About sui-cli
sui-cli is a reference skill for Sui network environments, transaction gas, and epochs, aimed at developers working with the Sui CLI and Move. It emphasizes network selection and gas-budget precautions, with information constrained to docs.sui.io.
Key features
- 01Compare four Sui environments
- 02Explain transaction gas components
- 03Describe epochs and gas prices
- 04Specify CLI network and budget precautions
Use cases
- 01Choose an environment for testing or deployment
- 02Estimate transaction gas considerations
- 03Check network and gas settings before submission
MCP support
The skill recommends consulting the Sui documentation MCP server at https://sui.mcp.kapa.ai for current answers and verification.
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/ / github.com/ mystenlabs/ skills --skill sui-cliAfter installing, type/sui-cliin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Bundled filesevals/evals.json
Details
From the project READMESui Networks and Gas
MCP tool: When available in your environment, also query the Sui documentation MCP server (
https://sui.mcp.kapa.ai) for up-to-date answers. Use it for verification and for details not covered by these reference files.
Source constraint: All information in this skill is sourced exclusively from docs.sui.io. When extending or updating this skill, only pull from this source. Do not use third-party blogs, tutorials, or unofficial documentation.
Related skills
| Topic | Skill |
|---|---|
| CLI client configuration, addresses, faucets, explorers | sui-client/ |
| Installing the Sui CLI (suiup) | sui-install/ |
| Move project setup and Move.toml | sui-move-project/ |
| Publishing and upgrading packages | sui-publish/ |
Sui networks
Sui operates four network environments:
- Mainnet: Production network. SUI tokens have real monetary value. Use for final deployments.
- Testnet: Mirrors Mainnet features. Free SUI tokens from faucets. Use for integration testing and staging.
- Devnet: Development network. Free SUI tokens. Use for early-stage development and experimentation.
- Localnet: Runs locally on your machine. Use for offline development and unit testing.
Gas cost model
Every transaction on Sui requires SUI tokens to pay gas. The total gas cost is:
gas cost = computation cost + storage cost - storage rebate
- Computation cost: Proportional to the computational effort of executing the transaction.
- Storage cost: The cost of storing new or expanded objects onchain. You pay for the bytes your objects occupy.
- Storage rebate: When a transaction deletes objects or reduces their size, you receive a rebate for the storage freed. This incentivizes cleaning up unused state.
The gas budget (--gas-budget) sets the maximum you are willing to pay. If the transaction exceeds the budget, it fails and a portion of the gas budget is still charged. On Testnet and Devnet, tokens are free through faucets (see the sui-client skill for faucet methods). Gas prices can vary per epoch; query the current gas price through the RPC.
Epochs
An epoch is a fixed time period during which the validator set and gas price remain constant. On Mainnet, one epoch is approximately 24 hours. At the epoch boundary, the network processes staking rewards, rotates validators, and updates the gas price. Use ctx.epoch() to read the current epoch number in Move and ctx.epoch_timestamp_ms() for the epoch start time.
Rules
- Always specify
--gas-budgetwhen submitting transactions from the CLI. - Use
sui client switch --env <ENV>to change networks. Do not editclient.yamlmanually.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting to switch networks. Publishing to Mainnet when you meant Testnet. Always verify with
sui client active-env. - Running out of gas on Testnet/Devnet. Use the faucet (see
sui-clientskill) to get free tokens.