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Submit Proposals via CLI

Babylond (install instructions here) provides various commands that assist you to draft and submit your on-chain proposal. This guide will walk through step by step how to create a proposal.

Step 1: Create a BABY wallet​

This account should be used as a proposer of the wallet. Please ensure it has sufficient amount of funding to submit the proposal's deposit and gas fee.

You can also follow steps outlined here to create a BABY account via web extension or mobile. To be able to use it with CLI tool for proposal submission, you must import it via:

babylond --home /your-babylond-home keys add <your_account_name> --recover --keyring-backend test

You will be prompted to enter the mnemonic phrase to recover the wallet.

Step 2: Create a Draft Proposal​

For drafting, CLI provides an interactive command-line interface (CLI) tool to assist in drafting proposals using the tx gov draft-proposal command:

babylond tx gov draft-proposal

Use the arrow keys to navigate: ↓ ↑ → ←

? Select proposal type:
  ▸ text
    community-pool-spend
    software-upgrade
    cancel-software-upgrade
    other

This process will generate a file named draft_proposal.json, which you can then use in the submit-proposal command for on-chain submission.

You will need to serialize your proposal description (your_proposal.md) into a string using the following command:

# Convert markdown to base64
PROPOSAL_DESC=$(base64 -w 0 your_proposal.md)
# Then include it in the command line
✔ Enter proposal description: "$PROPOSAL_DESC"

For certain type of proposals you might want to check some information before you compose your proposal. For example, review current module parameters before proposing a change. You can use query method to inspect.

babylond query wasm params

This command will display the current CosmWasm module parameters available for updates.

Provide the forum URL related to this proposal to reference the discussion that took place on the Babylon Foundation Forum.

Optionally, you may include context for the voting options. Here's an example:

A YES vote will add the specified developer addresses to the CosmWasm code upload whitelist, allowing only these addresses to upload smart contract code. A NO vote will maintain the current whitelist configuration. A NO WITH VETO vote indicates opposition to this proposal, suggesting it should not have been proposed.

Finally, specify the initial deposit amount in ubbn units, e.g., 50000000000ubbn. This amount can range from 0 to a significantly high number. Check governance parameters here.

Once created, you can review your draft-proposal.json located in your Babylond home directory. It should resemble the following structure:

{
    "messages": [
        {
            "@type": "/cosmwasm.wasm.v1.MsgAddCodeUploadParamsAddresses",
            "authority": "bbn10d07y265gmmuvt4z0w9aw880jnsr700jduz5f2",
            "addresses": [
                "your-developer-address-to-be-whitelisted"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "metadata": "ipfs://CID",
    "deposit": "10000bbn",
    "title": "Whitelisting Address XXX",
    "summary": "Whitelisting Address XXX for dApp XXX",
    "expedited": false
}

Additionally, a draft_metadata.json file should be created. This file must be uploaded to IPFS, and the link should be included in the submission command. It should look something like this:

{
 "title": "My dApp Proposal",
 "authors": [
  "bbn1cad8ky4zwsxy50h8wwzn50wtd0dj2tme42ehgc"
 ],
 "summary": "Whitelisting Address XXX",
 "details": "Add your-developer-address-to-be-whitelisted to the code upload whitelist",
 "proposal_forum_url": "https://forum.babylon.foundation/t/whitelist-address-for-my-dapp-deployment/29",
 "vote_option_context": "yes, no, no-veto"
}

Step 2: Submit Proposal​

If everything appears correct, you can submit your proposal using the submit-proposal command:

babylond tx gov submit-proposal draft_proposal.json \
  --from=your-proposer-baby-key \
  --deposit="50000bbn" \
  --chain-id=bbn-test-5 \
  --gas=auto \
  --fees=2000ubbn

Where:

draft_proposal.json: The JSON file containing your proposal details, created earlier using the draft-proposal command.

--from=your-proposer-baby-key: Identifies which key in your keyring should sign the transaction. Replace "your-proposer-baby-key" with the name of your key as it appears in your keyring (the output of babylond keys list).

--deposit="50000000000ubbn": The amount you are depositing with the proposal. This must meet or exceed the minimum deposit required to enter the voting period. If specified in your JSON file, this flag may be redundant or could override what's in the file. Default amount is also 500000000000ubbn.

--chain-id=bbn-test-5: Specifies the blockchain network to which you are submitting.

--gas=auto: Automatically estimates the gas required for the transaction. The CLI will calculate how much gas your transaction needs, rather than you specifying a fixed amount.

--fees=2000ubbn: The transaction fee you are willing to pay, incentivizing validators to include your transaction in a block.

Note: You must have possession of the proposer's key on your machine to submit the proposal.

A transaction hash will be provided if the proposal has been attempted. You can check for the status of the transaction using babylond query tx your_proposal_submission_txn to check the proposal.

Step 3: Confirm Proposal Submission​

You can verify that your proposal is submitted by babylond q gov proposals the result will allow you to inspect all on-chain proposals.

Filter this by proposal id with babylond q gov proposals proposal-id.

A example output should look like this:

{
  "proposals": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "messages": [
        {
          "type": "wasm/MsgUpdateParams",
          "value": {
            "authority": "bbn10d07y265gmmuvt4z0w9aw880jnsr700jduz5f2",
            "params": {}
          }
        }
      ],
      "status": 2,
      "final_tally_result": {
        "yes_count": "0",
        "abstain_count": "0",
        "no_count": "0",
        "no_with_veto_count": "0"
      },
      "submit_time": "2025-03-19T11:56:28.256134041Z",
      "deposit_end_time": "2025-03-21T11:56:28.256134041Z",
      "total_deposit": [
        {
          "denom": "ubbn",
          "amount": "50000000000"
        }
      ],
      "voting_start_time": "2025-03-19T11:56:28.256134041Z",
      "voting_end_time": "2025-03-21T11:56:28.256134041Z",
      "title": "Update Wasm Parameters",
      "summary": "Add addresses to code upload access list",
      "proposer": "bbn16yunpzy4wdyae57w4fp9ylawwka2akv20dlhmp"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "total": "1"
  }
}

Step 4: Check Votes​

Once deposit phase is passed, the voting phase will start. You can check your votes on your proposal here. Note that votes are tallied at the end ot the voting period, you can check real-time counting by using the following command.

babylond query gov tally <your-proposal-id>

An example output looks like this:

{
  "tally": {
    "yes_count": "100000000",
    "abstain_count": "0",
    "no_count": "0",
    "no_with_veto_count": "0"
  }
}

While checking for votes, don't forget to rally support from stakers and validators they are most influencial in voting. Once vote is finalised, you will see the status change if you query for proposals again.