For builders / Getting started

Start with your
own authority.

Signet is a Rust workspace with a local CLI and an MCP server. Start in a development environment with test data, then review the trust boundaries for your integration.

01. Install from source.

Use Rust 1.85 or later and Git. The --locked flag uses the repository's tested dependency versions. The vault CLI is installed from this repository; cargo install signet is not the installation command for this project.

cargo install --locked --git https://github.com/jmcentire/signet.git signet

02. Initialize a local vault.

signet init
signet vault-status

Follow the initialization instructions and keep recovery material private. To inspect available commands, run signet --help.

03. Connect your MCP client.

Add Signet to your client's MCP server configuration. For Claude Desktop, this entry belongs in claude_desktop_config.json. The client must be able to find the installed binary; use its absolute path if needed.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "signet": {
      "command": "signet",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Restart the client after saving the configuration. The repository setup guide covers configuration and troubleshooting.

Understand the current boundary.

Capability verification is available. Issuance fails closed without a configured trusted issuer, and generic one-time capabilities remain disabled until a consumption ledger is available. Installing Signet does not enable production payment custody.

Read the capability verification boundary, security policy, and contributor guide.

Looking for agent tool policy?

Signet Eval is the separate tool-call policy engine. Its installation and configuration are independent of the vault.

cargo install signet-eval