add it unless you mean to give up the pnm health TSP probe.

# Default build (keyring + tsp)
cargo build --package pnm-cli --release

# Keyring-free build for containers / CI, keeping the TSP probe
cargo build --package pnm-cli --release \
  --no-default-features --features config-session,tsp

# Azure Key Vault sessions (requires keyring off; set AZURE_KEYVAULT_URL)
cargo build --package pnm-cli --release \
  --no-default-features --features azure-secrets,tsp

Installation

From source

Requires Rust 1.95.0+.

cargo build --package pnm-cli --release

The binary is at target/release/pnm.

During development

All examples below use pnm directly. When developing from the workspace, substitute cargo run --package pnm-cli -- for pnm.

Quick Start

1. Set up the VTA connection

pnm setup mints an ephemeral did:key locally and parks it as a "pending VTA binding" entry in your OS keyring. You then provide the VTA's URL, the operator running the VTA grants your DID admin in their ACL, and pnm finalises the binding.

# Phase 1: mint local did:key, name the VTA you'll connect to
pnm setup --name "my-vta"

# Phase 2 (after the VTA operator adds your did:key to their ACL):
#   bind the VTA's DID to the local entry, then connect
pnm setup continue my-vta --vta-did did:webvh:abc:vta.example.com:primary
pnm bootstrap connect --vta-url https://vta.example.com

Cold-start operators (running vta themselves) pair this with vta import-did --did <pnm-did> --role admin on the VTA host before phase 2. See docs/02-vta/cold-start.md for the full script.

For a TEE-attested first-boot against a fresh Nitro Enclave VTA, the single-step path is:

pnm bootstrap connect --vta-url https://enclave.example.com

This drives POST /bootstrap/request, opens the sealed admin bundle, and imports the resulting credential into the keyring.

2. Verify connectivity

pnm health

3. Start using the CLI

# List application contexts
pnm contexts list

# Create a signing key
pnm keys create --key-type ed25519 --context-id myapp --label "Signing Key"

# List keys
pnm keys list

Authentication

PNM uses DID-based challenge-response authentication with short-lived JWT tokens:

1. Import a credential -- a base64-encoded bundle containing your client DID, private key, and the VTA DID.
2. Challenge-response -- the CLI requests a nonce from the VTA, signs a DIDComm v2 message, and receives a JWT.
3. Token caching -- tokens are cached in the OS keyring and refreshed automatically when they expire.

# Apply a sealed admin credential bundle (e.g. a backup-restore handoff
# or a sealed transfer from another operator)
pnm auth login --credential-bundle <file>

# Check auth status
pnm auth status

# Clear credentials
pnm auth logout

After initial login, all subsequent commands authenticate transparently.

Credential storage

With the default keyring feature, sessions are stored in the platform's credential manager:

Platform	Backend
macOS	Keychain
Linux	secret-service (e.g. GNOME Keyring)
Windows	Credential Manager

Built without keyring, sessions go to Azure Key Vault instead (--features azure-secrets, vault URL from AZURE_KEYVAULT_URL), or to plaintext ~/.config/pnm/sessions.json (--features config-session). See Feature Flags for details.

Configuration

Config file

~/.config/pnm/config.toml

url = "http://localhost:8100"

Environment variables

Variable	Description
VTA_URL	Override the VTA base URL
RUST_LOG	Set log level (e.g. debug, info)

CLI Reference

Global flags

Flag	Description
--url <URL>	Override VTA base URL (or set VTA_URL)
-v, --verbose	Enable debug logging

Setup

Command	Description
setup --name <slug> [--overwrite]	Phase 1: mint an ephemeral did:key, park it in the keyring as a pending VTA binding under <slug>.
setup continue <slug> --vta-did <did>	Phase 2: bind the VTA's DID to the entry from phase 1 and mark it ready to authenticate.
bootstrap connect --vta-url <url>	One-step TEE-attested first-boot against a Nitro Enclave VTA. Drives POST /bootstrap/request.
auth login --credential-bundle <file>	Apply a sealed admin credential bundle delivered out-of-band (e.g. a backup-restore handoff or a sealed transfer from another operator).

Authentication

Command	Description
auth login --credential-bundle <file>	Apply a sealed admin credential bundle
auth logout	Clear stored credentials and tokens
auth status	Show current authentication status

Health

Command	Description
health	Check VTA service health and version

Configuration

Command	Description
config get	Show current VTA configuration
config update [options]	Update VTA metadata (DID, name, description, URL)

Keys

Command	Description
keys list [--status active|revoked] [--limit N] [--offset N]	List keys
keys create --key-type ed25519|x25519|p256 [--context-id ID] [--label LABEL]	Create a key (BIP-32 derived)
keys import --key-type TYPE --private-key KEY [--label L] [--context-id ID]	Import an external private key
keys get <key_id>	Get a key by ID
keys revoke <key_id>	Revoke a key
keys rename <key_id> <new_key_id>	Rename a key
keys secrets [key_ids...] [--context ID]	Export secret key material
keys seeds	List seed generations
keys rotate-seed [--mnemonic PHRASE]	Rotate to a new seed

The keys import command accepts --private-key <multibase> or --private-key-file <path> and supports key types ed25519, x25519, and p256. The private key is wrapped with ECDH-ES+AES-256-GCM before transmission over REST.

Contexts

Command	Description
contexts list	List application contexts
contexts get <id>	Get a context by ID
contexts create --id ID --name NAME [--description DESC]	Create a context
contexts update <id> [--name ...] [--did ...] [--description ...]	Update a context
contexts delete <id>	Delete a context
contexts bootstrap --id ID --name NAME [--admin-label LABEL]	Create context + first admin credential

ACL

Command	Description
acl list [--context ID]	List ACL entries
acl get <did>	Get an ACL entry by DID
acl create --did DID --role ROLE [--label LABEL] [--contexts ctx1,ctx2] [--expires N[s|m|h|d|w]]	Create an ACL entry
acl update <did> [--role ROLE] [--label LABEL] [--contexts ctx1,ctx2]	Update an ACL entry
acl delete <did>	Delete an ACL entry

Roles: admin, initiator, application. An admin with no contexts listed has unrestricted access across all contexts.

Auth Credentials

Command	Description
auth-credential create --role ROLE [--label LABEL] [--contexts ctx1,ctx2]	Generate a did:key credential with ACL entry

Backup & Restore

Command	Description
backup export [--include-audit] [--output FILE]	Export encrypted backup of all VTA state
backup import <file> [--preview]	Import backup (preview or apply + restart VTA)

Backups are encrypted with Argon2id + AES-256-GCM using a user-provided password (minimum 15 characters). The .vtabak file contains the seed, keys, ACL, contexts, WebVH records, and config.

VTA Management

Command	Description
vta list	List configured VTAs
vta use	Set the default VTA
vta remove	Remove a VTA connection
vta info	Show current VTA details
vta restart	Trigger a soft restart (reloads config, reconnects)

Additional Resources

• VTA Service & Architecture
• CNM CLI (multi-community)
• First Person Network White Paper
• Documentation index
• Architecture
• BIP-32 Path Specification